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It was a typical day in Xuemei Li’s Winchester High School Mandarin class — until a party broke out.
Li, who is in her third year at WHS, was teaching as usual when a group of people came through her door armed with flowers and a surprise. Li had been named Massachusetts Foreign Language Teacher of the Year for 2026.
“I was really surprised when they came in because, it’s not often a bunch of people come in with flowers and a certificate,” she said.
You know who wasn’t surprised — Chris Nadeau, director of World Languages for Winchester Public Schools.
“I knew, I think a month before,” he said with a smile.
Li congratulated him for keeping the secret.
How it happened
Li said it was a former co-worker that nominated her for the award. Once she decided to accept the nomination, she had to submit letters of reference, including one from a parent, examples of student work and other materials.
She was surprised, she said, when she became a finalist and a little nervous when interviewed by a panel of six judges.
“It was a process,” she said.
But then nothing happened.
Li said weeks went by and she heard nothing from the committee, so she assumed she did not win — until the day her classroom door opened and the party arrived.
“They really wanted to present it in front of her students to show that she was, is, an accomplished teacher,” Nadeau said.
And the students responded, Li said.
“They cheered for me … this is a lot and I think they are very proud of me,” she said.
Why it happened
When asked what clinched it for Li, Nadeau swept an arm around her classroom.
“It’s not only reference materials but there is so much student work here,” he said. “Xuemei has so many opportunities for the students to engage with the culture and with the language, and they’re both inside the classroom and outside the classroom.”
Li said incorporating Chinese culture into her lessons has always been important. She said it gives the students context with what they’re learning, and it also makes the class more fun.
“To be honest, Mandarin is not an easy language,” she said, with a smile.
But, Li said, if you do it right, it is an accessible language for everyone.
Nadeau said Li has taken her students to Harvard to meet with members of its Chinese department and visited a Chinese immersion school in Cambridge and a martial arts studio in Burlington. She has also introduced her students to Chinese painting and opera. It all bodes well for students taking AP Chinese because their finals include a cultural presentation, though they don’t know what cultural aspect they will be asked about, Li said.
However, if they’re asked about, say, Chinese art, Li said they’re ready because not only have they learned about several well-known Chinese artists, but they’ve also tried their hand at painting as well.
“I think that’s the thing that makes Xuemei such a strong teacher, that everything is connected to an experience that makes it that much more impressionable on students,” Nadeau said. “They’re going to take that away, they’re going to think about that time that they did the Chinese painting and the time that they went to a restaurant and ordered in Chinese.”
Li said she wanted the learning to be more than just memorizing vocabulary words or writing a sentence. And incorporating a little fun into her lesson plan has been easy because Li had designed the course curriculum herself.
“There was no curriculum when she came here,” Nadeau said. “There was a general curriculum that we all follow, but she spent the last few years, writing the curriculum.”
He said watching her develop the program was impressive because she ran with it in a way he’d never seen before. Every day is interactive, rarely quiet and students don’t hesitate to ask questions or speak out in Chinese, he said.
“The kids are very comfortable with you … just the way that she is with students is really something really wonderful,” Nadeau said. “It’s really wonderful to see what they’ve built, we’re very lucky to have her here.”
Having won the state level automatically put Li in the running for the Northeast Conference of Foreign Language teachers, but she said she’s not nervous about that.
“I think I’m fortunate enough to get the teacher of the year for MAFLA,” she said. “I mean, if I can get the next one that will be awesome, but if not, I’m OK … I’ll just keep going and no matter if I get a prize or not, I still like working.”
Chris Stevens is an award-winning journalist who has spent 25 years chasing, editing and photographing stories on the North Shore. She is the co-founder and managing editor of Gotta Know Medford.
