Wade is the Elementary P.E. teacher at St. Paul American School Hanoi. He was born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, where he completed his tertiary education. Wade has been an integral part of the education community in Vietnam since 2015 and brings a wealth of expertise and passion to our school. Originally starting his journey in language centres, Wade’s commitment to teaching and love for language led him to pursue further qualifications. In 2021, he earned his Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE).
As the PE Teacher, he will play a vital role in fostering healthy choices and provide an energy outlet for elementary school students.
Wade is married to his wife, Huong. When he’s not shaping young minds, Wade enjoys listening to music, playing games, and exploring new places.
I think character development in elementary is very important and for P.E. what we do is we focus a lot on teamwork and sportsmanship…
…We’ve got to be physically active, right? It’s important for our health. You need that balance in life because I see with a lot of students they stressed out. They do have this built-up energy that they might not realize and through these movements and physical activities it gives them an outlet.
If there are instances where individual students are struggling with a specific skill or behavior, I’ll first try to work with the student and then if we hit a roadblock, then I’ll reach out to the parent via email and then together we’ll work on strategies that will help the student improve. I had a student in grade 5 who struggled in team activities which would cost him and his team and then he get frustrated. So I pulled him aside. We sat together. We worked on a couple of strategies. We then implemented them. Got a home run and was super happy about that. And that was such a good moment. You could see the joy and excitement in his face…
I think what makes teaching at St. Paul a unique experience is the amount of support that you get as a teacher and as a student. You can see that they really care about the full development of the students over here. They prepare the students to be global citizens and contribute positively to the world once they leave.