Most would think that having your first teaching job at St. Christopher’s is a setup for failure, but the daunting task does not faze Mr. Andrew Strudwick. He has a unique background compared to most of the staff here at St. Chris. His job this year is, in fact, his educational debut. He lived in China with his wife for seven years, near Shanghai, before recently moving back to the Richmond area. Mr. Strudwick’s professional experience with the language comes from his time working at an American subsidiary of a Chinese conglomerate. Within this conglomerate, he served as a facilitator between American and Chinese clients, providing various services, including legal translation. Upon his return to America, he briefly considered corporate options available in DC before deciding to start his career in education, due to his father’s background as the head of a private school.

However, being a Chinese teacher comes with its own complexities and nuances. For example, Chinese is one of the only subjects here at St. Christopher’s that is taught by the same teacher throughout middle and high school. According to Mr. Strudwick, “that's probably one of the more difficult parts of the job so far” because, while juniors tend to be on task, middle schoolers require a significant amount of time to be reigned in before they can continue with the material. The balancing act between our ever-changing high school schedule and a more set-in-stone middle school class schedule is another source of difficulty. Mr. Strudwick has been with our rotating schedule since his own private school as a student. Still, according to Mr. Strudwick, it is more beneficial for world language classes to have shorter class periods every day. Consistency is the key to learning a world language, and Mr. Strudwick is hoping to use consistent use of repetition to teach his students new vocabulary, expose them to the tonal characters of Chinese, and expand on the foundation our previous Chinese teacher gave them, so they can learn to speak more confidently. So make sure to make Mr. Strudwick’s job a little bit easier by giving him a warm welcome when you see him around campus.