In the quaint campus of Henan University, a blonde teacher led the students in describing every tree and bush in English, and this open class became a unique campus landscape.

Famous stories from Grimm's Fairy Tales and Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales were carefully adapted into bilingual plays, with students dressing as the Little Match Girl, Grandma Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood. ......

She took English conversation lessons out to the open and brought scenarios into the classroom. Her distinctive approach to teaching has opened up a window for students to learn English better.

"She is very attentive and insightful, and we love her classes" her students said. Shirley Wood, a 94-year-old professor at the School of Foreign Languages of HENU, has been loved by her students for decades.

She was known for her stern and uncompromising attitude when it came to the crucial moments.

She set strict rules for students' dissertations. From topic selection to writing outlines, each student should have at least four interviews. The dissertation must be more than 20,000 words, stating their original opinions, and no plagiarism was allowed. "If requirements can't be met, one shall not pass. Strict requirements are good for them and would benefit their whole life." Facing Shirley's strict requirements,  students had lost their illusion and were only preoccupied with how to write the paper well.

Born in Arkansas, USA in 1925, Shirley Wood came to China with her Chinese husband in 1946 and started teaching at the HENU in 1953. She was rated as “Advanced Educator in Kaifeng City”in 1989, “Excellent Educator in Henan Province” in 1993, approved by the State Council to enjoy the "Special Allowance from the State Council" in 1993, and awarded the title of "Top 10 Meritorious Foreign Teachers"by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs in 2014. In October 2019, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the State Council and the Central Military Commission awarded her the commemoration medal of "Celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China".

She is always serious about correcting her status as a "foreign teacher": "I'm not a foreign teacher anymore, I'm a Chinese teacher like all the other teachers! It turned out that back in 1975, with the special approval of Premier Zhou Enlai, she was granted Chinese nationality which she had longed for.

She also has a dream about Chinese culture. From time to time, Shirley Wood would return to the United States and enjoy introducing the history, culture, landscapes and social changes of China, giving many westerners a glimpse of the real China. She also published A Street in China in London in 1958, translated and published In a Day of Peace in 1962, and her translation of Bitter Flowers was published in Chinese Literature in 1966. In 1988, she was invited to Beijing by the Marxist-Leninist Compilation and Editing Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to translate part of the draft of the government work report to the 7th National People's Congress. Her works also include Historical Discourse on British and American Literary Criticism and A Course in Practical English Phonetics.

Though her children have settled in the United States, she still remains in Kaifeng, accompanying HENU. She said in authentic Henan tongue: "I will not leave, I will stay here till the end of my life. I would have my ashes scattered in the Yellow River when I passed away."