Teacher Tag: Ms Louie
Interviewed by Ruwan Jinadasa, Mily Gu and Shan Balakid
Teacher Tag
With the iconic Ms Louie
i: Did you have plans for this year that were cancelled due to corona?
Yeah hugely. Ok, I’m going to spill the tea on my personal life? There’s something that I haven’t told anyone except for you guys now, and my friends at school and some from uni high hehe, but I just recently got engaged!! And that’s been cancelled sadly. Yeah so I don’t know what’s going to happen now haha but it’s exciting. It’s not the end of the word for us you know, like if you plan to marry someone forever then it’ll happen later. But I do feel for the wedding companies, and the celebrants, and all those people, yeah it must be really hard for them. So that’s a big change.
I: What are some differences between UHS and your previous school?
Well interestingly, actually boringly I should say haha, I have never taught at any other school. So I started teaching at Uni High in 2011, as a student teacher and then I got a job here and now I never wanted to leave
I: What is your favourite memory at Uni high
That’s a really good question ahh. Yeah, I think that renaissance has been the most fun to do, so working with the team that I work with and developing that program was really rewarding. We got to travel overseas a bit together, to develop the program and share it with people. And that was obviously super fun. But working with all of the students is the best memory every year. I can’t express that enough, how much fun it is working with such amazing people, across every year level and when you guys get to year 12, hopefully, you’ll be able to have a normal valedictory hehe, it’s so special as a teacher seeing people that you’ve known since they were 12 to when they are 18, going onto that stage and finishing high school and watching them go out into the world. I always get so teary every valedictory. Yeah, every memory with students is so special, and developing Renaissance and teaching it has been a favourite.
I: Do you have like a favourite part Renaissance, throughout the year?
Yeah, I love doing the ethics stuff. I really enjoy doing thought experiments, and seeing how young people respond to ethical issues because I think that particularly year 8s, they just have a strong sense of fairness and justice. It hasn’t been squashed by the weight of the world yet. Yeah, I love the ethical problems, and I really like the intercultural capability where students get to talk about their own cultures.
I: What VCE English subject is the most difficult and why?
I think EAL probably. People think that when doing EAL, it’s like the easy version of English but, actually, it’s the same study design as English so you’re doing all the things that native speakers are expected to do and it’s maybe your 2nd or 3rd language. And you do the same texts and you have to analyse so it’s really hard and they have an extra outcome as well so I’m always so impressed and proud of the work that the EAL students do. In terms of the other English subjects, it always depends on the students. They are all difficult depending on what your strengths are.
I: Do you have any tips for those going into VCE English next year?
I think a big one is to acknowledge that things will be hard and that things are hard. But they also get better. So I guess it applies to life and all of school. I remember being in school and just thinking school was the worst and everything was so hard and I felt really down. And those feelings were true, like it was real and I was really stressed and it was really hard, but then things got better and you always have to remember that things will get better and improve, then they will get worse again! And that’s part of life, it will go up and down. (Ms Louie should actually be a motivational speaker omg, we stan) So I think you have to be very kind to yourself during VCE because the system is not that kind to you. Like the work is actually really hard, and the pressure is actually really high but you have to be really nice to yourself and your friends. And study hard!
I: What was your favourite subject in school?
Probably music I’d say. When I was in year 12, I actually dropped all of my maths and sciences, and I did just English subjects, music, sociology and psychology. And I loved sociology and psychology a lot but most of my subjects were music based and I really loved it.
I: Dream job as a kid?
Never, and I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. And even when I finished year 12, I felt awful and I felt a little bit of a failure of a 17-year-old because I still didn’t know what I wanted to do and everyone else had like this really clear dreams. So I just went off to university and I finished my bachelor’s degree and I still didn’t know what I wanted to do. Then I did a couple of other random things before becoming a teacher. And I know that there is a lot of pressure on young people to be like ‘have your dream and your goal and focus on that throughout your studies’. And you feel bad if you don’t have that like I never had that and I’m still a functional adult haha.
Yeah and I think that the pressure is also because some parents also want their kids to have a sense of security, so being able to know what you want to do from an early age is something that they want you to know.
Yeah, I agree and the pressure is huge there because it’s not like ‘know what you want to do’ but I think that in a lot of schools and families, there is a ‘correct’ answer to that. Like ‘know what you want to do as long as it isn’t to become x, y, z,’ or ‘know what you want to do as long as it isn’t a musician’ or something like that. And there’s a huge pressure from families saying ‘provided that you know what you want to do as long as it is to become a doctor, lawyer or engineer’. So I think that you always have to keep your own values close and know that a lot of adults don’t know what they want to be when they grow up either.
I: Favourite musicals/movie?
I’m not a big person for movies, my attention span isn’t good for that, I’m not good at staying still! But musicals I do enjoy EVERYTHING that the school does, I love watching all the students perform all the musicals no matter what it is. But the one I saw most recently that was not school-based was Hamilton. I subscribed to Disney Plus just so I could watch Hamilton. We did that thing where you watch it all at the same time like you’re watching a movie together but you’re not (basically like Netflix party), and so we all watched Hamilton together and yeah, incredible, it lived up to the hype!
Mily: I haven’t watched it yet :(
Ruwan: me neither
Ms Louie tip: You have to watch it while also having wikipedia open reading the history of it.
Homework to everyone from Ms Louie: if you haven’t watched Hamilton, it’s your holiday homework!
I: Do you have any role models? Or did you have any growing up?
I didn’t growing up really, I was a really unimaginative child haha no dream job no role models but now I think I do. I’ve been thinking about this a lot since I read your interview with the other teachers and you’ve asked people that before and I was like: what would I say? I think my role models at the moment are probably actually a couple of colleagues to be honest. So Ms Mizner and Ms Bobeff are two teachers that I really really aspire to be like as teachers but also as adults and as people. Yeah so I think they’re my role models, I think they’re very thoughtful, conscientious and have a lot of integrity and I really like their approach to their work and their approach to their families. So I hope when I grow up I really aspire to be like them!
I: What's a current song or artist you are obsessed with?
I’ve been listening to a lot of classical and jazz since we’ve been in lockdown, so anything by George and Ira Gershwin when they did a lot of musicals as well. I’ve been listening to a lot of their music and have been crushing Mozart lately!
Fun fact: the beat of WAP times perfectly when you’re walking down the street :D
I: What’s your favourite book if you have one?
Yeah I do, I have heaps! So no, I don’t have one. There’s a book called The Age of Innocence which is by an American author called Edith Wharton, I remember I read it for uni and the whole time I was reading it I was like boring boring boring this sucks I hate it why am I doing this? And I got to the final page, the last line of the final page, finished it, closed it and then burst into tears because I was so moved by it. So weird! Yeah, so that’s one. And then my other favourite book is The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster and it’s a kids book. It’s the one book that I would say ‘shaped my personality’ growing up.
I: Do you have any books that you could recommend students to read right now in lockdown?
That’s a good question. I have to admit, I don’t read a lot anymore, but it’s awkward for an English teacher to say though. Because I do so much reading for school like marking and stuff, I feel guilty when I read other books because I feel like if I’m reading, I could be reading an essay, it’s terrible. So no, I don’t have any recommendations sorry!
I: Where are some places you have travelled to before?
Quite a few places actually! So the job I had before I was a teacher was actually a travel agent, which I don’t recommend you do. It’s very stressful and there’s a lot of money involved! But I think my favourite places to go so far have been Italy, I love Italy. I really liked Japan, I think Japan’s culture is really interesting, the food’s amazing, the scenery is beautiful. New Zealand as well is probably a favourite. So I’m half Chinese and half Kiwi, so when I go to China and New Zealand I feel like a very strong kind of like, I guess it’s a bond to the place? My family like hiking, so I do a lot of multi-day hikes with my parents, and we’ve done those in New Zealand, not in China but in Japan as well, so the landscape is really nice. Aaand my other favourite place is Boston! I really love going to America, obviously not now! But yeah, the ice hockey team I follow is the Boston Bruins, so I like going there and watching them play!
I: What is the best advice you could give a student?
I thought about this a lot actually, about what I value. And I think one thing is to remember that not everyone else has what you have, and we have to be really careful about reserving judgement on other people, it breaks my heart when I see someone look at a person who might be homeless at that time in their life and they’re like ‘oh well they’ve obviously done this wrong and that wrong and they’re terrible people’ and you just think, you don’t know what they’ve been through. So I’m really big on making sure that we always reserve judgement and that we have some empathy for what other people have gone through.
The other thing I think is, well this is more of a social skill I guess but I think it’s really important to compliment other people behind their backs, and to spread that good cheer among people in that way. A good example of this might be if you were at a restaurant, and say you have a really nice waiter or waitress, that you say to the manager how much you appreciated that person's work and how great they were. Then that comes back to that person and it just makes other people feel good and it’s not like a weird thing where you’re like the person who’s going ‘oh I loved your service! You’re so amazing!’ like it means a lot to people to know that two other people think they're great rather than just you saying it to them. So I would love if everyone did that for each other, that would be my advice in life, make other people feel great!
I: Scarlett asks: What’s it like being the greatest person that’s ever existed in the world?
Scarlett! I don’t know Scarlett, maybe you should tell us! That’s funny! That was very lovely, but Ruwan’s class were so good (10C3!) I laughed so much, they were amazing! But I can’t answer that question.
I: What’s your favourite subject to teach?
Everything! I would teach anything happily. Well you know what makes the biggest difference? Content is content, whatever - you teach what you teach. It’s the people that make it good. You know how for you guys, you could have a subject that you think they hate but have a lovely teacher and then you’re like ‘oh wait! I love history now’ or whatever. It’s the same for teachers too. I could be teaching a subject that I think I don’t like and then I get there and the community of students is so incredible. And then that becomes my favourite subject. So this year I’m really fortunate - literally all my classes are angels. I adore them. I would do anything for them! So all subjects are my favourite. But if I had to separate one out based on the content, I would say Renaissance - although that’s quite biased obviously.
I: What do you love about hockey?
I love that it’s a great equaliser. So we play mixed teams at my level - men and women, big and small. It doesn't matter how big or small you are, you could still be better than someone if you are faster or more skillful and you get to see how everyone has a role to play. I think team sports are also the place where you learn most about ethics and fairness, so I like all team sports for that reason. I also like ice hockey cause it’s super fast and I get to let out all of my aggression. I also met my husband through ice hockey - just in case he reads this!
I: How do you remember student’s names so quickly?
In terms of how, a good trick to actually remembering people’s names is to actually talk to them about themselves a lot. If I know something about you - like if I just met Ruwan today and I found out that he doesn’t like touching people, I’m always gonna remember: that’s Ruwan and he hates touching people! I think the why would be because I’m just so interested in other people.
I: Who do u tag next?
Ms Thurecht!!
A huge thank you to the one and only Ms Louie! It was incredibly fun to talk and interview you and we wish you all the best of luck for your wedding in the future!!
If you have any questions that you want us to ask Ms Thurecht next, make sure to comment down below!!