Known by many as the boisterous and charismatic Pre-Calculus and AP Calculus teacher, Mr. Kwon is well liked by the high school community. A replacement for the much missed Mrs. Jacus, he has previously taught math and chemistry at a Canadian school in Shenzhen for 3 years, before getting his master’s degree in Hong Kong this year.
Mr. Kwon asserts that he became a math teacher because he genuinely enjoyed math, and “wanted to help struggling students who don’t understand the material.” He also claims, “Compared to teaching chemistry at my old school, which is very abstract at times, precalculus and calculus are more practical and useful.”
In terms of challenges in teaching, Mr. Kwon lists the major challenge as convincing students that they don’t need their calculator. He talks of AP Calc students especially, “Students often make the mistake of thinking that they have the right to use their calculators, thinking that the AP material is hard. In reality, that is not the case; they find it difficult purely because they don’t have a sufficient grasp of the supplemental material that was taught before.” Despite this, he attests that AP Calculus is a difficult class, “It’s a very challenging course that definitely requires a lot of effort.”
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In response to this, Mr. Kwon claims, “There’s always going to be students who don’t really care. But I still try to make my classes interesting by explaining the concepts historically. By adding historical context, I hope to make the course more interesting and the concepts relevant.” Manifestly, he prefers to teach hard working students, “I like teaching students who go the extra mile to grasp the concepts and really