Tr. Bertrand

Dear Parents, dear students,

Hello! My name is Xavier Bertrand. I come from Montreal, Canada. I am quite proud of my freezing hometown, but I left it to discover what was hiding on the other side of the world and what I found was worth the many difficulties that came along. I first lived in China for a year and then moved to Taiwan. Fuzhou (福州) is where I fell in love with two current passions of mine: Mandarin and teaching. Students can prove challenging, but the feeling of accomplishment generated by their understanding is something I can only ever find in a classroom. My teaching philosophy was influenced by four years of successes and many failures. The prying eyes of others often cause us to give up an opportunity to learn, succeed, or grow because we are afraid of failure. Perhaps we forget that we all fell many times over when learning to walk. In a sense, I am jealous of mistakes because they will forever be better teachers than me. That is why I encourage students to take chances, try to answer questions, and learn from their mistakes. In class, students will learn and hopefully, they will grow. Together we will laugh, shout, speak, play, and move. We will leave boredom for chemistry teachers (I was never good at chemistry. Sorry, Mister LaPorte.) All jokes aside, I am very happy to find myself in Ming-Der Senior High School.

Yours truly,

Teacher Xavier

Tr. Mbali

Dear Parents and Students,

It’s such a great pleasure to have this opportunity to tell you more about myself. I‘m Mbali Shange. I was born and raised in Richards’bay, South Africa. I obtained my bachelor’s Degree from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal.

I moved to Taiwan with the purpose of traveling and learning more about Taiwanese culture. My initial plan was to spend a year in Taiwan, but the beauty of Formosa absorbed me and I decided to stay a little longer. Four years later, I still feel like I have not seen enough of this magical country.

I have since then created a life in Taiwan with my spouse and 2 adorable dogs. Working at Ming der High School has been nothing short of a beautiful journey, I wake up every day looking forward to meeting my well-mannered students and friendly colleagues. My philosophy of teaching is to nurture and encourage the lifelong learning of my students through hands-on activities, inclusive classroom discussions and even the use of humor. I always hope to prompt students to think creatively and explore their natural curiosity.

I spend my leisure time traveling and exploring new places in and outside of Taiwan. Thanks once again for an opportunity to tell you more about myself.

Yours Sincerely,

Teacher Mbali

Tr. AJ

Dear Parents and Students:

It is my pleasure and honor to introduce myself to you! I am originally from South Africa, and after spending a year in South Korea, I decided to relocate to Taiwan in 2009.

My hometown in Taiwan is PingTung city, and I met my beautiful wife in Kaohsiung city. We have been married for 10 years and we have two amazing boys, Wave and Reef.

As a family, we enjoy the outdoors and love camping. We often find any reason to just escape the city and spend the day in nature. As a result, we are very serious about nature conservation and limiting the negative effects humans have on the environment.

I truly enjoy working with young minds, and I find much satisfaction in contributing to the future of our planet through education. My goal in the classroom is to enable and empower my students through creative intelligence in order for them to be more competent, competitive and relevant in the future.

Sincerely,

Teacher AJ.