Chinese Version
10-30-2022, Sunday, sunny

Boston was sunny at the end of October. I visited Rachel, my friend in Waltham, at her home and commented on how her twin boy and girl are much taller now. Rachel smiled: “Soon I will be the shortest one in my family.”

We were very happy to see each other after I moved to California. We chatted about my life in San Jose, California and her life in Waltham, Massachusetts. Rachel talked about her full-time teaching career at a middle school. She is teaching three courses this semester: interior design, preschool education, and sewing. In addition, she is taking a college course on weekends to earn credits for her teacher’s license in Massachusetts.

I thought interior design is a college course. Hearing Rachel teach this course at a middle school, I asked curiously, “I thought interior design is a college course. How do you teach middle school students interior design?”

Rachel explained to me that the basic elements of interior design are: space utilization, light utilization, color matching, and overall pattern and texture coordination. In her class of interior design for middle school students, she broke each element into a unit. In the space unit, she talks about one, two and three dimensional space utilization, then ask her students to complete an assignment to show their understanding and use of space. After finishing all the units, her students will present a room designed by themselves.

I asked her about how they could present a room in class.

Rachel said her students will present a virtual room, not a physical room, online.”

Rachel also said, “Our school has many students who just immigrated from Brazil. Because of the shortage of ESL (English as a second language) teachers, our school offered limited ESL classes. The Brazilian students who can’t attend the ESL classes have to stay in the student cafe.”

I asked Rachel curiously: “What classes can the Brazilian students take without the ESL teachers?”

Rachel said: “They can take classes that don’t require profound English language skill, such as interior design and sewing classes. In interior design classes, I purposely wrote down important Portuguese corresponding to English in the lecture notes and assignment requirements to help my Brazilian students learn well in the classroom and to do their assignments faster and better.”

I exclaimed: “Before you knew it, you already started the bilingual course of interior design class and became a ESL interior design teacher, very creative!”

Rachel said that she asked the students in the sewing class to make bibs for the kindergarteners and she was impressed by a Chinese girl who followed the instruction and made good bibs very quickly.

I always enjoy chatting with Rachel and listening to the vivid stories of her unique experiences along with her observations and her creativities. Rachel was very busy and she looked very energetic and happy. We took a photo together happily before I left.

（Rachel and I in her house, 10-30-2022.）