Meet your new favorite teacher!

Dear Mr. Max!

As a student, this is the first time I’ve written a personal letter to a teacher, specifically to express my appreciation. I truly admire your selfless sharing of skills, your encouragement of critical thinking, and your unique teaching methods, which provide us with more opportunities to share our ideas. I sincerely suggest that you continue with your teaching style and the various activities in class, as the extraordinary improvement in our abilities and growth in confidence far outweigh the time spent rearranging desks or changing positions.

I particularly enjoyed the seminar we held on Monday. It allowed us to exchange our views on a globally significant issue—poverty—and explore potential solutions. Although I have participated in similar seminars before, this was the first time I felt fully immersed as a discussion leader. I’ve never felt so proactive and excited as I did standing on the stage in the auditorium, speaking English to a large group of people I’m not even very familiar with. You created such a positive and open atmosphere for discussion while still keeping our conversation on track and redirecting us whenever we veered too far into controversial areas. With your guidance, I was able to achieve my goal of giving everyone a chance to speak and briefly cover all aspects of our topic within an hour, which makes me feel proud.

Thank you for your kind instruction. I hope we can continue to improve and delve deeper into the upcoming topics we will discuss in future colloquy classes.

To Mr. Max,

Mr. Max, you are my favorite teacher at WLSA! You are so kind, responsible, gentle, and positive. Your classes are both meaningful and intriguing.

I want to express my admiration for you, sir. You are such a respected teacher. I remember that after our first seminar, I was anxious about my oral English and sought your advice. You were so kind and comforted me, offering presentation tips that I still find useful. I’ve troubled you many times with essay problems due to my limited English, but you always understand what I’m trying to say and give me practical guidance. If I were in your place, I might have become impatient or looked down on a struggling student, but you never did that. You always treated me with consideration and gentleness. Your positivity and optimism have left a lasting impression on me. Every time you see your students, you greet us with a smile and so much energy. At the beginning of class, you say things like “Happy Monday!” or “Hello Class!” which fills us with positive energy.

Your classes are not only meaningful but also engaging. You taught us how to write structured essays, and I’ve seen the difference in my work. My essays used to lack content and reasoning, but you showed me how to organize my thoughts, emphasize key points in the introduction and conclusion, and include in-text citations. Moreover, the colloquy classes have helped me practice my oral English through seminars, and they have also encouraged me to reflect on myself. I especially enjoyed the role-playing activity in the drama room, which helped us understand each other better. Having seminars on the football field, surrounded by sunshine, fresh air, blue skies, and great weather, was an amazing experience, and I truly enjoy colloquy class.

To sum up, you are my favorite teacher at WLSA because you are so kind, responsible, gentle, and positive, and your classes are both meaningful and intriguing. I wish you all the best, and I will miss you!

I am pleased to write this letter of recommendation for Max Duroseau, who was my daughter’s teacher of Colloquy in WLSA during G10 period. He enlightened her to know the essay conception, citation methods, and how to practice critical thinking from alternative aspects.

I first got to know Max when my daughter shared her pleasant experience on the Colloquy class with a nice foreign teacher. Although she grew up in Chinese schools in the past 9 grades and Max was the first full-time foreign teacher to her, she felt relaxed and enjoyable when she was speaking on the class.  Max’s pronunciation and speech rate is quite understandable and friendly to the students. Max facilitated them on various topic discussions among groups, encouraged them to think from different perspectives on a topic, and respected their speech with patience and open mind.

With the chance of 1 on 1 communication during parents meeting, I was also impressed by his active conversation, with shining smiles always. His comprehensive observation and constructive advice to my child was quite helpful and encouraged us a lot.

Luckily, I also reserved a seat this April to join an exhibition class for parents, arranged by WLSA and taught by Max. In the 40 minutes, he facilitated successfully around 30 parents to discuss about “Decoding Gender in Advertising: Unveiling Stereotypes and Societal Impact”, with sufficient preparation via PPT, Definitions, Pictures, Examples, and clear class structure.  He encouraged the participants to discuss the role of advertising and its culture impacts, thinking over the relationship between Gender and Advertising, and so on.  Max is good at providing positive feedback to the speakers and encouraging different opinions on the class. I could further understand why my daughter may enjoy such a class.

Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to Max on the Teacher’s Day and wish him a promising future!

Best regards,

Jessica Jiao