Ms. Thu has started teaching Chemistry in Hanoi – Amsterdam High school for the Gifted since 1987, just 2 years after the school’s establishment. She has devoted her entire career for the school. From this endearing place, she has witnessed countless generations of Amsers who become mature and graduate.

With bout 30 years’ experience in teaching, in our viewpoint, Ms. Thu is unsurprisingly considered as an excellent teacher. Although chemistry has always been challenging, her methods of teaching make it much easier to comprehend. For example, the chemicals are usually complemented with practical application, or seemingly tedious lessons are enlivened with analogies of lives of scientists of old to become more interesting and inspirational. In my point of view, as a student major in Chemistry, that is what I think about her methodology of teaching. What about those students who are specialized in other subjects then? Chemistry is often regarded as an extremely challenging subject to everyone, either to students specialized in social studies or those in social science, as there are too many chemical equations and different catalysts to remember. But when I asked students from English, Literature and Physics majors, whose Chemistry lesson taught by Ms. Thu, their answers were not what I had expected at all. The majority thinks that Mr. Thu has done a great job and feels that her way of teaching is immensely effective and compelling. That is easy to comprehend, still, as her sense of humor has been known to make lessons less stressful and even more fascinating.

Ms Thu (in white jacket) in the picnic with grade 10 .

Ms Thu (in the middle) with class 11 Chemistry 1.

Not only does she excel at being a Chemistry teacher, Mrs. Thu is also an incredible form teacher. Unlike many who are strongly against students having relationships at such a tender age, she is rather relaxed and comfortable about this sensitive topic. She allows us to freely express our feelings to each other, on the condition that this action must not in any way interfere in our studies. She once said that: “High school is the most amazing and passionate time in your life, so why do you have to be so hesitant in trying out the bitter sweetness that this valuable period has to offer?” She also encourages boys in my class to seek for their potential girlfriends in Social classes due to the fact that there are few girls in my class. I feel very lucky to be in my class for this particular reason, as she never lets we girls do any class chores like cleaning the class or doing class duties. She has always taken care of the girls in the class like how she takes care of her own children, it seems. In my opinion, and I know the other girls while have to agree with me in this regard, not only does Mrs. Thu help us to prepare ourselves for the world afterwards, she also plays a significant role in teaching us the desirable manners and etiquettes necessary as girls.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu ( in light green jacket) with class 11 Chemistry 1 visited the Tan BinhPharmacetical Company

When asked about her most memorable event during the 30 years as a teacher, Ms. Thu told me about two of her students of class 1996-1999. They are now having a happy married life. “They have had feelings for each other since secondary school and they have been maintaining a loving and stable relationship all these years”, she said. Both of them acquired great academic achievements and excelled at many areas as outstanding students of the class. In short, Ms. Thu is proud to have supported such a lovely married couple. That is surely an interesting and delightful memory. She also told me that she always wanted to spend hours talking to her former students about the time they had had together and listened to their stories of success and happiness.

As Women’s Day 20/10 and Teacher’s Day 20/11 are coming soon, I, on behalf of the class, want to express my sincere gratitude towards Mrs. Thu – the person who has been and will be leading and helping us to achieve our goals and dreams in the significant 3 years of high school. Although there were times which we were late for school, did not comply with the school uniform or did not study as hard as we should have, I truly hope that she would forgive our mistakes. Last but not least, I would like to wish her all the best of health and happiness as a mother, the woman of the family and also as a teacher. I strongly believe that she will continue to inspire and contribute to the raising and educating of many generations to come.

Author:  Phuong Linh 11 Chemistry 1 13-16

Translator: Anh Duong 11 English 1 14-17