Maile Winterbottom (V)
The Pingry community welcomes Ms. Yifan Xu this fall as a teacher of Middle and Upper School Chinese. She will be teaching levels 1A, 1B, and Chinese 2 in the Upper School. She has two years of prior teaching experience before coming to Pingry, having taught Chinese at an all-girls boarding school in Virginia. Ms. Xu received her B.A from Beijing Language and Culture University, majoring in teaching Chinese as a foreign language. She went on to study at SUNY Binghamton where she received her M.A in Asian Studies.
Ms. Xu loves the Pingry community so far, explaining how other teachers have welcomed her with open arms. “The faculty here are all very dedicated to their work and have a passion for teaching.” She said, “They are all very supportive of me as a young teacher.”
Her inspiration for teaching comes from a passion for spreading knowledge. “Every time I can see the excitement and curiosity in the students’ eyes, that motivates me to be a teacher.”
Ms. Xu is a dedicated teacher with many objectives for her students. She has been impressed and is excited by her students thus far, saying that, “They are very creative and engaged in learning.” Her main goals at Pingry this year are to develop a positive environment in her classroom and make sure her students progress as Chinese speakers. “I want to build positive student-teacher relationships,” she remarked.
Outside of Pingry, Ms. Xu currently lives in New Brunswick and enjoys hiking, as well as cooking and K-Pop. On the weekends, she is always up for viewing a good horror movie. We wish Ms. Xu good luck on achieving her goals!
