Happy Chinese New Year!

Year of the Ox. In a recent radio talk show, the hosts discuss the various stereotypes that are related to Chinese-Americans. I identified with the theme greatly. Chinese people definitely value different traits compared to the American people. Our humility or propriety (desirable traits in the Chinese culture) can be viewed as shyness or weakness (traits viewed as undesirable in the U.S.). I think as more Asians assimilate into the American culture, such misunderstanding will fade. Please check out this article on Asian stereotypes - the new generation is speaking up! Good piece, Rebecca.

Yes We Can!

Congratulations to President Obama on his new position. I want to trust that he will lead us to a brighter future. Just like other fields, public education needs a lot of help. In an ideal situation, we would have better funding to support smaller class sizes and better teacher/classroom support. Of course, with the current economy, these changes will take time. I'm excited to see if education will go higher on the new government's list of priorities. These are the changes that I hope we can believe.

Less Is Not More

This just in: the Governor of California proposes 5 fewer school days. Compared with other academically high performing countries, our students already spend fewer weeks in the classrooms. Shorter summers and more weeks in the classrooms may be contributing factors for students in India or China to be more advanced in the sciences and math. Though the task at hand is overwhelming each day, I strive to maximize the time I have with my students each year. As of this writing, I have not yet taken a sick leave. I also read that LAUSD may lay off many teachers; new teachers without tenure are especially vulnerable. My first year of teaching was most challenging, I wish these new teachers the best and hope that they can survive these difficult times and continue to educate the next generation.

These logos are used to engage my students - I do not profit from these designs.

Enjoy the Process

A year ago, my buddy Sunny and I entered the Firecracker 10K in Chinatown, Los Angeles. We're doing it again this year, along with another buddy Cong. It's a challenging course, the first mile is uphill. (Sunny swears that the 5th mile is also an uphill). This will be my first race of 2009 and I am so focus on my race day performance that I'm forgetting to enjoy my training. I'm really not unlike my students who are only concerned with the grade and often neglect the importance of the learning process. I think we ought to work on developing a culture for learners in which the focus is on the learning and not the letter-grade.