Nancy Wei has been teaching all Chinese classes as well as running the National Chinese Honor Society at Palos Verdes High School. Born in the capital of China’s Yunnan province, Kunming, Wei was rawised alongside her brother and cousins in a large caring family.
Wei first made the transition to full-time teaching for her young family.
“After I had my twins, I felt that I needed to do something different in my career so I would have time to take care of my family,” said Wei.
“I had a chance to start to teach Chinese in the PV district at Lunada Bay Elementary School and I really loved it. I felt it was my passion and talent.”
Throughout her teaching journey, Wei has worked with students of all different backgrounds, an aspect of teaching she values.
“I know every culture has a lot of good things. One thing I believe in so many years of teaching, I’ve felt that no matter what background a student has, we share a lot of similar human beliefs and interests,” said Wei.
“One thing in common is that we love people. I love to share my life experiences with the young children to help them be successful and happy.”
“My goal is for my students to become lifetime learners not only for Chinese, but learners for different subjects [and] areas,” Wei said. “I encourage them to become lifetime learners and get out of their comfort zones to learn as much as they can and…find much joy learning something new to have different perspectives for a lot of things.”
Wei’s classes, activities and volunteer opportunities outside of school have benefited her students with skills they’ll use for years to come.
“I’ve had a lot of fun learning about the cultural aspects of China and the Chinese language,” said sophomore Nicholas Jardin.
“Ms. Wei prepares is a very engaging and supportive teacher [and] her classes will allow me to more easily communicate with native Chinese speakers and with my family in China.”