Faculty & Staff Directory

Began at CAIS 2024

Third Grade English Teaching Assistant Lance Tam is a San Francisco native but has lived in places like Hong Kong and Canada for a few years. His hobbies include fencing, watching movies, swimming, and learning new languages (currently trying his hand at French, Russian, and Japanese). 

BEGAN AT CAIS: 2020

Ms. Taylor is a San Francisco based artist and experienced elementary school teacher. Her two greatest passions are education and art. She gets to fuse them together to teach art to young students here at CAIS. Ms. Taylor’s main goal is to create a safe space for each and every student to grow as an artistic life-long learner. When she isn’t teaching, she enjoys water coloring, collaging and making mixed media sculptures. She also loves spending time with her son Forrest and her dog Claude.

BEGAN AT CAIS 1998

Teng Laoshi is our most veteran teacher, having taught at CAIS for 34 years! Her classroom experiences span from preschool through fifth grade, including a decade with the second grade curriculum. Most recently, Teng Laoshi has worked with Wang Laoshi as teaching associate for the fourth grade, incorporating tech tools such as the learning game Kahoot! in Chinese class. A graduate of Taiwan Provincial Taipei Junior College, Teng Laoshi earned the Freeman Foundation Teaching Scholar Award and holds certification as an ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview Tester.

Began at CAIS 2024

Maison Thompson has served as a substitute teacher and member of the Auxiliary Program team at CAIS. He has developed strong communication and adaptability skills in a diverse educational environment. He is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Communication and an Associate’s degree in Education from San Francisco State University and Diablo Valley College, respectively. His goal is to become a full-time teacher and contribute to the education of students from diverse backgrounds.

Christine is the proud mom of two CAIS kids (Caroline and Woods). After spending nearly two decades in tech, she decided that she needed a career change. Since she loves mentoring, learning, and helping others, teaching seemed like a natural fit—she cannot wait to support kids on their educational journey! In her free time, she works on one of her numerous hobbies, including knitting, sewing, cross-stitching, ceramics, and beekeeping (feel free to ask her about any of these!).

BEGAN AT CAIS 2016

Agnes Tong has been working in Early Childhood Development for the last 20 years as a teacher and an assistant director. She is fluent in Chinese and English. She shares, “It is my pleasure to work at CAIS. I heard a lot of great things about CAIS. I am very excited to join the Auxiliary team and to be a part of this community!” Please feel to contact her if you have questions regarding Auxiliary Programs at Alice A. Carnes Campus.

BEGAN AT CAIS 2022

Tsai Laoshi came to CAIS from Avenues: The World School, where she was a head teacher in Kindergarten for the past 8 years. Prior to that, she also worked at the Global Montessori International School (Berkeley, CA) as a head teacher in Chinese sections of the kindergarten through grade five. She has taught Mandarin and English as a Second Language (ESL) at many other educational institutions, including Germantown Friends School (Philadelphia, PA), Lutheran Children and Family Service (Philadelphia, PA) and Russell Byers Charter School (Philadelphia, PA). She also taught English for three years at various schools in Taiwan.

BEGAN AT CAIS 2020

(See also, School Spotlight—Chu Hsi Tseng)

Hailing from Taiwan, 曾竺西 Chu Hsi Tseng has been working in the Early Childhood Education field for almost twenty years. As a second-generation mainlander in Taiwan, a woman with a lesbian identity, and a family member involved in caring for someone with a disability, she grew up with an understanding of multiculturalism and diversity. She has been passionate about bringing DEI to the school setting and providing an inclusive culture that allows all community members to feel respected and valued in the school.

Growth-oriented and well-versed in educational research, she is the embodiment of a life-long learner. She holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the field, with a second master’s degree in STEM Curriculum and Design. She passionately believes in child-centered pedagogy and adopts a play-based, inquiry-driven approach in Chinese immersion early years classrooms. Her research interest centers on Chinese immersion teaching and instruction and on teacher education. She would like to support early years teachers to build “the image of teacher,” someone who has teachers’ agency and is engaged in continual renewal and readjustment informed by reflection, experimentation, and practice. She believes that only when teachers have awareness of the importance of a growth mindset and engage themselves in the learning process will their students see the model and benefit from it.

Outside of the educational sphere, she enjoys spending time outdoors. She has visited 27 national parks in the United States and has been on many backpack trips. Her greatest accomplishment was hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

BEGAN AT CAIS 2020

Ms. Wallace studied Applied Psychology and Human Development within the Lynch School of Education at Boston College before teaching at a charter school in New York City. A mentor teacher and team lead specializing in differentiation and data-driven curriculum design, she also holds a Master’s Degree in Special Education from Hunter College. Ms. Wallace is particularly enjoys deepening her knowledge of Chinese culture and language, and the connections she’s formed with CAIS students and faculty!

BEGAN AT CAIS 2021

Jindan Laoshi is originally from ZheJiang, China. She has been in the US for almost five years and is passionate about education and teaching Chinese language and culture to young learners. Besides teaching, she enjoys hiking, fitness, and playing with her two cats: Teddy and Caroline.