Math teacher Jim Lau has been teaching at Sage Hill since 2021. Teaching both Calculus C year-round and Geometry during the summer, Lau is well-known in the community for his dynamic teaching style and his eagerness to substitute for other math teachers. Students searching for additional math assistance or just to engage in friendly conversation can find Lau in his classroom during lunches, X Blocks, or late after school.
“My students are my top priority. When they ask, I’m always there for them,” Lau said.
He prioritizes the lifelong skills gained from the process of learning over the raw memorization of the concept. He calls these skills “transferable thinking,” which is the ability to apply the same knowledge to different contexts. He also emphasizes notetaking skills and encourages students to “annotate the storyline of the content.”
The reason behind this dedication stems from his experiences before he became a teacher. Lau originally pursued a singing career in Hong Kong when he was 17 and 18 years old. He would be recommended by managers to do certain gigs around the city. Although his career was cut short after running out of supporting funds, the experience taught Lau a lesson about humility and hope that he would later apply in his life.
“I didn’t know how to feel for other people and sang because I thought everything was about myself since I was so talented. It wasn’t until I was invited to sing for cancer patients and they told me that I gave them hope, I realized that it wasn’t exactly me that they liked. It was the hope I represented. I was, however, very arrogant and at the time didn’t manage to carry the message of hope with me,” Lau said.
After running out of funds to further pursue singing, Lau turned to teaching math. When he moved to California and started teaching at Crossroads School, he started to change because of a mentor. They granted him immunity to make mistakes and experiment with creative, musical, and theatrical methods to teach math.
“That, to me, was hope. I didn’t fear that I didn’t do it well. And at that point I went ‘oh, that right here is my technique!’ It’s to not just carry hope, but also grace,” Lau said.
Lau strives to achieve this in his own classroom by pushing students to strive for what they previously thought they could not achieve. He believes hope, combined with grace for mistakes, helps build the student’s trust in themselves, ultimately building lifelong confidence.
“With those three things, success can be achieved. It’s why I put authenticity and skill over raw academics,” said Lau.
