It's not clear what your instructor was advising. If you can take off and land in any direction, then what you want to do is do both heading directly into the wind. This avoids the tendency for the wind to move the plane sideways, plus shortens the distance required to land.

However, on most fields, you don't have this flexibility to take of and land in any direction. You must take off and land parallel to the runway. If the wind is coming straight up or down the runway, you're in luck, all you have to worry about is figuring out how fast the plane is going relative to the wind, so you don't stall.

The big learning curve comes when the wind is across the runway. The problem is the wind hits that big old vertical stab. Once the weight of the plane starts to come off the wheels (and sometimes before), it can be hard to do anything to counteract the wind on the vertical stab.

Here are some hints:

1. If the wind is not directly across the runway, say at 45 degrees or something, and folks at your field are OK with it, you may be able to take off and land directly into the wind, that is, at a 45 degree angle to the runway.

2. Shorten your take off. The faster you get off the ground, the better.

3. On take off be very gentle with the rudder stick. Your natural tendency is going to be to over-react. It takes time for the plane to react, and by then, you've gone too far.

4. Think safety! If there are other pilots, make sure you know what the wind is going to try to do to your plane (it's not intuitive, but your plane will turn into the wind), and be ready to throttle back if things go wrong.

5. Land on the grass. The easiest way to land in a cross wind is called "crabbing". The plane is flying parallel to the runway, but the fuse of the plane is pointing into the wind. That's fine when you're in the air, but it puts considerable stress on the landing gear when you touch down. The grass is easier on the plane than asphalt.