Making Learning Fun and Meaningful with Cici Chen

Please note, this transcript is generated by AI and may include some errors. 

Spencer Payne: Okay, here we are with another episode of Front of the Class, real stories from real educators. Our real educator today is coming at us from across the world in China, Cici Cheng. And Cici, can you please introduce yourself as you would to other educators? How do you do that? Like, what do you like to say about yourself? Maybe how long you've been teaching? What do you teach? Where? What do kids expect in your class? However you'd like to introduce yourself. How do you introduce yourself to other educators?

Cici Chen: Okay, hi everyone, I'm Cici Chen. I'm from Shanghai, China. This is my first time actually to have a podcast, so I'm quite excited. And now I work in a bilingual school in Shanghai, and it is an international stream. So we are teaching PYP curriculum, and I am a teacher with 14 years experience, so quite a really long time. I'm very experienced, I will say. So I think my teaching philosophy is I think I want my kids, first my students to have fun in class because I usually teach younger students. So I make sure they really like my class. The most like a good sentence I want to hear from my students is, wow, I really like Miss Cici's class.

That I think is the best compliment for me that means I really had a good lesson with my student and I will also say I think I did it in my school I have a lot of fans they really like me

Spencer Payne: And you mentioned you really want to make sure that kids are having fun in your class. How do you do that? What are some examples of ways that you bring fun into the classroom? there any games? How do you go about doing that? How do you infuse some of fun into your classroom?

Cici Chen: Okay, I think actually it also changed and developed. There are several stages. When I was a young teacher, I know I want to make sure my students are having fun time. So I usually designed a lot of games in my class. I always think, don't let my students feel bored, right? This is the most important thing. So games is very important. When I teach some content, always think of to integrate some games.

But later I noticed that learning is not just about games. Now I learned more and more different strategies. I can see, except about giving students some games with teaching, I also really need to see my students, what they need and what they really lack of. They want me to teach them. So I will provide different, like we will say, to our students,  when the students they feel okay I can do it or I can a little bit challenging myself then I struggled a little bit I made it I think this is also a really fun moment or achieve moment for my student so now I think I move to the next stage not only provide the games for my student I provide the suitable activities for different students because I see my student I know what do they need and also I think I try to understand the students.

What do they really like? The age. I'm also a mom of eight year old boy. So I know the students, they want something. For example, in my school, we have the extra curriculum activities. We call it ECA. So in that curriculum, usually teacher will do some fun activity. And I remember three years ago, our school just open the baking room. When I see that room opened, I just have that like mind in my brain. just say, I want to do a baking class. One reason is I like baking in my free time and the other reason is I know the kids will like it. At the beginning, there are a lot of challenges because in my school, no one do that baking class before I need to do a lot of setup for that new room and also prepare a lot of materials but it is the most popular class in the school. Everyone wants to do it because I know I want to do the things for the students they really like.

Spencer Payne: So you've taken this baking class that is brand new that no one's ever experienced. And again, had to do a lot of prep work that you had to do. But now it's one of the most popular, it's one of the most popular classes in the school for your grade. Can you just help a teacher out there understand who might be going through something and might be thinking, I'd really like to do this, but man, that seems like it's hard.

Is it worth the payoff? Like you've gotten through this thing that was hard, you had to devise a curriculum, you had to figure out how do I engage six or seven year olds in a baking class? Are they going to measure? Are they gonna make a mess? Like, there's probably all this stuff you were thinking about, like, is this going to work? Right? What advice might you give to a teacher who maybe is in that process of like, should I try this new thing? I think it'll be cool.

Cici Chen: Yes.

Yeah, I know.

Spencer Payne: But is it worth all this work? Like you're on the other side of that. It's not the most popular class. What advice might you give to a teacher who's kind of going through that upfront work and they haven't seen the payoff yet?

Cici Chen: To be honest, will say yes, it is a lot of challenge if you want to start a new things and a lot of preparation. At the beginning for me, I think the passion is the most motivation for me, even though I took a lot of time to do the setup at the beginning. My main thing is I think I really want to see it happens when my students, they really enjoy it after the baking class, they will say, wow, such a fun lesson, I want to do it again. This is the most exciting moment for me. It is, it it does happen. So I will say this, this is the most motivation for me to do all of this preparation. And also I think once I get familiar with everything, because now this is my third year to do this baking class, everything just...

like went more and more smoothly, easier, as long as I get familiar with it. So sometimes when you decided to do something, I think the passion can also motivate you and this like motivation and I see the result is good. It's a good thing for me as a teacher in my job. I just have the passion and enjoy this part.

Spencer Payne: Yeah. Yeah. And are there any favorite things that you and your students have baked? What are some of the favorite finished goods that you and your kids have baked?

Cici Chen: in my job...In my baking class, right? mean Okay, I think yeah, there are a of fun thing because like we when we baking things we will see different seasoning food for the temple Christmas we do like gingerbread man and in summer we do some ice shaving so we add like fruit and the juice and also some different decoration. Let me see. Also in China we have mooncake festival. So we make mooncake in that festival. And let me see something else. Yeah, we also try to make some traditional dessert like brownie. This is the most popular one with my student and the pizza. They also they always tell me, wow, this is my first time really make this such a fun thing. I'm going to show my parents I can do it. one more thing is in this baking class.

I started to teach the students some basic life skills like cutting and measuring. These basic things, it's important, right? But maybe in class, if we teach them, they feel it's boring. But in this baking class, they learn from doing and they really learned. If they don't know how to do, they cannot bake things.

Spencer Payne: Yeah, and you're hitting on some really like, you know, in a baking class, like if I have to cut one cucumber into 16 pieces, I'm making things up right like, or I need one and one third cups of flour. Like now we're getting into counting, we're getting into fractions, we're getting into, well, how big or how small do I need to cut this, we're getting into precision, we're getting into taking directions, we're getting into a whole lot of things beyond just, you're just baking and having fun. Like, well, actually, there's a lot of really important skills that go into that that

Cici Chen: Mm-mm. Yes. Exactly.

Spencer Payne: could be in math class or could be in reading class or could be in writing class. Now take what you just did and now can you write the steps of what you just did so that you would have to go give it to somebody else for example. Like there's a lot of little things that you could go do to make that reading, writing, arithmetic, right? A whole lot of other things that could go on in your baking class. yeah, yeah. And then you have a delicious treat at the end of class.

Cici Chen: Yes, that's why I think it is really meaningful. Yes.

Yes, yes. And other teachers also feel, wow, Miss Sisi, what did you bake today? I'm so jealous. I really want to try. That's why I said I'm the most popular teacher now in my school. Yeah.

Spencer Payne: That's awesome. Well, can you paint us for those of us who maybe haven't been to China or are aware of what a class looks like, can you paint us a little bit of a picture of like when you walk into your classroom, like what do you see? How many students are there? Are they all international? Are they Chinese? How many languages are spoken? So when you look out at your room, just can you give us a little, us a picture, like what do you see?

Cici Chen: Okay, so because I'm now working in an international string of a bilingual school, so our school, the whole like curriculum and the structure actually is more international and the language we speak, we will say 60 % is English, maybe 40 % is Chinese and the student, most of the student majority are Chinese, but we also accept some foreigner students, so

And also because our school is located in a Korean town of Shanghai. So we have a lot of Korean students. That's very interesting. And we also have some students from different countries and we have some teachers kids in the school. So we still have some foreigner, but not a lot. And in our classroom, because I will say...the whole structure is still more international. So we also have a group work. So the tables and the chairs were arranged by groups. And the classroom has a lot of display board. We put students' work on the board to see the learning process. And we also have some poster anchor chart to like a...remind our students some learning skills, some learning like knowledge, hanging on the wall, something like that.

Spencer Payne: Okay, cool. And then can you also share a little bit again, this is first grade, right? And can you share a little bit of like, what is a typical student? What are some of the things that they're coming in, not being able to do, or not being able to do? And then what are some of the expectations by the end of their first grade year, that they're that they're now able to do maybe in, again, reading or writing or math or something? Can you share a little bit of the evolution through the year of when your first graders come in? What are some of the skills they

Cici Chen: Thank you.

Spencer Payne: they have or maybe they don't have and then by the end of the year, what are you expected to be able to bring to the table so that they can have those skills by the end of your first grade year?

Cici Chen: Hmm, so academically, most of our students maybe not really can read and write. Now because in China, the government also request kindergarten don't teach any knowledge content. But maybe some students were, yes, they don't encourage kindergarten to teach this. But some kids maybe...

Spencer Payne: really? Okay.

Cici Chen: they learned at home, the parents send them to some schools. But basically, our expectation for the new grade one, they don't need to know reading and writing. So academically, we teach them all of this from the basic writing, started from how to trace lines, and then write letters, write Chinese character with the basic strokes, and by the end of grade one, we will say we do see our students, they really progressed a lot. Because we are doing the PYP curriculum, so we have different transdisciplinary thing. In each thing, we call it also unit to our student. We will have the inquiry-based topic and integrated with this inquiry-based topic. We also try to integrate it.

English and Chinese or sometimes math with this topic. for English for example our students maybe they will learn like a persuasive writing and opinion writing or write a fiction a story. Yeah they do learn a lot through the whole year.

Spencer Payne: Geez. Yeah. And your students can pretty much, again, if they're more Korean descent or Chinese, but they can all speak English. So can your students for the most part speak two languages already in first grade?

Cici Chen: When they just come in, maybe not really fluent in both languages, but we encourage them to speak bilingually, two languages. So yeah, most often they can speak two languages by the end of grade one. And if we have really low students, like the English so struggled, the Chinese students really struggled in English, we have pull out class in English time. So they do their small class teaching learning English.

Spencer Payne: Got it. And we kind of alluded to, where do kids come in in grade one and where do you expect them to end up? But also, how do you set that expectation with with kind of their parents? And are there times when parents maybe like, well, I want you to do more or I want you to do less or like, so I guess at the beginning of a new school year, how do you kind of set an expectation with parents of, here's where we're going. Here's some of the things that we expect at the end of grade one.

Here's what I'm gonna do. Here's where I could use your help. Like how do you engage with parents and culturally, how does that work also kind of in China versus here sometimes in the US, sometimes you can be like, here's what we're gonna go do. Like I expect your partnership. Like it can be very direct. How do you go about doing that with your parents as kind of setting that stage and that expectation of kind of what to expect and what they should expect from you, but also maybe what you expect from them. Like how do you go about having that conversation?

Cici Chen: Yes.

First, will say I feel Chinese parents usually they are high demanding especially in academic area. Even though now our generation they still really want to see the academic result. So our parents like of course they will have some expectation and usually at the beginning of the school year we have like parent information evening that is the time we share all the information about what are we going to teach and what we want you to support this kind of information with parents. I feel in that information in light it's the most important chance I tell my parents what is my expectation also and what you can see from me what I can support you. We work with a team to help your child. I usually tell my parents like I know it's the first year in primary school you may worry about and a lot of things you don't sure but please trust me. I tell them I'm very experienced and I also really care your child the same as you do.

I'm also a mom so I really understand you so give your child and teacher a time and we have enough communication, build a connection with each other. Any problems, just communicate with me and make sure we are on the same page. And I will try my best to help you. So I'm also very open and like you said, very directly just talk to the parents if...any problem I see and also any support I need. But there's a one key point always in my mind is I don't just tell the parents, this is the problem. Like I complain your child has this, this, this problem. Parents don't feel good if they see this. I always before I first we were usually it's like a sandwich like a structure when I communicate with parents, always start with something good about this child, right? I see this boy is like has a passion with something and a good friendship with something or adapt himself to the new environment. I see the progress. Start with the good things always. And then you see some problems, you just address it to the parents.

And finally, the most important that I see is you need to tell the parents what strategies you want to try or you want support from the parents. You tell them what to do, not just complain or list all the problems. That won't help and also won't make parents to be on your side to help you. My goal is to make sure this student work and learn well in the class. So I think of some strategy first, address it to the parents to let them know how to do because some parents they also don't know. I need to teach them. And after that, they feel okay. My teacher like really see my student, see my kid, I mean, and also tell me how to do. I feel supported.

Spencer Payne: And can you share also a little bit of, again, just culturally, right? Because this is an interesting like for American teachers, how does that work there? Our how our teachers, I guess viewed by parents is it like very highly respected when you say something people listen to people push back. And what trends have you seen in your 14 years of teaching of kind of the I I don't know the right word status, the respect level that kind of parents get from teachers. So like how do you feel that works with your parents? And what's the trend over your almost 15 years teaching? Are you getting more respect, less, about the same? What's the trend that you're seeing?

Cici Chen: There is a chance, but I will say it's not like it just happened in my like 14 years teaching. When I was a student, especially in China, teacher really respected my parents. Like my mom always tell me, you just need to listen to your teacher. I will say when I was like, yes everything teacher said is correct. Just listen to your teacher. So by that time, I will say maybe 30 years ago, teacher in China is fully respected. It's an easy job. You just tell your students what to do. Now also the time changes and like my generation, we are not...

like my mom's generation, we have our own mind. I think it's the same as the people in the US. We know we don't really trust that person. I have my own like a educational idea how to educate a child. So now the parents I meet, I won't say they don't respect teachers, but they have their own ideas. So for me, if I want to let parents trust me or build a connection with them, I need to show them I'm professional.

I need to tell them something I see which is really true and helpful, useful. Let them trust you. yes, this teacher really shows profession in her job. So it's a trustful teacher. I can believe her. And like I just said, just always tell your parents what I want to do to help your child.

Because a lot of my parents, my student parents, they are also like have a good job, well educated because I worked in a private school. So they usually have good background. Yes, they have a lot of their own ideas. So you really need to build a connection with them to show your profession in front of them.

Spencer Payne: Yeah, perfect. And at the that was kind of focusing more at the beginning of a school year, kind of how do you know, the parents on your same team, how do you communicate, etc. At the end of a school year, and we're coming up kind of getting close to the end of a school year here here now we're in April. How are you judged? Like, how do you judge yourself at the end of a school year of kind of that do a good job this year when I say it just okay, what do I want to do more of less of...

But then also with your school, can you share a little bit about how that works of like, how are you judged or graded or are there tests that you're expected to have your kids hit even in first grade? So can you share a little bit about at the end of a school year, how do you kind of judge your performance, not just you personally for yourself, but also your school? Like how do they judge or grade you or give you feedback of what to do more of, less of, what to do better, et cetera? How does that work?

Cici Chen: So I want to say in the past, like in China, especially in China, the main thing to judge how the teacher's performance is the score. But now it changed. First, also in China, the government said in grade one and grade two, we cannot have official test. Maybe we still have test, but not official test to tell the parents the score. This was not allowed anymore.

So we don't really have score, yeah, we still have something. We can see the students' progress. And for me, first I will say personally, for me, I think not just to look at students, like how's their performance in academic area, I also want to see first my students, their learning skills, their learning interests. I think as a teacher, this is also very important, especially for younger students.

For them, the learning habits, learning interests is the most important thing. I always try to, in my class, try to motivate them and make them feel, OK, I really like to learn. And also, I help them to know, how do I read? How do I write? How do I research? How do I find the answer I want? This is the basic skills they need to know. So I will say this is first part.

I will assess myself, see if my students can learn these skills and have the interest. I really enjoy this class. And secondly, I think as a teacher, very important is I can build a connection with my students. This is so important for me. I want to share a short story, which really inspired me, I think, last year. Last year in my class, I have a young girl, she has her like a perfection list, like problems, everything she just wants to be perfect. If she cannot do it or she met some difficulties, she just shut down totally. And that moment, she cannot do anything. I noticed that problems and I think of I need to do something to help her. So one time when she had a conflict with a classmate, she...

she started to her temper again, didn't want to talk, didn't want to say what she thinks. So I tried to listen to her and I tried to help her to express her feelings. And I don't just blame her because at that moment she also did something badly to that girl but I don't just blame her, you do something wrong, what's wrong with you? I try to understand her. The reason why you have this behavior is because you felt you were not respected by this girl, what this girl did before to make you feel hurt, right? I can see that moment, she feels differently in front of me. She feels she was seen by me, not just I want to...quickly solve this problem. I want to help her.

So after that, things have passed. I see she see me differently and she's more willing to listen to me. Sometimes like when she's doing her task, she met some like problems, she feels really struggled. I'm trying to encourage her. She will listen. I see the difference. It really inspired me. I see when you made connection with a student, it make a change. And by the end of that year, she come to me, say, you know, Miss Cece, I really like you. I don't want to leave your class. I want to be in your class forever. It is really touching moment for me. I see this is the meaning of being a teacher. You see you made a little bit changes with little one and also you made a connection with this person.

There's a spot in her heart, I think, is Miss Cece. Now she's in grade two, and every time she sees me, she's so happy. Yes, so I feel that moment really tells me building connection. At the end of the school year, I see, did I build connection with my students? So important.

Spencer Payne: That's really nice. Thank you for sharing that.

Yeah, and you hit on something there too that, you know, first graders are five, six-ish, like maybe seven years old. know, there is a part...

Cici Chen: six to seven years old.

Spencer Payne: Yeah. And there is a part of that that is, you know, there's reading, writing, counting, but there is a part of this to just like how to manage emotions is a skill to learn also when they're that young. And I'll share it like my little three year old. you know, sometimes he'll say something and maybe he'll say, he'll say the right words and we'll say, please, but he'll say it mean. Right. And we'll be like, Hey, how can you say that another way? Cause you said that kind of like, you said that kind of mean or you know, sometimes at the end of the night, he just doesn't want to go to bed, right? I don't I don't want to go to bed. I want to stay up and read another book or something.

And sometimes we'll start crying. And sometimes, you know, I'll ask like, Hey, do you want to feel better? Or do you just want to keep crying? It's like, I just want to keep crying. Okay, that's okay. I'll sit here and wait for you. You let me know when you want to feel better. Cry, cry, cry. Oh, okay, I'm ready to feel better now. Like, okay, all right, come here. Give me a hug. And sometimes it is just like he doesn't know the words or he doesn't know how to manage his emotions. And there's just a little bit of trying to help. Hey, here's how that feeling feels. Here's some things I do when I feel that feeling that helped me, you could try these next time. And so there is, there is some of it, just like emotional regulation or like learning how to manage your emotions. That's a big part of, that age of trying to help kids, you know, take that perfectionism that can be paralyzing and try to figure out like...How do I get past this?

Like, do I actually, how do I accept that failure? So I fail, big deal, I'm try again. I'm gonna try again. Like, how do we help teach kids these types of skills is also very important part of being a teacher, which that doesn't want a test score, right? Like, that's all the hard stuff that there's no comprehension score for that kind of stuff, but it's also really, really important stuff.

Cici Chen: Yeah, yeah, yes, yeah. I want to say because I'm a homeroom teacher of grade one, there are not just learning happening in this class. It's like a small society. There always something happened, conflict and the problems. This is an important skill, how to like regulate myself, how to solving problem, how to express myself, communicate. All of these things, a lot of students, they don't have it.

So as a home-room teacher, I need to teach them.

Spencer Payne: Yeah. Yeah, it's perfect. Thank you. What actually I'm curious, are there are there any? Yeah, when when kids are maybe being a little bit mean, or they're they're saying something rudely, or they're whining, whatever it is, like, are there any little tips or tricks that you try to? You try to share with them or tell them to to help them manage those emotions or to maybe say something more nicely or say it more politely than the way they said it before. Are there any examples that you could share of some of that homeroom conflict that you see and any examples where you've tried to navigate it or manage it or help the child kind of say maybe say something differently or act differently because maybe they did something that was kind of mean or rude or whatever. Like any examples that you can share?

Cici Chen: Yes, of course. So I can share maybe three tours. The first one is we call it the message. I think it is also useful as an adult. So when you feel something maybe uncomfortably when someone do something or say something to you, you don't just complain, you are so bad and I hate you. You start with I, me first.

I feel what? Like I feel angry, I feel sad, and I feel frustrated, upset. When you say something or do something, just express start with you yourself and then say I wish. Express what do you want. I always tell my students, you don't really expect that person will really meet your expectation. Don't expect that first, but at least you express yourself. Usually your friends, they hear you, they will change because some of them they don't realize they said this or they did this make you upset so you need to tell them but to start with yourself first always teach them use this sentence structure and the second tool is we call it problem solving wheels so we have like maybe up there's a wheel different spaces and on that space of the wheel we have different strategies they can use when they have a problems.

Usually we see people, students, the young kids, they were used to solve a conflict like rock, paper, scissors, shoot. This is very useful. They also like it, right? And we gave them other ideas. Sometimes even just to walk away, ignore it, or took it out. like you give yourself a time so you cool down and all you ask for help from an adult. So we list all of the...strategies they can use on that whale and we put it on display on the board so the students always can go to refer to it and when they have some problems we will also refer to that whale. which strategy you just used you can share and you can practice. Yeah they need to practice when they have some problems they practice we guide them how to use it. Yes and yes it is very useful tool.

And the third one, sorry I forgot what is the third one, I think of the three but now I cannot remember which is the third one. I think it's like we need to, we use the traffic light, red, yellow and green light, right? So because usually when the students they have some conflict with others, they have their emotional moment, they need to cool down first.

So we remind them to think of the traffic light. You are in the red light. You cannot really do something or say something. Usually the thing you do is not a good choice. So just stop and deep breath, cool yourself down. And once you feel you are totally cool down, you ready, you can make your decision. So we use the traffic light to remind them. Make a good choice.

Spencer Payne: Yep. And you just shared before that, you know, a really proud moment of last year with the perfectionist girl and kind of then, you know, help helping her and then having her say, I want you to teach me for forever, which is really nice. And I'm curious for other other stories after after almost 15 years in the classroom, any anything, anything stand out to you of, you know, wild

Cici Chen: Yeah, that girl, yes. Yes.

Spencer Payne: crazy. I can't believe that happened. my gosh, that student said that that was so funny. They thought it meant this, but it really meant this. So can you share any other stories you've had over 15 years teaching that are just wild, funny, crazy, memorable that are worth sharing? I'm sure after 15 years, there's probably a lot that you probably have already forgotten. There's probably some really good ones. Anything that you can share.

Cici Chen: Yes. There are a lot of stories. You know, now I'm very experienced with special needs students. Every year I will have special needs students. Maybe they have ADHD, ODD, autism, or some learning difficulties, this kind of special needs. So yeah and I have all of the special and memorable stories with them. I can share one story this year. I have a boy. He has both diagnosed as ADHD and ODD. So he cannot control himself and also he easily gets angry. This causes a lot of problems. For example, in break time, he just has some small tiny little things make him angry. So he hit other students.

After he did that, he knows that's not okay, but he also feel guilty, feel shame. He gets more angry to himself. Usually, yeah, we will like do a reflection paper with this kind of behavior. Because that day, think I remember he just like in 20 minutes break time, he did two or three like bad choice. So...I instead of just let him wrote a reflection sheet, actually usually he will refuse to do it. He don't feel he wants to do it. Also, he feel guilty. So he use his temper to refuse to do it. So after he cool down, because at first he gets so angry, I said, you cannot go to the next lesson, which is art lesson. remember I said, you need to stay in the classroom. You need to reflect with me. He gets so angry, but I try to keep myself cool down, use a peaceful tone talk to him. I say you need to cool down first then Miss Easy will talk to you after like maybe 10 minutes finally he cool myself down he talked to me he said okay fine I can talk to you so I just trying to let him reflect what he did and I tell him maybe instead of I reflect what I did I think of what I can do differently next time so I let him made a poster about how to like how to play safely in break time, a poster.

So he did that poster and I also put this poster in the classroom, put it up on the wall to let him to introduce this poster to the whole class. I can see he feels when he's presenting his poster, he feels good because this is a chance let him to introduce it and also helped him to think of how to play safely with my friends. I always feel with this like special needs students, instead of maybe we say something bad, blame on them or punish them. I think of do something to help them, tell them what to do. Maybe I will see next time because he has ADHD, he still will hit others. But at least he can see there's a teacher want to help him do something with him that moment maybe well one time will help him I don't know but I just feel I want to to do something to teach him help him to like guide him to the like correct direction and also I started to write more positive notes to my students.

This is also happened when my child, my kid now, he is eight years old. When he was a young boy, I always write some good notes, use the sticky notes to stick on the wall. Say, David, you did this. I'm so proud of you, something like that. And one day my son told me, he said, mama, know, the positive notes you wrote for me.

It really means a lot to me. It's better than the gift you bought for me. Because when I read this post, I feel I'm good. I memorize what I did that day. I think I'm so good. So this really inspired me. So I started to do this in my class as well. So we have a parent communication book. Every day, the students take the homework list. So I started to write some notes. If I see some good moments of my student or the student make progress, I just write a short notes. It really changed our students. They are so happy when they see teacher wrote a note and the parents also so happy. And then the students made a progress. They see teacher like give them compliment. They just want to be more and more good. They just want to be better. It's more, it's like motivated and a lot.

Spencer Payne: Yeah, Yeah, thanks for sharing that. Yeah, positive reinforcement is a powerful thing. So often we get caught up in only talking when something's bad. Don't do that. you screwed up this up again. And sometimes we forget of, I don't know if rewarding is the right word, but just saying good job when they do a good job. Sometimes we focus so much on the negative, we forget to appreciate the positive.

Cici Chen: Yes.

hmm yes I always believe human beings always want to be good even this is a problem kid there's always a reason I like a meet needs behind the problem behavior so we want to like seek for it and try to fix it or see what is lacking I want to fix that problem or see that problem help him

Spencer Payne: Yep. And thanks so much for sharing that. And a couple more quick, quicker, quick hitter rapid fire questions as we get close to wrapping up here. Number one, like if you could go back and give yourself advice based on what you know now, if you could go back to your first year in teaching and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?

Cici Chen: Okay, will say, Cici, this young girl, please just remember to insist what you are doing. Maybe you doubt yourself at the beginning. Please remember, just continue to do what you are doing now. You will be the good one.

Spencer Payne: And what to you is the number one single best thing about this profession? Education.

Cici Chen: You mean like the one thing, example or just what I say? Okay, I will say I like to work with young kids. This is the best important thing for me in my job.

Spencer Payne: Yep. And what to you is the hardest thing or the worst thing about being an educator or a teacher or to ask that another way, if you had a magic wand and could change one thing overnight, where would you point that wand? What's one thing you wish you could change?

Cici Chen: I wish I could have less work because now we have so many different kinds of things except teaching.

Spencer Payne: Yeah, understood. Get some of the administrative stuff so you can actually focus on being with your students. If there was if if there was one or two things that you wish you could share with a parent or the public at large who maybe has never been a teacher or has never been an educator, what's one or two things that you wish they knew about this profession that they probably don't since they've never actually done it?

Cici Chen: yes, yes, yes.

I want to say to the parents, your respect and your appreciation really matter a lot as a teacher because teacher really has a lot of work to do. So I hope the parents can understand us sometimes just give us some time and more respect to teachers. That is so important.

Spencer Payne: And last last question. Is there anything that you were hoping to share that we just didn't have a chance to talk to you today or anything that you want to reshare or restate because it's so important that it's just worth saying again. So any new or repeated final words of wisdom or words of advice for educators out there?

Cici Chen: I want to say because I've been a teacher for 14 years, so I think the most important thing for me to motivate me to continue this job is I can really make connection with a human being, a little one, and as a teacher, I really see my student and respect my student, supporting them, and then I can see the change, a difference on my little ones, I think that is the most meaningful part in this job.

Spencer Payne: Yep. Perfect. Well, thank you so much for sharing your real stories from a real educator from across the world. Thank you so much for sitting down and talking with us. Appreciate you.

Cici Chen: Thank you. Can I say last sentence? So I will also say, so thank you for inviting me for this podcast. First, this is my first experience for recording a podcast. I like to do new things. And also I feel this is a really nice experience for me to recall my 14 years teaching experience and also remind me my original heart as a teacher.

I know who I am, I know why I still continue to do this job because something really matters to me and I see the meaningful part in my life. That's it.

Spencer Payne: Well, perfect. Well, thank you and good luck continuing to bring new and fun experiences to your students like baking that are teaching not just how to make a good brownie, but also really important life skills. So thank you so much for sharing your story.

Cici Chen: Yes, thank you you too.