Written by Kristen Yee

The red window-flower decorated walls of the Chinese classroom will be a little more bare when part-time Chinese teacher Jessy (Xiaojie) Li leaves Gunn next year.

She especially cherishes her relationships with her col- leagues and students during her brief time at Gunn. “[My colleagues] have been so nice and supportive whenever I have any needs or when I was new here and they helped me to blend into the new environment,” she said. “I think I have a lot of good memories with my students because they’re cute and curious and inquisitive and they care so much about Chinese learning and for many times I have been amazed, you know, surprised to see how well they do from the work they turn in.”

After ending her second year of teaching at Gunn this year, Li will be leaving due to a decline in enrollment of Chinese classes and her pregnancy. “I will have too many things to handle next year,” she said. “ [It will] be impossible to handle too much work next year.”

Li will, however, continue teaching Chinese classes part-time at Los Altos High School. “In this year I’m al- ready teaching part-time at another school, I am [currently] teaching two part-times so next year, because in the other school they still have Chinese classes for me to teach, so I will still teach in the other school but here because [there are] no more extra Chinese sessions I cannot teach anymore here,” she said.

As she moves on to another chapter in her life, Li will carry all these memories with her. “There are a lot of wonderful memories [at Gunn] and I really enjoyed working at Gunn for the past two years,” she said.