![\"Mai](\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2016\/04\/MaiXiongSecondary.jpg\")
And she has. In fall 2015, Xiong was named the Wisconsin Elementary School Teacher of the Year by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.<\/p>\n
She earned her master\u2019s degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee\u2019s School of Education, and she\u2019s been with Milwaukee Public Schools for 17 years. She\u2019s spent almost all of that time teaching first grade at the Academy of Accelerated Learning on Milwaukee\u2019s south side.<\/p>\n
It is her perfect teaching assignment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I wanted to teach in MPS and I wanted to be in a diverse setting,\u201d Xiong says. \u201cThis is about as diverse as it gets, in terms of student body and teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walking the academy\u2019s halls are children from myriad backgrounds \u00ad\u00ad\u2013 African-American, white, Latino, Hmong, Laotian and from Burma\/Myanmar \u00ad\u00ad\u2013 and they speak a chorus of different languages. Xiong says students, parents and colleagues all work well together. \u201cI\u2019ve always felt very valued at this school,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n
They were all there to help surprise Xiong at a special school assembly in September when the award was announced. \u201cIt was a really hot day and I was nine-months pregnant,\u201d she recalls with a laugh. \u201cThey were just so happy for me. I couldn\u2019t do it without the kids and the staff and what I\u2019ve learned from everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The DPI award announcement noted how Xiong focuses her instruction on the needs of individual children and stresses parent involvement. She\u2019s established a number of family-oriented events such as Pastries for Parents, Muffins with Mom, Donuts with Dad and a Thanksgiving Feast. She\u2019s also the school\u2019s website director and volunteered to be part of a model classroom in the Teacher Effectiveness for All Learners Project.<\/p>\n
With eight children of her own, she also relies on a strong family support system. \u201cI want to give 110 percent in the classroom,\u201d she says, \u201cand my husband and in-laws make it possible to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also credits her 51ÁÔÆæ work on bilingual education and English language learning for helping her with the diverse learners in her classes. \u201cIt was a wonderful experience,\u201d Xiong says. \u201cThe whole focus was on using different strategies to help children whose first language is not English.\u201d<\/p>\n
She liked the action research aspect of the program, too. In her research, she studied whether using a child\u2019s mother tongue to teach concepts helped with his or her learning in English. She found that it did.<\/p>\n
Xiong still speaks Hmong and serves as a Hmong American Peace Academy adviser on its committee for Hmong as a foreign language. She encourages families and children to cherish and keep their own language and culture, though it isn\u2019t always easy, even in her own home. \u201cI talk to my children in Hmong,\u201d she says, \u201cand they ask me to repeat it in English.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her classroom, she tries to use all the tools in her teaching kit. Sometimes, it\u2019s just a matter of more explanation to bridge cultural differences. For example, talking about camping or a trip to Wisconsin Dells can be a foreign concept to children born in another country, or those who have never experienced a vacation.<\/p>\n
But first-graders are at a good age, she adds, and eager to learn.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love to see that twinkle in their eyes when they finally get something they\u2019ve been struggling to understand. I love that I was able to be part of that,\u201d Xiong says. \u201cFrom my own experience, I know what they went through to get there. That excitement is what I love about teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mai Xiong lauds the role that past teachers and 51ÁÔÆæ played on her path to becoming Wisconsin Elementary School Teacher of the Year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":835,"featured_media":32833,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174],"tags":[250],"section":[125,122],"display_categories":[115,116],"related-coverage":[],"uwmnews-feed":[347,148],"class_list":["post-32823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-student-success","section-alumni","section-campus-community","display_categories-top-story-secondary","display_categories-top-story-section","uwmnews-feed-community-engagement-professions","uwmnews-feed-education"],"yoast_head":"\n