Page 255 - 國立竹科實中創校40週年紀念特刊

On Prophecies, Dreams, and Teaching:

A Celebration of NEHS's 40th Anniversary

林亭立老師 Ms. Marina Lin

"You will return to Taiwan to teach, from violins, trumpets, and flutes swelled
and you will stay there. Teaching students in as our IBSH Orchestra students prepared
Taiwan is going to be a joy for you. It will for their performance, and I could hear the
feel like a massage to your heart." Emile vocal warmups drifting from the hallways

clasped his hands emphatically over his as students vigorously practiced for the Beat
chest with a huge grin on his face. It was the concert. The rhythm of the whistles and
summer of 2008, and I was conversing with basketballs pounding on our glossy gym floor
my friend, Emile, a self-proclaimed spiritual by students from our IBSH Basketball team 4

clairvoyant from Burundi, Africa whom I met filled the air with vitality. I smiled, taking it Ϋ ―
while studying at graduate school in New all in, trying to capture this moment. It was ᚥ
York. While I enjoyed hearing his stories undeniable– our campus is breathtakingly ၾ
ज़
about growing up in Burundi, this was one beautiful. ၅

narrative that I disagreed with. I shook my The road that I was standing on, I ―
head vigorously. That was not the plan. I was realized, was the intersection between the
going to teach for two years in Taiwan and past and the present, between tradition and
return to the States, preferably the East coast modernity, embodying everything that I

where I have lived and studied for so many treasure about NEHS. So much has improved
years. Furthermore, I had so many questions since I was a student attending the school.
in my mind that begged to be answered. What Our co-curricular program is rich, offering
is it going to feel like teaching at NEHS, students many options ranging from computer

a school that I used to attend as a student? programming and robotics to musical theater
How do I carve my identity as a teacher in an and comic book drawing. Our teachers create
environment that is familiar and unfamiliar to a rigorous learning environment for the
me at the same time? How do I transfer my students by continually updating their teaching

passion for literature and music to the students strategies through sharing best practices
in a way that will be inspiring and relevant? and professional development workshops.
Most of all, will the students like me? Will it Our student body is diverse, including
really feel like a massage to the heart? students from twenty different countries and

Strangely enough, two years turned into nationalities. Our student support team guides
fifteen years, and as I strolled down the new our staff to care for all aspects of a student,
road dividing the old campus and the new including their social and emotional well-
campus, I stopped for a moment to drink in being. At the same time, there are some things

the spring afternoon. The trees whispered life that have stayed the same: Field Day, morning 253
with branches swaying in the wind. Music quiet time, flag ceremonies, clean-up time,