My name is Muyang Sun and I am an international student from China. I was born and raised in Jinzhou, Liaoning Province. I attended my kindergarten, elementary and junior high schools in my hometown before I transferred to Dalian Maple Leaf International School in Dalian when I was in grade 9.
In Dalian, I was exposed to a whole new system of learning. When I was in the Chinese public school in Jinzhou, English was only one of the subjects. However, English could be considered as the tool for learning all the subjects in the international private school. Although it was hard at the beginning, I quickly integrated into the new system after my unremitting efforts and my teachers’ constant encouragement. When I was in the international high school in Dalian, I really enjoyed the Canadian way of teaching and learning. My Canadian teachers would introduce a topic first and asked what we had already known about it. Then, they would revise our misconceptions and encouraged our correct preconceptions. They would start from the very basic knowledge and gradually went deeper. They felt that they were equal to their students and they saw us as their friends. In the Chinese public school, the teachers were strict and patronizing. They were not willing to mingle with the students and they wished that they could infuse us with all the knowledge that would be on the exam. In the Chinese public school, there was a standard answer for each question whereas in the international school, the answers to many questions were open-ended. I preferred quality education in the international school to exam-oriented education in the Chinese public school. My experience at Maple Leaf was a milestone in my life as it guided the direction and laid a foundation for me to go on to the international high school and study in a Canadian university. Because of this, I have the opportunity to get into the BEd program at TRU.
When I was in grade 11, I met my favorite math teacher. She was a lady who originally from Vietnam. She was very kind and patient to all her students. She had a strong logical mind and she was really good at math. Beyond that, she was able to deliver what she had known to her students by using her unique teaching style. She aroused my interest of exploring further and deeper in mathematics. I really appreciated her teaching methods. I could say that she was the person who had the most influence on my desire to be a math teacher. I thought it was so cool to teach difficult ideas to the students and see their success. I often talked with her about wanting to be a math teacher in the future and she told me that “as a successful educator, you need to teach your students not only how to solve the problems in the textbook, but also empower them the ability to solve other problems on their own”. She really inspired me a lot and I made up my mind to be a good teacher like her. In the future, I would like to become a teacher who can deliver high quality education to the students and is willing to accept different ideas.
In 2016, I went to TRU as a Bachelor of Science student and I majored in Mathematics. I took some courses in other disciplines as my electives and I found that I enjoyed learning English, History and Sociology as well. Therefore, I decided to learn more Arts courses as my electives and keep learning Math courses at the same time. After gaining 90 credits, I applied for the Bachelor of Education program at TRU and got admitted. Now I am finishing up my program.
In my free time, I love reading, writing and travelling. I believe that my hobbies and interests can help me become a successful teacher in the future because I will be able to teach my students various skills in literacy to help them become stronger readers and writers. Also, my travelling experiences inspired me to incorporate place-based learning (e.g. engaging fieldtrips) into my teaching and my students’ learning. In this way, students can have more agency and autonomy. Their motivation and persistence can be boosted as well.
I cannot wait to see how my life as a teacher is going to be like!