Focus on Friends: Yuxi Lin

As a student stepping into Yuxi Lin’s sixth or seventh grade English classroom, you know you will be seen, heard, and cared for—not just as a learner but as a young person discovering who you are and who you want to become. 

In her classroom, student voice and agency are not afterthoughts; they are intentionally cultivated as the foundation of the learning experience. Yuxi thoughtfully designs instruction that responds to students’ academic needs while also honoring their social and emotional growth, creating a space where every student feels supported, valued, and empowered. 

A firm believer in teaching through a Diversity Equity and Belonging (DEB) lens, Yuxi ensures that her curriculum is inclusive, relevant, and reflective of the diverse identities and perspectives her students bring. At the same time, she intentionally introduces voices and experiences that may be unfamiliar to them expanding both their understanding and their empathy. During the seventh grade poetry unit, for example, students engage with works by poets such as Ada Limón, Basho, Terrance Hayes, Robert Hayden, Dylan Thomas, and Emily Dickinson. They also explore a range of poetic forms including haiku, sonnet, villanelle, and ghazal and encounter poetry written in multiple languages, including those offered in our Modern Language program. Through this work, students grapple with translation, gaining insight into how meaning can shift across languages and cultures. 

Yuxi’s commitment to a DEB framework also extends to the diverse learning profiles in her classroom. She embraces differentiation as essential to meeting students where they are in their individual learning journeys. Last summer, she collaborated with a fellow Middle School English teacher, to develop a short story unit centered on diverse, accessible texts. As Yuxi explained, their goal was to “deepen students’ understanding of storytelling and help them improve their craft as storytellers,” while also “widen[ing] our students’ knowledge of creation stories and folklores from other cultures and connect with the innate and ancient human longings within them.” In its first year in the sixth grade English curriculum, the unit not only captivated students but also challenged them to grow as readers and writers.

By centering student needs and leading with DEB, Yuxi creates the conditions for meaningful and lasting learning. She equips her students to think critically, ask thoughtful questions, interpret texts deeply, share their voice with confidence, and explore perspectives that differ from their own, resulting in powerful learning moments. In doing so, she fosters a classroom culture where risk taking is encouraged and celebrated! 

It is no surprise that each April, our seventh grade students share their original spoken word poetry in front of the entire Middle School during Meeting for Worship. Powerful moments such as this are a testament to Yuxi’s incredible teaching practice. She consistently sees, hears, and cares for her students, empowering them to step forward and be fully themselves.