By Samantha Yeh ’20
Joyce Li has joined the world languages department as a new Chinese teacher. Li, who has been teaching for 16 years, teaches the Chinese 1B course for seventh and eighth graders.
After receiving a bachelor’s degree in education from the Central University for Nationalities in Beijing, Li started teaching Chinese for international students at BIEM, the Beijing Institute of Economic Management, a school for older students interested in learning Mandarin for school or jobs.
“When I was teaching in Beijing, I had students from all over the world. Some of them didn’t even speak English,” Li said.
Li moved to the U.S. six years ago and attended Pepperdine University to earn a graduate degree in education. After teaching at the MUSE School in Calabasas, Calif., she then decided to teach at Harvard-Westlake because of its good reputation. Although she has only been teaching for a few weeks, Li said she already loves the sense of community.
“Before I worked here, I heard the students work so hard and respect teachers… [I] heard everyone is welcomed into the community,” Li said.
Li hopes to match the school mission with her class goal. She believes that it is not only important to be excellent but to enjoy the process. Li pursues her class goal with games and activities on a day to day basis.
“Miss Li always tries to make class fun and interesting by playing games that help us learn,” Caitlin Chung ’20, a student in Li’s 1B class, said.