Badminton Photo Shoot

A player said to me today, "Thanks, Mr. Yip." I asked her why. She said that she has never taken badminton photos before. I thought I had dropped the ball last year for not getting a photographer to come. This year, I used Ms. De Leon's husband Todd. He was great with the kids. It was a distraction to practice, but I felt that it's something fun for the kids to have. In essence, a nice team bonding experience.

Saturday Surprise

Briana is one of the regulars in my Saturday morning CAHSEE class. We always got along. I tease her on her bad grades and she has a good sense of humor about it. She once told me that over a four-day-week of school, she ditched her sixth period Geometry twice, slept through it once, and walked out of the class half way through on the only other day. She's way behind in credits.

A couple weeks ago, she came late. She made cream puffs for the class. It was delicious. She told me that she wants to be a baker.

So Spoiled

I know I'm spoiled when I have received more cakes that I can possibly eat for a week, and that more than half of them were home-made. Each one is special to me. While my students and coworkers are great. I am constantly reminded that my family and friends will always be there for me. I enjoyed a sushi buffet with my family last week. This weekend, I had one of the nicest meals that I've ever had with my closest friends at Mastro's in Beverly Hills. It is, honestly, so fancy that I feel guilty for my friends paying.

Without my family and friends, I wouldn't be the "Mr. Yip" that I strive to be. I appreciate my family and friends. They, above all, inspire me to be my best in the classroom each day.

(This beautiful and delicious cake is from two of my best friends, Cong and his wife Kitty. Incidentally, Kitty shares a birthday with me, but she is much younger.)

My 5th Period

I've been blessed with a great fifth period this year. I thank Mr. Dolter again for playing along with the kids. He called me to his room for a quick chat while the kids set up after lunch. My TA Maria, former student Marilynn, and the Twins Maria and Paula made this cake. They surprised me upon my return with this:

They cooked, from scratch, a traditional Mexican meal for me. Later, they told me that they thought about cooking a Chinese meal. That would have been interesting.

No joke - the horchata I had today, also made from scratch, was the best ever.

Paula and Maria showed their leadership skills. I joked with my colleagues that if my students show as much effort in solving equations as they do in partying, we'd be kicking ass in math.

One of my favorites - a giant size avatar of my bald head. I'll find space on my wall to display this.

Another pair of girls made me this cake. One of the girls just recently transferred to my class from Covina. The other was a former student who now collects attendance from me each day. I'm in disbelieve that they would make me a cake.

Elida made me a neat bracelet. We didn't sell many of these at Sadies. But I must admit, having several hundred students sing "Happy Birthday" to me tonight was pretty awesome. It'll go down as one of the highlights in my GHS days. I really appreciate all that I have.

AP Stats Showing Love

Got some love from the AP Stats class. They made some tasty grub. I also appreciate the card they wrote for me. (I'm still laughing over the fact that everyone signed on the card, except for Jocelyn, who wrote on a post-it note and stapled it over her brother's message.) It's a fantastic group of (often) mature kids. With the help of Flappy, I'm sure, Valerie made us this delicious number for "Mr. Up". (Oh, no. Even I am starting to personify that .... )

Konner's cupcakes, unbelievably, taste even better than they look.

Ryan also got his sister to make us some yummy goodies. He was proud of the special foil paper cupcake holders. Nancy made Mac-N-Cheese. It was popular and in high demand! The math department also showing love with this beautiful cake. Thanks, Ms. Choi and Mrs. Bullock, for stopping by. The math teachers are so supportive of me. I'm the only male teacher in the department. They treat me like a brother (older brother, of course). Again, in case I haven't said it or shown it, I appreciate all that I have received.

Badminton Team Surprise

Thursday after school, Mr. Dolter asked me to be a subject for his students' experiment. I was to walk to the gym blindfolded as the students measured my heart rate. Their plan worked, I only knew at the very minute that I was walking into the gym with the players and students surprising me. They sprayed me with crazy-strings. I was blessed with food and drinks. Thanks Mr. Dolter, for going along with the kids. Mr. Dolter is an outstanding teacher who is adored by the students. I thank him for his time. The kids are wonderful. Thank you for the love. I am one lucky teacher. This is one of the most amazing cakes. Thanks to the girls (Kalene, Jocelyn, Nancy, and Itzel)who put in so much effort. It was delicious. There were also cupcakes and pizza. They got away from a day of hard practice. =) Group photo of badminton kids, AP Statistics kids, and eats-lunch-with-me kids. All good kids who have inspired me to be a better teacher and a better person. I sometime wish that I was a better role model for them. And there were tasty cupcakes, pizzas and chips. And in case I haven't said it or shown it. I appreciate all that I have.

CUE 2011 Snapshots

See my Facebook photos of the conference with comments.

CUE 2011 Recap

As a first time attendee to the CUE conference, I didn't plan my sessions schedule. Upon arriving the Palm Springs Convention Center, the friendly staff helped me check in. I attended the following sessions. Any double listing would be cases where I hopped out of the first session and hopped into the second session.

8:00 am "Moodle Your Class(es)"

8:00 am "Educator 2.0: New Opportunities Because of the Web"

9:00 am "A Useful Free App Every 30 Seconds, 2011 Edition"

9:30 am "K12HSN: For You, By You, Free for You"

12:30 pm "What's New and Free for Enrichment and Fun in Math"

12:30 pm "Google Apps Will Make You Happy (Or At Least Productive)"

2:00 pm "Getting Geeky with Google Apps"

3:15 pm "Closing Keynote - The Best Closing Keynote Ever!"*

*That's the title in the program.

Today, I saw a lot of attendees with Apple computers and iPads. To my surprised, the crowd was a bit older than I had expected. I also realized that as a member of the audience, I have a very short attention span. I don't need an hour for an introduction to a web tool. The exhibition hall looked great, but of course it was filled with lots of commercialized products. I got a "free" conference t-shirt. Overall, I found this conference to be just slightly above average. This sessions were mostly generalized introductions to web tools. Nonetheless, it was nice to get out of town for a bit and to develop professionally.

CUE 2011

The morning sessions wrapped. I will recap what I saw later this weekend. It's be good so far.

Respectfully Declined (part 2)

I was lucky to have been invited to a leadership professional development. However, my long teaching hours will keep me from committing fully to this meaningful project. The AP Stats exam is on May 11th; my priority should really be focusing on preparing my students for the exam.

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