Introducing Stuyvesant’s New (and Returning) Teachers

PATRICK HONNER (GEOMETRY, PRE-CALCULUS, CALCULUS)

By Raymond Wu

Born and raised in Michigan, math teacher Patrick Honner moved to New York City as a young adult to pursue a career in technology. Because of both his knack for computer programming ever since a young age and his love for math, he thought a technological profession would be both enjoyable and practical. However, Honner was not satisfied with this career and pursed teaching math instead.

“I’ve always loved math, and I’ve always felt like I had a knack for explaining things, so in many ways, whatever I did in my career, I felt I was always doing some teaching,” he explained. “In addition to really loving math and enjoying talking about math, I really [enjoy] working with young people.”

Honner has been teaching math for 16 years, 12 of which were spent at Brooklyn Technical High School. This year marks his first at Stuyvesant. “In my teaching career I’ve been very lucky to work with some of the very best people around: teachers, leaders, and students. When the opportunity to come to Stuyvesant presented itself, it seemed like a natural step for me to continue working with the very best teachers, leaders, and students,” he said.

As the school year progresses, Honner hopes that his students will engage with math in new, meaningful, and enjoyable ways. He aims to accomplish this through incorporating writing, photography, and art into his math teaching. Honner himself enjoys photographing and writing about math: he blogs at mrhonner.com, where he posts photographs of his visual mathematical experiences; writes for The New York Times; and even has a column for Quantum Magazine, where he aims to connect “ideas at the frontiers of mathematical and computer science research to math and computer science that [teachers, students, and life-long learners] may know from school or that remember from their own education,” he explained. Very recently, he also co-authored the Barron’s 2019 Specialized High School Admissions Test prep book.

Though it has only been a few weeks since school started, Honner “can already tell [Stuyvesant] is a special place [and] a great school,” he said. “I’ve been teaching for a long time, but I’m new here, and this is a new place that has its own identity, and I want to find my own place here.”

HAN LING (MANDARIN)

By Raymond Wu

Mandarin teacher Han Ling knew he wanted to be a teacher ever since graduating from college. His first job as an educator was teaching Chinese college students and adults how to speak English. Later, he taught Mandarin to English-speaking students.

Ling grew up and attended school in Chengdu, China. In school, he especially loved his English teacher. “We did a lot of fun stuff in class. We watched American movies [and] listened to western music [because] we learn English from those materials,” he said.

Ling’s love for languages led him to take French classes for one year as an adult. He chose to learn French because of his love for fashion, photography, art, and museums, all of which are heavily French-inspired. Ling pursued his interest in photography with street photography, capturing candid shots of the bustling city life. More recently, he has been doing portrait work, both inside and outside the studio.

He moved to New York City in 2012 to attend graduate school at New York University. It was there that he first heard about Stuyvesant: “The first roommate I got after I moved here graduated from Stuyvesant, and since then, I knew Stuyvesant was one of the best schools in New York City [and] even in the country. Then I met more people from this school, and I heard that the students work real hard, study real hard, and that made me feel that this is the school that I want to be at,” he recounted.

ANDREW WILLE (ALGEBRA II AND AP CALCULUS AB)

By Christine Chang

Math teacher Andrew Wille's first teaching job was in college as a classroom assistant for an elementary school in Chicago. "I did it just so I could make a few extra bucks in school," he said. It was through that job that Wille found he enjoyed being in a classroom and interacting with students.

Wille left college with the aspiration to live in a different country. “I wanted to expand my experiences and one of the most pragmatic ways of doing that was to immerse myself in a different way of life with different people, a different language, and a different culture,” he said. When he looked into ways to accomplish this, Wille found that "teaching English was a really good opportunity to live abroad,” he said. He, therefore, taught English in Paris for one year.

However, teaching mathematics is Wille’s true passion. "I believe math is a creative subject," he said. He elaborated that the fundamentals of math are due to the creativity of those who discovered them. Wille became a math teacher at Brooklyn Technical High School, eventually becoming the school’s mathematics department coordinator, before coming to Stuyvesant.

Wille is overall impressed by Stuyvesant, and is in particular impressed by the students. "The students do things because they want to do it, not just to get the hours," he said. He commends the different programs and organizations, marveling at the diversity of the clubs and the passion of the students who take part.

"I'm staying," he said with a smile. "It's my first day, but I do love it here."

ULUGBEK AKHMEDOV (PHYSICS)

By Suah Chung

Returning physics teacher Ulugbek Akhmedov was constantly exposed to physics during his childhood in Uzbekistan. His father, a physics teacher, and science teachers in high school encouraged Akhmedov to pursue physics as his major in the Tashkent University of Uzbekistan.

Akhmedov’s passion for physics expanded and deepened while in university. “My favorite topic in physics is electricity, because you can see what’s going on right away, and it takes less time to set up,” he said. “I also think light and optics are interesting, because you study the reflections, refraction lenses, and mirrors.”

In his specialized high school in Uzbekistan, Akhmedov also loved his chemistry class. He liked “the dangerous experiments involving fumes” and recalled a great experience with his teacher. “My teacher also taught more advanced chemistry after school in a club,” he said. His teacher’s passion for learning and teaching inspired Akhmedov’s decision to become a teacher.

After graduating college, he taught at a few different high schools before coming to Stuyvesant. Here, Akhmedov finds the “quiet pause from students after they understand something [he] explained” most rewarding. Akhmedov greatly values the hard work that everybody puts in to create these moments.

Outside of his interest in science, Akhmedov is learning to draw portraits and paint.

LOK MAN (CECILIA) YANG (GUIDANCE)

By Rachel Ok

Ever since she was in high school, guidance counselor Cecilia Yang wanted to be a teacher. After graduating high-school, she had to decide between majoring in counseling or teaching. Her mom encouraged her to choose teaching, so Yang became a math teacher at Bayside High School and, afterwards, Francis Lewis High School.

However, she was not satisfied with the job. “After seven years of teaching, I started to get tired of it,” she said. Seeking a job with more one-on-one interaction with students, Yang returned to college to receive a degree in school counseling. Her first counseling job was at Lower East Side Prep High School. Although working there meant a longer commute, she was motivated to “get [her] foot into the field,” she said.

Stuyvesant is the second school Yang has counseled at. In contrast to her previous 100 student caseload, Stuyvesant presented a huge caseload for her. At the same time, “I love working with big schools because I want to [help] more students,” she said.

Only less than a day of working with the students, Yang is already impressed. “All the students here are so self-motivated,” she said with a smile. “They’re always trying to reach their highest potential.”

Yang also wants to learn from the students, specifically about the high-school lifestyle and the college admissions process. “It’s a two-way street,” she described. By doing more research into student resources, Yang aims to better equip herself in order to be more resourceful to her students.

Looking forward, Yang described programs she wants to implement for her students to better help them. “I want to create mini-groups for my caseload based on different needs [such as] personal growth [and] emotional needs,” she explained. By creating these groups, she hopes to counsel students in a more personalized manner. She expressed excitement for the new school year and the students she will be counseling: “[I want to] get to know them as much as possible,” she said.

When she is not counseling students, Yang plays piano with her five and six year old children and explores the city.

SOO BIN (RAYLEEN) LEE (GEOMETRY AND ALGEBRA 2)

By Aflaha Fateha

Math teacher Rayleen Lee has always had a passion for mathematics and teaching. She spent a lot of time in college teaching all grade levels from kindergarten through 12th grade. Before deciding to pursue education as a career, though, Lee worked many other math-related jobs.

Lee’s first job while in college was at a textbook company in Korea, where she took American math textbooks, translated them to Korean, and figured out how to implement them in Korean classrooms. However, Lee’s experience with this job led to her realization that she wanted to work alongside students. This experience led Lee to switch to a math major at her alma mater, New York University (NYU).

At NYU, Lee met Stuyvesant students, including members of the debate team. From merely observing how these students interacted with each other, Lee realized that Stuyvesant was an environment she would enjoy working in.

Although it has not been long since her first day here, Lee has already discovered that both her fellow staff members and students exceed her expectations. One of her favorite things about the staff at Stuyvesant is how knowledgeable and passionate they are about the subjects they teach. “It’s not something that you really see at other schools. Although all teachers know how to teach, a lot of the time I can’t tell if they know a lot about the subjects they teach,” Lee explained. Lee hopes that one day, she, too, will reach this level. The faculty has also been extremely helpful and friendly towards Lee, taking her in with open arms and showing her the ins and outs of teaching at Stuyvesant, including even the small details such as how to check her mailbox and take attendance.

Her students, too, are passionate and dedicated to learning. Lee considers this to be extremely valuable to education and does not think she would see students like this anywhere else.

Lee’s biggest goal is to make sure her students understand the concepts she is teaching. She hopes that her freshmen not only exceed at geometry but also feel comfortable in their first math class at Stuyvesant. As for her sophomores, Lee hopes to challenge them but is confident that “They’ll do fine; they’re very smart kids and already know everything about class at Stuy[vesant]. I’m confident in them.”

REBECA MOREL WERNHAM (PHYSICAL EDUCATION)

By Veronika Kowalski

A New York City native, Physical Education (PE) teacher Rebeca Morel Wernham was born and raised in the Lower East Side. As the youngest of five in a Dominican family, Morel’s life has always been full of joy and laughter.

Morel designed her own major at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts that included sports, science, and chemistry. Though her initial intention was to become a surgeon or a sports doctor for a professional team, she fell in love with PE when she was exposed to it as part of her self-designed major.

“I fell in love with coaching, teaching, mentoring,” Morel reminisced. “At one point, I did go back and did a [post-baccalaureate] and stopped coaching for a little bit for a while, but when I was doing my [post-baccalaureate], I realized that I didn't want to pursue [medical] school anymore.”

After 15 years teaching at the Grand Street Campus in Brooklyn, Morel developed emotional ties to her students. Some former students eventually worked alongside her. “It got to the point where my former students became my colleagues, both in the classroom and out, working as dean, and as secretaries.” She looks forward to connecting with her students at Stuyvesant as well.

To keep her students engaged, Morel shares music and games in the gymnasium. Her favorite genres to play on Spotify are Hot Rhythmic and Soul Coffee—spin-offs of hip-hop and jazz. She also brings back games that her students used to play as children, such as tag. “I like the silliness. There has to be an element of silliness. There has to be an element of being able to laugh at yourself,” she affirmed.

In addition to being a music lover, Morel is a sneaker aficionado. Right now, her favorite sneaker brand is Nike Air Max Ones.

Morel currently lives in the Bronx with her husband of three years and her son of eighteen months.

CARRIE CHU (MATH DEPARTMENT)

By Matylda Urbaniak

While most people dream of travel far away, math teacher Carrie Chu has already taught on three continents. Like most teenagers, she entered college unsure about what she wanted to pursue. So, she did the only rational thing; instead of starting school at Williams College immediately, she took a gap semester in Madaba, Kenya. She spent half a year teaching English to fourth graders in a village without water and electricity, and had many life-changing experiences. “I was arrested and held in custody for some time because I was mistaken for a Chinese spy,” she recalled in an e-mail interview.

Since then, Chu has taught in a variety of environments, many of them not unlike Stuyvesant. Her first job after college was at King’s Academy, a boarding school in Jordan. “What drew me to this school versus the many others was the commitment to diversity of all sorts—socioeconomic, racial, ethnic etc.,” she said. Despite her degree in math, Chu found herself diversifying the subjects she taught at this school. For example, Chu taught beginner Chinese classes in addition to the standard math classes.

As she took time off to travel through Berlin and Taiwan, Chu found herself drawn back to teaching, and after deciding to move back to public school teaching, Stuyvesant seemed like the perfect place. “I was particularly drawn to Stuyvesant because of the student body —hardworking, multilingual, diverse—reflecting the immigrant roots of our country,” she wrote in an e-mail interview. As a math teacher, she will be able to share what she loves with her students here. “I am excited to explore the creativity and beauty of math and learning with my students. I had so many wonderful math teachers who instilled in me their love of math and opened up math as a language and art form. I want to share that with my students,” she explained.

In the meantime, Chu is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Teaching Chinese in order to delve back into her roots, and find ways to integrate techniques for teaching language into teaching math. However, she also finds downtime throughout the year. “[I] have fun playing board games with my fellow teacher friends—of course after completion of homework,” she remarked.

KAREN LEO (ART APPRECIATION)

By Claire Tempelman

Karen Leo, Stuyvesant’s newest art teacher, has been in the art industry ever since graduating from college. A LaGuardia High School alumna, Leo has worked as an illustrator, studio assistant, gallery guide, and short film creator. She only got involved in education five years ago, when she served as an assistant to an art teacher at her child’s school. Her positive experience there inspired her to pursue education, and she has been teaching ever since.

Leo, who is currently teaching Art Appreciation, relates to her new freshman students: “They seem a little overwhelmed, and I tell them, I know how they feel,” she said.

Leo is very passionate about the role of the arts in a student’s education, even in a school that is predominantly STEM-oriented. “Arts are a great place for students to think creatively, whether or not they’re interested in the arts. The lessons you learn in creative thinking can be carried out in other disciplines.” Leo also also works to dispel the popular notion that some students are simply unable to create art. “You don’t have to have talent. Talent’s great! But it’s about effort, taking risks, and being creative,” she said.