Math teacher Chadwick Hamilton will not only depart Lincoln in June, but also the U.S., moving more than 6,000 miles to Hong Kong to teach at an international school.

Hamilton is in the third year of his third stint at Lincoln. He teaches IB Math HL 3-4 and Accelerated Algebra 3-4 along with two classes he created himself, Functions/Stats/Trig and Math Connections. He calls those two classes his greatest accomplishments at Lincoln, though he emphasizes that he could not have done it alone.

Hamilton’s got a style all his own. He interacts closely with students, high-fiving and joking as he explains problems. A distinctive red cap always sits on his head or in his back pocket. When he accidently crossed out a student’s name written on the board, he imitated teenagers of today, quipping, “Savage, that’s low key lit, man.”

He agrees that his style is different from other teachers, especially those he remembers in his childhood. “The best advice someone ever gave me was teach who you are,’” he says. “There’s no separation between the way I teach and the way I go through life.”

“His interactions with students are different” than other teachers, agrees sophomore Bryce Sloan.

“Mr. Hamilton is very mindful of students’ way of learning and their attitudes towards math,” senior Hannah Kwak says. Hamilton shows videos and diagrams for visual learners while providing lists of practice problems for those who understand the concepts well, she says.

“Instead of telling you how to do problems and telling you the answers, he makes you think about it before hand. That’s what made it easier for me to understand such hard concepts such as calculus.”

Math Connections is based heavily on what students want to learn as they apply math to the real world by studying gambling and risk, innovation and an independent project. Functions/Stats/Trig is a more traditional math class that is more project-oriented than test-driven.

The classes remain on next year’s schedule, but with different teachers.

This is Hamilton’s second experience teaching in Asia. He taught for four years at an international school in Seoul, South Korea, which he calls an “incredible experience.” While there, he couldn’t help but notice cultural differences between students in the U.S and Korea.

“My experience with many students in Korea was that they would be doing more hours of homework a night than they would be getting sleep,” he says. “High school was like working full time and then some. They didn’t have a ton of balance.

“The students were highly motivated and super focused, but there is certainly something lost in that exchange,” he says. “What I missed in Korea was a more well-rounded experience in my interaction with students, having relationships with students that are not just about test scores and things like that. I really appreciate that.“

The job in Hong Kong came up spontaneously, and Hamilton jumped on it. Two former colleagues from Korea had taken jobs in Hong Kong, and they mentioned the opening to Hamilton. Two weeks later, he had a job.

“It was kind of a whirlwind,” he says. “Once you teach internationally, [you] have friends and connections all over the world.”

Hamilton will teach AP Statistics at the school there. He expects students to be similar to those in Korea, just with greater ethnic diversity, as Hong Kong is more of a multicultural hub than Seoul.

Hamilton looks forward to the culture and community there. The K-12 school he will teach at has similar enrollment as Lincoln’s 9-12. A smaller school means he can have a deeper connection with students, he says, especially with the school’s annual service learning trip.

He also looks forward to being there with his wife and two kids, ages 3 and 9 months. “I’m really excited to have my kids be able to experience and appreciate another culture, and have my wife and I be able to travel,” he says.

Hamilton says what he’ll miss most about Portland is the people and the food, and when it comes to Lincoln, it’s “most certainly the people. I love the students and staff here. I have a number of people I really look up to as teachers here that I will miss a lot.”

The feeling is mutual. “He’s funny and cares for the learning of students.” says sophomore Simon Chow, Hamilton’s teacher assistant in Algebra 3-4.

“I’ll miss his energy, leadership, jokes, thinking outside the box,” fellow math teacher Ricardo Alonso says. Adam Bander added that Hamilton’s “thoughtful contributions to the ongoing dialogue of math teachers” will be missed.

Hamilton does not rule out coming back to Lincoln if the school is willing. ‘What I hear of the school [in Hong Kong] have been indications that I could be there for a while, but I think that my family and I see ourselves here, eventually,” he says. “There is always a drawback to Portland, and Lincoln in particular.”

The move is a “bittersweet thing,” he says. “It’s really exciting, but it’s hard to leave a community you’re invested in. I feel like Lincoln is home for me.”