This year, we have a new teacher joining our big family – Thomas Lapiccirella. He is from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He has stayed in China for three and a half years, and before coming to LWBC, he taught in the suburbs. He has a dog named PangPang, a very lovely dog. During the interview, when I asked him why he decided to teach in the Luwan BC program he answered, “The multicultural aspect of Shanghai is what attracts me. There is a variety of food and sports that I can try. I also think that LWBC is an amazing school.” This shows that Mr. Lapiccirella is someone who likes to try new things and he is full of enthusiasm. He also talks about his struggle of not being able to resist delicious but unhealthy food. “Usually, this kind of food looks really good and it smells really good, so I cannot control myself to stop buying them. I have tried so many times not buy them, but I never succeed in doing this.” “I love to laugh and I think the most important thing is if I find my own joke being funny, then others’ opinions are not so important.” I think Mr. Lapiccirella has a really positive attitude towards life.
In addition, he loves playing the guitar. Now, he is one of the teachers in the music club at school as well. “I really like this job, and I believe that I will not leave this job anytime soon. Students here are supportive and hard-working. I also love to work with the teachers here.” Mr. Lapiccirella really likes his job and enjoys the challenge of being able to teach different lessons every day. In his old school, he would teach the same course in Semester 1 while teaching another set of courses in Semester 2. As a teacher, he always feels proud of himself and rewarding for watching the students that he taught in Grade 10 graduate and attend universities. In LWBC, he expects all of the students to work as hard as they can, but at the same time, he expects them to take care of themselves and maintain a good work-life balance. “They need to study, socialize, do exercise, eat food and others. They need to find a method to balance themselves and grow as well-rounded individuals.” During the interview, Mr. Lapiccirella made several jokes as well and he was really humorous! I believe that in the future, Mr. Lapiccirella will continue to do his best at school, and will contribute a lot to make this school better!