Four Years of Living, Learning, Teaching, and Becoming Half-Chinese in Suzhou, China
| Home Page ABOUT THE BOOK Why a Memoir? Meaning of the Title Book Format What/Where Is Suzhou? Why Suzhou Is So Fitting for This Book Where Can I Buy the Book? SELECTED PREVIEWS Chapter 5: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? Chapter 20: A Precious Belt Chapter 29: A City Shuts Down UPDATES SINCE 2006 Our Story Suzhou's Story EXTRA PHOTOS Related to the Book Suzhou 2001-2006 Suzhou Since 2006 ABOUT: The Author My Next Book My SuzhouPlus Website |
  
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
After twenty years in the corporate and management consulting worlds, I entered a second career as a math teacher at a highly regarded alternative public high school in the Chelsea district of New York City. During my teaching years, I formed the school’s nascent mathematics department, taught all levels of high school mathematics, created two unique mathematics electives, and introduced the first Advanced Placement classes to the school’s curriculum. In my additional capacity as founding faculty advisor to the school’s Asian Culture Club, my students first introduced me to Chinese culture. I led those students in organizing annual Asian Culture assembly programs and arranged for such visiting guest speakers as authors Anchee Min and Lan Samantha Chang and political leader John Liu, the first Asian-American ever elected to a seat on the City Council of New York and now City Controller. I subsequently made over a dozen trips to China between 2000 and 2006, living there for as much as five months at a time while teaching English at local high schools and undergraduate business courses at Suzhou University. I have traveled widely through China as well, from Beijing and Chengde in the northeast to Kunming, Lijiang, Dali, and Jinghong (Xishuangbanna) in the southwest, along with boat travel along the Yangtze River and extensive local explorations in and around Suzhou and Shanghai, including the famous “water towns” of Zhouzhuang, Wuzhen, Tongli, and Luzhi. I am a graduate of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology with an MBA degree from Purdue University and a Masters in Secondary Math Education from New York University. I and my family live in New York City, where I have continued to be an active parent leader in New York City’s public school system. I am a regular contributor to the NYC Public School Parents education blog (www.nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com) and a contributor to the 2009 book NYC Schools Under Bloomberg and Klein: What Parents, Teachers, and Policymakers Need to Know (Chapter 9, “Test Score Inflation: Campbell’s Law at Work”). I welcome your emails -- you can reach me at mathman180@gmail.com. I will do my best to respond to your queries and comments. |