Happy Thanksgiving 2014

Aside from the blessing of my family, friends, and health, I am thankful for my journey as a teacher.  It started when I was a 14 year-old high school student as a private tutor.  I then tutored at UC Irvine as an undergraduate, and again at Cal Poly as a graduate student.  A decade ago, I was given an opportunity to learn from one of the best math teachers I know in Mr. Mulfinger during my first year of teaching at Marshall Fundamental in Pasadena.  I also spend eight wonderful years working many outstanding educators at Gladstone High in Covina.  Now, I continue my journey at Bonita High in La Verne.  I am grateful for all the teachers, supportive staff, administrators, and most importantly, students that I have had the pleasure to meet.  Happy Thanksgiving.

Visiting Sister

It was long overdue, but I got the chance to visit my sister in Dallas over my Thanksgiving break.  She relocated to Texas for work two years ago and I've been longing to visit her.  She spent all of her weekend with me.  We went to a local central grocery market, a fancy steak house, Stockyard (which is also called Cow Town), and took a long morning walk.  It was wonderful to reunite with my sister.  We'll see each other again in a few weeks during our younger brother's wedding.

Bonita Wins Round 2 of CIF

The Bonita Bearcats earned a victory over The West Covina Bulldogs (my alma mater) on Friday night.  It was a CIF boys football playoff match.  As always, the band had a wonderful performance.

Marching Bearcats Showcase

The award-winning Marching Bearcats held an intimate performance for the Bonita family.  This wonderful group of students performed their fantastic field show in front of mostly parents and friends.  The senior band members and color guard performers were honored by the lower class-men with a second show performed only by the lower class-men.  Thereafter, the seniors showed off their creativity by injecting humor and musical talents in another show of their own.  It was a terrific night of music.  It is always great to see students do what they enjoy.  I also have deep admiration for our band director Mr. Bird.  He is such an expert in performance arts and teaching that his creativity and persistence transcends his students to another level.  We are all very excited to see the winter guard show this year.  **As I was taking these photos, I heard one of the students asked: "Mr. Yip, are you gonna put these on your blog?"  You got it.

Our proud Seniors - c/o 2015...

Seniors acting silly...

The entire band acting silly...

Math Fundraiser

I went to support Ms. Kwak's Calculus BC Scholarship Fundraiser on a Tuesday night.  It was a great opportunity for me to visit my former mentor and department chair.  She does so much for her students - I bought her cupcakes.

AP Workshop

I attended a day long AP Statistics workshop in La Jolla.  It was an informative session led by an experienced and enthusiastic presenter.  We went over many tips and official AP questions.  I plan to take back to my classroom all that I've learned.  It was, however, an exhausting day.  I woke up at 5a to be at La Jolla High School by 7:45a.  In all, it was about a four hour drive for a six hour session.  Nonetheless, I still feel that it was worthwhile since I can use any professional development as I can get in this AP course.

Treats from Cheers

At the end of an exhausting week, two cheer leaders stopped by my seventh period on a Friday afternoon and gave me some treats.  Thank you, Bearcats Cheer.

Cultural Exchange

Ivy joined our AP Statistics class a few weeks into the year.  She is an international exchange student from China.  We are very happy to have her be a part of our class.  On Thursday, as a part of her program requirement, Ivy gave a presentation during which she shared some of the Chinese culture with the class.  She did a wonderful job explaining some of the major Chinese holidays and cultural customs.  As a bonus, Ivy held a drawing and gave out some gifts to the students.  She saved a special porcelain piece for me.  Thank you, Ivy!

Showtime

The show was fantastic.  I thoroughly enjoyed the student performance.  One of my favorite parts was the opening song, the students sang their acoustic version of the popular hit "Take Me To Church".  It set the tone for the rest of the play, which was an emotional ride.  I also particularly enjoyed the second half of the play.  The students truly did an excellent job.  Congratulations to Mr. Fredrick for a successful production.

Comp Ticket

Thank you, Mr. Fredrick, for the comp ticket.  I would have been glad to make the purchase.  Very much looking forward to the play - Electra.

Banana Bread

My second period Geometry student Vinny came to my room early Monday morning to deliver a gift for me.  He and his mom bake together on occasion.  He gave me a fresh loaf of the banana bread with chocolate chips that they made this weekend.  It was delicious.  I am so grateful.  Thank you, Vinny.

P.S. On Wednesday, Vinny brought me more treats.  This time he gave me two chocolate chips cookies.

Dodgeball

This is one of the many traditions that we have on campus.  I arrived at the staff v. students game after it began and didn't get to participate.  It was a great lunchtime event that was surrounded with a lot of excitement.  I tried to participate in as many campus activities as I could manage this year.  At the same time, I know that I cannot do it all.  This is an event that I'll definitely try to participate in next year.

A Nerd's Tee

Abbie C. (c/o 2014) gave me this as a Christmas gift in 2010.  I had the pleasure of having her as a freshman in Algebra 2 and again in AP Statistics as a senior.  I also had her older brother Brian (c/o 2012) in AP Statistics in his senior year.  They are both outstanding students and talented musicians.  Abbie was also an elite athlete in volleyball and badminton.  Currently, they are both earning their degrees at Azusa Pacific University.  Thank you, Abbie.

P.S. - At the end of her freshmen badminton season, Abbie won Most Improved Player award.  She also gave me this birdie as a gift in May of 2011, thanking me for coaching her throughout the season.

Electra

My students are inviting me to go see this play.  I'm looking forward to it.  It'll be a great opportunity to see my students perform at this beautiful facility.  One of our school's top students, Summer F., took part in designing this attractive poster.

Stay Sharp

This is an outstanding pencil sharpener!  Time will tell how durable it is.  It has performed exceptionally for the first week.  For under $20, I am very happy with it.  Any teacher would know the value of having a nice pencil sharpener, something that I never thought I'd care about as a kid.

Made with Elephant Poo

This is a notebook that used an alternative fiber source - elephant poo - to make recyceled and odorless paper.  My cousin Josephine served as a summer merchandising intern at Disney World and brought this back for me from Florida.  "Brown is the New Green."  Ironically, the cover is a picture of a tiger.  Thank you, Josephine.