I am a Chinese-Canadian male, born and raised in Vancouver; raised by Chinese parents using old-school traditional methods; I am also a Libra

These first two aspects of my identity inform my thought-generating process.  My ethnic background as a Chinese-Canadian makes me a visible minority, whose members are seen as being more distant from circles of influences occupied by Caucasian-Canadians (“traditional” majority) and Aboriginals (traditional stewards of the land itself); being born as a male gave me access to influence bestowed upon males by the traditionally male-dominated nature of Western society.  Growing up within a traditional Chinese household provided me with a rich cultural background from which to appreciate other cultures, yet leaves me with a hybrid, incomplete cultural identity in that I am neither traditional enough to self-identify as Chinese, nor savvy and connected enough with my surroundings to define myself as Canadian.  Thus, my identity, thought process, and systems of values — as well as my astrological sign — compel me to gravitate towards striking a balance whenever possible:  finding some middle ground, or negotiating some compromise; I prefer to synthesize a solution that incorporates any and all competing forces, goals, preferences, and opinions.

My experience as a student informs my teaching practice

My Grade 4 and 5 teacher, Mr. Simpson, made school more colourful and enjoyable for me.  He was occasionally bothered by my random outbursts during class (and he would, on occasion, yell across the room for me to return to my seat).  He also gave me my elementary school nickname, “Beans”, which I absolutely hated — one day, Mr. Simpson, in a stern and serious tone, bellowed, “Tony likes beans” during a spelling test.  I groaned, the entire class laughed, and from that day on the entire day called me “Beans”.  I hated beans with a passion, and I would object whenever someone called me “Beans”… but that nickname eventually became a term of endearment.  It made me feel like I belonged, that I had a place in the classroom.  Mr. Simpson, in his own way, created space in the community for me to make my presence known.  While he did not explicitly teach us how to “play nice” and talk amongst ourselves in a civilized manner — we had to figure that out ourselves — he did create a safe environment for my classmates and me to practice being ourselves.  His demeanor and classroom management started me on my journey towards learning on my own terms; I hope to recreate this experience for as many students as possible.

I am an avid video gamer

I grew up sitting in front of a 32″ Zenith CRT next to my younger brother playing on our Super Nintendo.  After playing through the first few video games as a consumer, I began taking an interest in how games were put together.  This early curiosity lay the foundation upon which my developing interest in meta-analysis was built.  Later on, my interest in analyzing video games transformed into a real-time reflective approach to everything I do, supplementing careful planning and resource management with the power of “Trial and Error” and “Educated Guess” to achieve great progress.

After figuring out the goal behind a particular game — rescue the princess, score points, survive, or all of the above! — I would always search for different ways to play games “wrong”.  Each game featured its own method for guiding the gamer back towards the main quest, but the player would not discover many of those animations, songs, or scenes unless they coincidentally made a mistake!  My familiarity and comfort with making mistakes (more often than not intentionally, just to see what would happen) created opportunities for me to deepen my understanding of and appreciation for whatever I was playing at the time.  I wonder how it would be like if I were to bring this mindset into the classroom…

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