Expanding Boundaries: The lunchroom policy that only allows seniors to leave for lunch is unfair and makes lunch overwhelming By Addy Newman Mar 13, 2025
Chasing Opportunities: Girls soccer players are shifting towards joining Super Cup teams provided by ECNL clubs instead of playing high school soccer By Addy Newman Feb 12, 2025
K for LIFE: A group of seniors attending since they were in elementary school maneuver their final year before college at KLIFE and have grown their friendship since By Addy Newman Nov 17, 2024
CAA Buddies: Juniors Paige Stanfield and Rachel Davis attend the Center for Academic Achievement together for the medical science program By Addy Newman Oct 21, 2024
Setting Records: Varsity cross country and track runner, sophomore Charlotte Hardy is East’s top runner at the moment By Addy Newman Oct 18, 2024
Level 10 at Grade 10: Level 10 gymnast, Sophomore Bella Drier, has competed in gymnastics her entire life and strives to compete on the college level By Addy Newman Oct 7, 2024
Soccer Over Everything: Four travel soccer players make the sacrifice of missing homecoming for their sport and balance the struggles of keeping up with schoolwork By Addy Newman Sep 23, 2024
Senior Takeover: The Shawnee Mission East boys varsity soccer team rostered 20 seniors for the 2024 season By Addy Newman Sep 18, 2024
![Every day during lunch, Hau-In Lau sits in her room, working on her laptop while snacking on fruits.
For Lau, the 25 minutes of lunch time are both a planning period and a second seminar to help her English Language Learner students. Teaching seven different courses across SM East and Indian Hills Middle School, it’s critical for Lau to be in her classroom during lunch, working while helping students.
Lau’s planning class and eating a banana when ELL 3 student and junior Hanifa Gul Mohammad walks in.
“I have crepes. It’s from France,” Gul Mohammad said.
“From what class?”
“International foods class.”
“See, that’s my lunch, you know, so I don’t worry,” Lau said. “Sometimes I get lunch from my students. So I say, ‘Go sign up for food’s class’ [laughs].”
Lau is the only Chinese and ELL teacher — having founded both programs in her 16 years at East. After two decades of providing critical opportunities to students in SMSD, she’ll retire in the spring.
“I love teaching,” Lau said. “My ELL students and Chinese students have been wonderful, but I’m only one small person. I feel my health is failing, my vision is getting worse… I just feel like maybe I don’t want to wait until I’m blind or get any health problems.”
To read more of this story, click the link in bio.
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