人人都愛Chris：因為他，我們都想成為科學家｜法拉古特人物志

2020年5月9日校園新聞 Campus News

2020-2021學年招生進行中

識別二維碼，進入網絡預約通道

10年前，一位來自紐約周邊小鎮Peekskill的美國青年偶然收到一份來自亞洲的教學邀請；10年后，依然在亞洲，依然從事熱愛的教師事業，他有幸找到能實現理想并收獲熱愛的學校。

10年過去了，曾經以為的人生插曲變成人生主旋律。

今天，就來一起認識法拉古特 “人人都愛” 的Chris老師。

01 “All I know about China was Bruce Lee”

“I found that teaching was something I was good at, and enjoyed…”

故事的開始總伴隨著意外驚喜，正如猜測Chris老師來到中國的原因一樣，曾以為他是懷著對亞洲神秘文化的憧憬而來，殊不知到達這里之前，他對中國的全部了解只有Bruce Lee和 Jackie Chen。

他說家鄉是” small suburb of New York City , People that lived in New York City thought I lived in the country side, and people that lived in the country side thought I lived in New York City” ，他說童年時期的喜好與亞洲沒有任何聯系，只是個喜歡戶外運動，喜歡野營的普通青年。

Peekskill–風景迷人的紐約周邊小鎮

可命運就是有很多“如果”：如果不是那通電話，他永遠不會想到，這一趟亞洲之旅竟然徹底的改變了他的人生軌跡：”A childhood friend of mine was teaching in Korea and thought I should join her. I ended up taking her advice and moved to Seoul in 2009 and began my teaching career at a small international school, teaching many different science courses including chemistry, biology, earth science and physics. “ 彼時的Chris正在美國大學里進行研究生階段最后的學習并同時兼職IT部門和實驗室的助教工作。

韓國從事Science教師的2年時間，不僅讓Chris老師有了更加專業的教學經驗，更讓他有幸結識同一所學校工作的中國太太，因為愛情，從韓國來到中國。

初到天津，偶然的機會和家人去飯店，剛好隔壁桌是位英國人，見都是老外就閑聊了幾句。這一聊便誤打誤撞的聊出了工作機會，被形容“工作找上自己”的他在天津韓國人學校成為一名小學階段ESL教師。“I did work at the Korean International School In Tianjin (KIST) for 3 years as an ESL teacher, and I swear to people, if you want to be a teacher, every teacher should teach elementary school.”

天津韓國國際學校KIST是一所純韓國外籍子女國際學校

母語老師的教學經歷還是抵不過想要擔任Science學科老師的愿望，三年后，Chris從天津韓國國際學校離開。

03 法拉古特給我當學科老師的機會

“I looked for a school that was hiring and I found AFATJ. The HR team was amazing, and I saw a lot of potential for the school and decided to make the switch.”

3年之前的2017年，法拉古特學校天津校區仍顯年輕，Chris老師也在尋找能實現自己教授Science 的理想之地,談到最終選擇法拉古特學校天津校區（AFA TJ）的原因，除了地理位置優越，周邊環境美麗之外，“AFA TJ had a similar feel to the school in Korea and I was able to teach science to both middle school and high school students. “

感謝外聯部老師們，找到了Chris老師做Demo課的珍貴視頻

可能你會好奇 Chris 為何一直致力于成為Science老師，這大概源自原生家庭的影響：出生在醫生家庭，他的父親是名牙醫，母親是位護士。人家在家飯桌上談論八卦，而他們家在飯桌上談論科學和醫學道理，這一切顯然對Chris產生了巨大的影響：“My family would also always eat dinner together and discuss interesting things about nature and science. They would talk about medicine and research. I think this is also one of the contributing factors to why I find science so interesting.”

正是這份對學科的熱愛和對教師職業的喜歡，一步步讓他成為學生們最喜歡的老師。

03 “人人都愛Chris“

“If you can support the students with positivity and encouragement, they will strive to do even greater things.“

左：攝于2017年右: 攝于2020年用三年時光彼此成就

在采訪過的學生里，Chris 是被提及名字最多次的老師，難怪大家戲稱: “在法拉古特，人人都愛Chris”。

“Well,(laughing) I’m happy they do!”

被學生喜歡可沒那么簡單，這首先源于他有趣的教學方式：Chris老師的課程是最有趣的外教課程之一。對中國學生來說，使用非母語學習科學學科范疇下的生物、化學等是很困難的，但他的課程卻總是被評為最受歡迎的課程之一，不得不說，確實有著過人之處。“When I prepare class, I try to make the content as accessible as possible to students. ” Chris老師認為，興趣永遠是最好的老師，就像自己對科學學科的喜愛一樣，他希望學生們是發自內心的喜歡上課，繼而能夠自主學習。

有趣的Chris老師的PPT

課程開始之前，他都會想象自己回到學生時代，首先問問自己：這堂課內容是不是自己喜歡和被接受的，以非常有趣的PPT來提起孩子們的注意力: “One of the basic things I prepare is a very interactive power point presentation that also teaches through a story of pictures. Here students can understand complex topics in a simple way, making the learning process both interesting and effective. “

Chris 老師在課堂上

談到自己的授課風格，他分享了很受用的，來自于印度裔大學教授Sugata Mitra 提出的“Method of Grandma-祖母理論”， “當你小時候與祖母在一起的時候，她總會說：You are doing great! You are excellent! 我們應該對孩子一直抱有這樣的熱情和鼓勵！我的課堂上，無論他們做了什么，我會首先問: “What happened?”而不是“why you did this? If you can support the students with positivity and encouragement, they will strive to do even greater things.”

Sugata Mitra 伽特 ·米特拉, 2013 TED Prize 獲得者

英國紐卡斯爾大學教育、交流和語言科學學院教授

許多學生講述的故事里，Chris是全能般的存在: 課堂外與學生們一起玩游戲，看到學生們有心事了他會主動詢問，甚至會因為一個小小的問題就給學生們再多講上個一小時。當被問到用這些”額外時間”為學生輔導課程有什么感受時，他更正道: “ I don’t mind helping them, I look at that way: It’s not part of my job,it’s part of somthing I like to do. I want to be not just a friend to my student, but a reasonable person.”

從美國做助教開始，再到中韓兩地做教師，接觸過不同種類的學生，他認為韓國孩子的最大的優點是”主動性強，上課睡覺，下課偷偷學習”，“Many of the Korean students were motivated“,中國學生則更多樣化: 有時候他們會比較偷懶，所以他更會讓學生們明白：“the most importantaspect of my classroom teaching is that I empower the students to take control of their own education. As ateacher, I am here to help guide students towards their own goals. The education they receive is for them, and not for me! “他也認為世界大同， “The more you travel, the more you find that people are just people!”

04 雙語家庭歡樂多

“Parenting is fun but difficult.”

Like father like son

定居中國8年，Chris已經有了兩個可愛的混血寶寶: 大女兒Michelle已經5歲半了，小兒子 Ian 今年才2歲半。兩個孩子都能講非常流利的漢語和英語。女兒會講一些連媽媽都不懂的英語俚語，兒子則正在經歷terrible two”的幸福煩惱”。

05 期待和祝福

“One thing that has remained constant though is the extremely friendly and professional staff that support the school at every level. I feel lucky to have such great colleagues.”

采訪的前兩日我們得知，因為優秀的教學成績，Chris已經榮升為法拉古特學校天津校區的外籍教師主管。一方面，這是代表了學生們對他的認可，另一方面，更代表著法拉古特學校天津校區想要以優秀的教師持續帶動教育教學發展良性發展的想法。“After being at AFA TJ for this long, especially at this stage of its development, I have seen a lot of change. The school has grown in many ways. “

法拉古特學校天津校區部分外教老師

隨著2020年畢業季臨近，這也是Chris帶領3年的班級面臨畢業的時間。被喜歡也深深的愛著每一位學生，他祝福這些孩子們能在2020這個特別的年份去更廣闊的世界里找到人生中的 true love:

“I’ll give the same advice to the graduating class that I heard as I entered university: ‘You only have one true goal in college, and that is to find love. ‘ What is your passion? What do you really want to do? Finding the answer to this question will lead you to greatness and success!”

生命因你動聽電影海報

老電影《生命因你動聽》中海倫·雅各布校長曾這樣說：“教師有兩個工作：傳道授業是其一沒錯，但更重要的是，給充滿知識的頭腦指明方向，讓那些知識不至于白白浪費。A teacher has two jobs: fill young minds with knowledge, yes, but more important, give those minds a compass so that that knowledge doesn’t go to waste.”