James Lee

Wenrui Cai

Current Teacher at Dipont School of Arts and Sciences; Columbia University and Penn State Alumni

About Me

Hello and welcome to my Website! Here I share my personal information about my passions, goals, and, in general, about my life. I was born and raised in Milan, Italy in a Mandarin-speaking family.

After high school, I embarked my journey in United States, where I completed my undergraduate degree in Mathematics at the Pennsylvania State University and my Master's degree at Teachers College, Columbia University. Over the course of six years, during which I had an englightening research experience at University of Auckland (New Zealand) and taught recitation and tutoring classes both universities, I became passionated about Math Education. My first teaching experience at a school was at a Title I school named New Visions Charter High School for the Humanities, in the Bronx, New York. Here, I shaped my views on inclusive teaching. Over the next course of few years, I look forward to further define my teaching style and reach out to as many students in need as possible.

I am on a mission to discover myself and the world, meet people, share my experience and culture. I chose to come to China to find my roots and redefine myself in the culture I my family belongs to. I enjoy having deep and thoughtful conversation with like-minded people, traveling and learning languages, so I am hopeful this experience in China will further enrich my cultural background.

Work Experience

Mathematics Teacher- Dipont School of Arts and Sciences (Aug 2022 - Present)

Currently, I moved to Wuxi to teach at DSAS. Here I am mostly a 10th grade teacher in charge of the IGCSE 0580 curriculum. I am happy to learn everyday from all my colleagues and from the students as well, and I look forward to continue growing my teaching career!

Mathematics Teacher- New Visions Charter School for the Humanities (Aug 2021 - July 2022)

I was the Algebra II teacher at New Visions Humanities, and I very much enjoyed teaching there. I connected with many students and teachers, and most importantly, I first got a start on how to create my own curriculum and craft my teaching style.

Math Tutor Peer Coordinator- Penn State Learning (Jan 2018 - May 2019)

I was a Peer Coordinator for Penn State Learning, a position that I enjoy at my fullest. I interview new candidates, guide new tutors, and constantly give feedback to the current tutors on how to improve their tutoring skills. In addition, I also lead a team of 10 tutors to create math review packets executed on LaTex which are approved by the math department. Ever since January of this year, Penn State Learning has become my new "home": my passion for leadership along with my love for helping people, has been motivated me to commit myself entirely to this position.

Math Tutor- Penn State Learning (Jan 2016 - Present)

At Penn State, I tutored students in all levels of maths, from algebra to advanced calculus and statistics. I enjoy tutoring one-o-one better, but often, I assist groups working on the same topics and give review sessions to up to 200 students. What do I like about tutoring? The connection I make with the students, where math is our language in common. I also enjoy meeting many other tutors who I share in common the passion toward this subject, from which I learn different skills on a daily basis.

Personal Projects

In this section, I will put some other interests of mine. Hopefully, by sharing them, someone will find them interesting or even helpful!

Learning Japanese

Aiming for level N3 (third highest)

Learning Korean

Aiming for conversational level

How I taught myself a new language

One thing I found myself pretty experienced with, is the process of learning a language (Japanese) from zero, and since I was proud of my results, I wrote a manual! Now, are you interested in or currently learning a language? Are you struggling with improving your language skills because you do not have enough time or can’t find the right resources (maybe you think they are too expensive)? Are you looking for motivation to keep learning your target language? If your answer is yes to at least one of these questions, then take a look at this manual.

Check it out