Wayne E. Wright, PhD

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Dear family and friends,

Merry Christmas from San Antonio, Texas, y’all! Here’s a brief update on all of us.

Catherine started Kindergarten this year, finally! She is so happy to be in school. The principal and many of the teachers knew Catherine even before school started, just from being around when we picked up the boys, went to meetings, parent conferences, etc. They realized how smart she was and even suggested she could skip Kindergarten and go straight to 1st grade. But knowing how important Kindergarten is (and knowing it’s now what 1st grade used to be anyways) we decided not to let her skip it. Catherine’s teacher adores her, and was blown away when she realized Catherine could already read and write. Catherine’s behavior chart is full of yellow smiley faces–something we have never seen before with the two boys! Catherine is full of energy and happiness, and loves to play with her brothers, read, and help mommy.

Michael is now in 2nd grade and is doing fine, but he is driving his teacher nuts with his boundless energy, sense of wondement, natural curiosity, and tendendacy to fail to follow instructions. He still loves trains, but now Michael is into conducting experiments and building things with whatever he can get his hands on. We think he’s a budding scientist or engineer.

Jeffrey is now in the 5th grade. He is doing quite well. He has a wonderful (and adventurous) teacher who Jeffrey wanted, and who wanted Jeffrey! She’s tough on him and he responds well. He’s back in the Gifted and Talented program this year (after a forlough at the end of last year), and has been doing well. He continues to receive speech and language and other services as well, and has been making great progress. He is now in 11-year old scouts, and has earned his Scout badge. Jeffrey still loves his video games, but also spends a lot of time reading magazines, the encylopedia, and researching things on the internet.  

Phal this year became a full-time student, taking four classes at San Antonio College. After many years of being a part-time student, having all three kids in school has finally enabled her to go full time. This semester she took speech, writing, math, and managment. It was a tough sememster for Phal, but she made it through. She worked extremely hard on all of her math homework, essays, and speeches. Wayne enjoyed hearing her complain about all her professors. Phal continues to love cooking, and recently she’s picked up Jeffrey’s love for video games. She is always stealing Wayne’s PDA to play Bejeweled, and has a high score even Jeffrey can’t beat. At church, Phal continues to serve in the nursery (ages 18 months to 3 years old), probably beating some world record in terms of the longest anyone has served in that calling without losing their sanity.

Wayne is thoroughly enjoying his work at the University of Texas, San Antonio. He is in his third year as an assistant professor, and soon goes up for the all-important Third-Year Review in January. Many of his colleagues have told him that he may be a candidate for early-tenure and promotion, given his success in the areas of research and publications. Wayne feels fortunate to have many great students and supportive colleagues. Two major honors for Wayne this year were being named the Book Review Editor for the International Multilingual Research Journal, and becoming the founding Editor of the Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement. At church, Wayne received new callings to teach the Valiant 10-11 year-old boys in Primary, and to serve as an Assistant Scoutmaster to the 11-year old Scouts. He is enjoying these callings, particularly as they provide him many opportunities to work closely with Jeffrey and his friends.

We hope all of you are doing well. If you’re ever in San Antonio, please give us a call or drop on by!

Love,

Wayne, Phal, Jeffrey, Michael, and Catherine Wright