American vs Chinese Math culture & a friendship

I can't take credit for my class being American math class culture, but it's definitely a CPM, problem-based, cooperative learning environment.

No one proved this more than a truly inspirational student I had last year: Cindia Wu. She came from China and had lots of background knowledge and was faced with the task of cooperating in groups with people that didn't speak her native language and deepened her own understanding by trying to explain the best way that she could. She wrote this though provoking learning log that I shared with multiple teachers and wrote me a letter at the conclusion of the school year.