Mr noah

Mr Noah Ward

Interview by Oak Muadthong Photos by Arm Muadthong

Hi Mr. Noah! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and where you’re from? I have three kids. I’m happily married to Maria for 10 years now with 2 sons in elementary school and an other just a year old. I’m originally from Texas, but I’ve spent my whole adult life in Asia. I moved over seas right out of university and I’ve lived in Thailand, Hong Kong, and Mongolia for the past 14 years.

How many years have you been teaching in ICS, and how was your transition from teaching middle school to high school? Uh, let’s see. So I had been in ICS from 2005 to 2008, left for a while, and then I came back last year to teach in middle school. I was a high school teacher for 12 years, but transitioning back in was a little nerve-racking at first. Coming back into teaching just in general, there’s that fear of “oh man, will I still connect with students? Will students think differently of me or am I still smart enough to teach high school math, AP and stuff?”

Why did you choose to become a math teacher? I chose to become a math teacher because, right after university, I was living in Boston for a little while doing some work with college students, and I was working with international students at Worcester Poly technic Institute as the Protestant Chaplain. Most of my students were International students. I always wanted to travel internationally but didn’t really have the chance because of money. So, working with all these international students, they all had these stories about how they were impacted through spiritual formation or just through academics because they had really good relationships with

Hi Mr. Noah! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and where you’re from? I have three kids. I’m happily married to Maria for 10 years now with 2 sons in elementary school and another just a year old. I’m originally from Texas, but I’ve spent my whole adult life in Asia. I moved overseas right out of university and I’ve lived in Thailand, Hong Kong, and Mongolia for the past 14 years.

How many years have you been teaching in ICS, and how was your transition from

I chose to become a math teacher because, right after university, I was living in Boston for a little while doing some work with college students, and I was working with international students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute as the Protestant Chaplain. Most of my students were International students. I always

So, working with all these international students, they all had these stories about how they were impacted through spiritual formation or just through academics because they had really good relationships with

their teachers, which I never had. In my school, I knew teachers but I wouldn’t say we had a good relationship. And to hear that was like “wow, I can travel, I can live overseas and make money, and then I can continue to work with young adults and just help to be involved in their life and their formation into adulthood.

Now for one of the most important questions, any thoughts on your mom being your ‘co-worker’? This is actually the second time I worked with my mom. It’s been a weird life because my mom was my fourth grade teacher and so she would stay at school and teach me.

But at the dinner table at night she would say, ‘Oh so tell me how school was today, did you get in trouble?’ And I was like “Are you kidding me? You’re my teacher, you know what happened to me! She would be like, ‘no, I’m a parent right now’ and I was like “LIES!”

So I’ve kinda had that my whole life. When I taught in Hong Kong and my mom came to Hong Kong, that was the first time that she taught with me, and because I was at that school for a while she was known as ‘Mr. Noah’s mom’. But now that I’ve come here where she’s so adored, I’m ‘Ms Debbie’s son! So I would say it’s hard because I feel like students compare me to her, or my mom tells all these stories about me, which she’s always done, but the difference is now I’m here and I faced the same students. So now I feel like students know so much about me that it’s weird sometimes. But I love my mom, she’s amazing, but it definitely is humorous! ‘Cause I don’t know what to expect having a co-worker that knows me so well. It’s so nice to just be so close to family and to be able to share some of those experiences, and the fact that we both get to work with the same students, I think it’s just really really cool and a unique experience.

Lastly, any advice for High school students? I would say use high school as a great opportunity to just discover who you are. I know you’re worried about grades, but I would say use this opportunity for yourself, to try things that you haven’t tried that you might end up liking. When you discover those things it might not be what you do as a career, but you could discover some passions you have. Maybe you’ll find a club or a group of people that get together and play volleyball every Thursday night. You’re finding ways to find enjoyment and different life activities that could become how you develop in a community later, ‘cause to me that’s the hardest thing I think about being an adult is loss of community.