Drag to look around, scroll or pinch to zoom. Click the desk, or anything that glows.
Draw on the board
Floor lamp
CandleDaylight
At the desk: click the laptop, the mind map or the phone. Zoom out to return to the room.
Rachel's Learning Design StudioSwitching on the desk lamp…
I design learning that people remember.
I am a student in the Learning, Design, and Technology program at Stanford and a former college and high school English teacher with a strong passion for creating meaningful, engaging, and equitable learning experiences.
With years of classroom teaching experience, I have developed a deep understanding of learners' needs, motivation, and the challenges of effective instruction. I now focus on learning design, hoping to combine my teaching background with design thinking and educational technology to create impactful learning experiences across different settings.
Words shape ideas. Stories shape people. Teachers change worlds.
What I care about
Empathy
Curiosity
Clarity
Connection
Equity
Education
Stanford UniversityM.S. in Learning Design and Technology · expected Jan 2028
University College LondonM.A. in Applied Linguistics · GPA 4.0/4.0 · Distinction
Miami UniversityB.S. in Commerce · GPA 4.0/4.0 · Summa Cum Laude
Teaching & roles
AI Tinkery MentorStanford Accelerator for Learning · 2026 – present
English TeacherHangzhou Xuejun High School · 2022 – 2025
College-level English LecturerWenzhou Business College · 2021 – 2022
Teaching Assistant, Advanced WritingMiami University · 2020
Recognition
Outstanding Educator AwardHangzhou Xuejun High School · 2024
Academic Excellence AwardLanguage, Literatures, and Writing Dept., Miami University · 2020
Things I've built for real learners.
Knowledge EchoesPython · AI-agent-assisted prototyping · teacher dashboardA formative writing-feedback tool that compares a student's new essay with earlier work and recent lesson objectives, then flags "knowledge echoes": the first time a student successfully uses a structure they were taught. Teachers edit, accept, or ignore every suggestion; nothing is graded or sent automatically.Designed to notice growth in lower-proficiency writers
Reading Concentrating Solar PowerLesson design · jigsaw reading · reading circles · Wenzhou Business CollegeA scaffolded reading lesson on a long, technical English text. Students rebuilt the text's structure in a jigsaw, took on strength-based roles in reading circles, and turned their findings into a diagram of how mirrors, steam, and turbines generate electricity.College's best curriculum innovation project of the yearLesson slidesStudent workLesson videoAnother innovation lesson: Unit 8 · Fashion and Design
City-level open reading lessonDesign-based research · Huzhou, ZhejiangOne full DBR cycle: an AI digital human modeled worked examples, jigsaw reading drew out ICAP-Interactive engagement, formative assessment tracked understanding, and a project-based poster closed the unit.Transferable design principles for AI-supported reading
Data-informed writing instructionAI essay scoring · Power BI · Hangzhou Xuejun High SchoolI used AI-assisted scoring on 100+ essays a week to find gaps in syntactic complexity, coherence, and lexical diversity, then taught targeted mini-lessons. A Power BI micro-dashboard tracked quiz accuracy and missing work so I could step in early with students and families.Rubric scores +12% in one month · class ranks 16th → 9th and 13th → 5th
Python vocabulary pipelinePython · urllib · BeautifulSoup · CSVA script that extracts high-frequency vocabulary for pre-class wordlists, plus a lightweight pipeline that gathers public short texts and normalizes their formatting and metadata.Hours of lesson prep automated each week
Real-time engagement with Rain ClassroomLMS analytics · Wenzhou Business CollegeResponse rates, accuracy, and participation time from the LMS told me when to adjust pacing and difficulty during class and whom to meet 1:1 afterwards.Participation +25% · top student-satisfaction score 99.8/100
Mobile-assisted pre-reading vocabularyM.A. dissertation · UCL · mixed methodsAn intervention study of mobile pre-reading tasks and incidental vocabulary learning among Chinese postgraduate students in London, combining usage logs, descriptive statistics, and thematic coding.15,000 words · Grade A
Making Abstract Concepts Interactive with AIAI Tinkery workshop & working group · StanfordA hands-on workshop and peer working group asking which abstract concepts benefit most from interactive, AI-generated representations. It will end in a public prototype and blog post.In progress · Fall 2026
Observation leads to insight.
My process comes from design-based research and from years of watching what actually happens in a classroom. Each lesson or tool goes through the loop, and what I learn feeds the next round.
Listen to learnersRead their work, watch where they get stuck, and look at the engagement data. How will they experience this?
Design backwardStart from the evidence of understanding I want to see, then plan the path to it. Why this? For whom?
Scaffold the thinkingBreak hard material into roles and steps (jigsaw, reading circles, worked examples) so every learner can contribute, then hand the work over.
Prototype with AI and codeBuild the smallest working version: a worksheet, a Python script, an AI-assisted dashboard. The teacher always stays in the loop.
Test in real classroomsUse formative assessment and learning analytics to see what changed, and for whom.
Reflect and generalizeTurn what worked into design principles, then start the next cycle. Test → Learn → Iterate
Principles I design by
Teacher in the loop
Make growth visible
Every learner has a role
Aim for interactive engagement (ICAP)
Equity by design
The shelf I reach for.
Learning science & theory
How People Learn
ICAP framework
Cognitive load theory
Backward design (UbD)
Formative assessment
Zone of proximal development
Retrieval practice
Universal Design for Learning
Design-based research
Design methods & tools
Design thinking
Scaffolding & jigsaw
Rubric design
Articulate 360 Storyline
Camtasia
Canva
Rain Classroom
Technology & data
Python (pandas, NumPy)
SQL
SPSS
Power BI
Excel
Generative AI & agents
Learning analytics
Mathematics
Calculus
Linear algebra
Statistics & data analysis
English & applied linguistics
Second language acquisition
Vocabulary acquisition
Discourse analysis
Academic writing
Bilingualism
Mandarin & English (IELTS 8.0)
GRE Verbal Reasoning 169/170
On the bookshelf
How People Learn II· National Academies
Make It Stick· Brown, Roediger & McDaniel
Understanding by Design· Wiggins & McTighe
Embedded Formative Assessment· Dylan Wiliam
Mind in Society· L. S. Vygotsky
Visible Learning· John Hattie
Design for How People Learn· Julie Dirksen
The Design of Everyday Things· Don Norman
How Languages Are Learned· Lightbown & Spada
Understanding Second Language Acquisition· Lourdes Ortega
Learning Vocabulary in Another Language· I. S. P. Nation
An Introduction to Discourse Analysis· James Paul Gee
Calculus: Early Transcendentals· James Stewart
Introduction to Linear Algebra· Gilbert Strang
Python for Data Analysis· Wes McKinney
The best journeys answer questions that at first seemed impossible.
I'm studying Learning Design and Technology at Stanford and mentoring at the AI Tinkery. I have been a language teacher and also a second-language learner of business, mathematics, and programming, and I want to study how AI can help learners engage with ideas that are unfamiliar in more than one way.
Questions I'm exploring
How can LLM-based analytics help us understand and support engagement in multilingual mathematics classroom discourse?
How can AI increase language learners' engagement, and help them recognize their own progress?
Which abstract concepts benefit most from interactive, AI-generated representations?
Research interests
LLM-based learning analytics
Language & literacy education
Teacher education
Multilingual education
Collaborative learning
AI-supported formative assessment
Game-based learning
Design-based research
Classroom discourse analysis
Packed for the trip
Courage
Curiosity
Commitment
Notes from a career change.
7,046followers
15.9Klikes & saves
4,860likes on one post
On Red Note (Xiaohongshu) I share original posts and short videos about moving from teaching into learning design. I turn firsthand experience into practical tips and visual guides, and I write about teachers' professional growth.
Profile screenshot coming soon
Career transitions
Teacher growth
Visual guides
Short video
Let's build something learners love.
I'm open to collaborations, research roles, internship opportunities, and conversations about AI, language learning, mathematics education, coding, and learning design.