Dark Matter

A colleague lend me a DVD that he highly recommends. I'm not a huge movie fan, the last movie I saw in a theater in the states was probably one of the Lord of the Rings movies! While waiting for a dinner meeting with friends, I stayed in my classroom and watched Dark Matter. It's about a stand out Chinese scholar trying to earn a Ph.D. in the states. It was a remarkable film on many levels. I felt that it respected both cultures while staying authentic. Without giving away any spoilers, I recommend anyone who is interested in the dynamic of Chinese/American culture to give this file a viewing. I was impressed.

Summer School

I really enjoyed teaching summer school last year. My classes were small and student were much more motivated. It was nearly zero stress. This year, due to the district's situation, summer school will not be held on our campus. Additionally, this has already been a very eventful year. I have decided not to apply to teach this summer. A veteran teacher once told me to not teach summer school, he said: "Be poor, but be happy." One goal that I would like to achieve this summer is to visit New York. For quite some time, I've wanted to visit NYC more so than any other city or country.

Dance Competition

After doing my Saturday CAHSEE Intervention class in the morning, I played an intense game of soccer under great weather. I then attended a dance competition at APU to watch our school's dance team. Though I missed their earlier routines, I caught their main routine - coed hip hop. They were very good. The kids performed with much energy, there were no signs of stage fright. And since APU is near our school, there were many friends and family members cheering them on. As always, it's wonderful to see kids do what they love. When I was at UCI, I took hip hop classes and had a great time. I only wished I had done so earlier in my life so that I can be more creative and have a more versatile skills set.

Apple Workshops

The Apple Store offers free workshops held by Apple trainers. I've attended a few of these workshops to learn more about using the Mac. They're quite good. The trainers are generally younger Mac experts, and they are very engaging. I attended the workshop on iMovie and iDVD yesterday. Due to some technical glitches, the trainer wasn't able to show all that he wanted to show. Having the equipment work exactly as they should during a presentation is still a challenge for technology demonstrations. I felt that the trainer did the best he could and deliver a very good lesson. One cool line he said at the end, was: "If you liked the workshop today, my name is Matt. If you didn't, my name is Charlie." Well done, Matt.

New Racket

I try to commit to exercising each day of each school break. So far, so good. To stay motivated, I'm doing different sports. Today, I shot some baskets at the gym before I did my time on the treadmill. Yesterday, I splurged on a new badminton racket. It's actually the first racket that I've purchased. My Auntie Martie and Uncle James have given me the rackets that I've used throughout my high school playing days. After some brief research, I committed to buying a Yonex ArmorTech. At the store, the AT300 that I was looking for was in fact discontinued. I ended up purchasing the AT600, which was on sale, and added Yonex 85 strings at 24 lbs. I'm very much looking forward to playing with this racket. It'll bring back good memories that I've had when I was obsessed with the game as a high school student. To compliment the new racket, I also purchased new shoes online. 

I must admit, splurging on athletic gear is one of my vices.

Mountain Biking

I rode for the first time in about a year with Cong and Sunny yesterday in the Santa Monica hills. It's nice to be outdoors doing a healthy activity. My bike needs some repair. Hopefully, I can get that done during Spring break and ride it more often.

I bought my first bicycle when I was in college. It was a $60 Huffy Backwater from K-Mart, and it weighs close to 40 pounds. My buddies and I make fun of it, but it's a good bike. "The Huff" features a kick-stand that is unavailable in most high-end bikes. I actually completed an off-road triathlon with it. I still have it.

A year ago, it was time to upgrade. I splurged and bought the Trek 6000 above. It's an awesome ride. After only a couple of practice runs, I used it in an off-road triathlon. It's a rookie mistake, and I paid for it by crashing. Luckily, I was okay. More importantly, the bike was okay. Despite some nasty injuries, I completed the race. A big motivator for me was that I wanted to prove to my students that quitting isn't always an option. A mentor once told me that quitting is only difficult the first time, after that, one gets used to it and it can become habitual. Lance Armstrong famously wrote in his book, It's Not About the Bike, that "Pain is temporary, quitting is forever." I often persuade my students to not quit, and to not give up. I've shared these quotes, and pictures of my injuries, with them. I also find it interesting that quitting is almost always an option, and at some level, quitting always works. But to be strong, one mustn't chose what's easy and available. Dig deep.

Badminton

Friday afternoons are precious to teachers. As much as I love teaching, the end of sixth period on Fridays means time to breath and restore. Often times, I stop by the fields to watch my students play sports. Today, I went to the gym to watch several of my students play badminton. Naturally, one of the kids challenged me. I picked up a racket and realized how rusty I was in a sport that I played competitively for over five years. My eye-hand coordination was off, my legs weren't as responsive as they were 15 years ago. Nonetheless, it was the most fun I've had playing sports in a long time. I had all along thought I was done with badminton, that I no longer like it anymore. With just about half an hour of hitting with my student, I found my love for the game once again.

BTW, I beat him.

Bamboo One

The Bamboo One is awesome. It has a much larger writing area (4x6 inches) compared to the PenPartner+ (2.5x3.5 inches). Further, the tablet surface provides a much better feel. It's also very well designed: the tablet has a groove for the pen, and the writing surface has a protective plastic shield pre-installed. While I do miss the two action buttons on the PenPartner+ (which I used to erase and to advance slides), the Bamboo One's overall write-feel improvement overshadows the lack of buttons. When the tablet is plugged in, the red light in the middle lights up. The lights switches to green as the pen puts pressure on the pad - - pretty cool.

Actually, I recently purchased another Wacom Bamboo model which includes buttons. If you're keeping scores - I have four digital tablets: two copies of PenPartner Pluses, my current Bamboo One, and the Bamboo.

PenPartner Plus

Uncle James entered my life during my teens, when he married my Aunt Martie. Since then, he's been a supportive mentor, a loyal confidant, and a guiding light. He's a busy and successful religious leader in Hong Kong, yet he took the time to shop with me for a then-obscure product during one Spring day in 2007. He was patient with me as I was trying to find a digital gadget that I described as "a mouse that's shaped like a pen". We found it in a small store in one of HK's computer markets. It was a product by Wacom, the leading company for computer writing tablets, and the PenPartner Plus was the company's base model. Though it's discontinued now, it worked wonders for my classroom for the past two years. Each time I use it, I think of Uncle James and that wonderful afternoon. I am still grateful. This simple tool transformed the way I teach - it's been a big part of Mr. Yip's classroom.

In fact, I loved the PenPartner so much that I had my dad purchase a second set for me the following year. (But the product was so durable that I never needed a second set.) My dad bought for me a higher model called Bamboo One, which I've tucked away for over a year. Today, I finally gave my PenPartner a break and tried the Bamboo One - it's awesome! I'll review it in the future. I think it's time to retire the PenPartner. Thanks "Partner", and thanks Uncle James.

Sample Slide Deck

I am putting together a hard copy of my slide show. Using PowerPoint, I compiled a deck of slides that are representative of my instructions. Then, I saved the slides as JPEG files, reinserted them into PPT as smaller images and saved it again as a PDF. The result is anticipated to be a half-page size booklet of my slide deck. It was very difficult to pick out representative slides that can accurately summarize my daily instruction. Nonetheless, it's been an interesting experiment so far. I have not pick up the print-outs yet, I'll see how it turns out.

Name Tags

I don't remember where this idea came from. For the past year or so, I've been making name tags for the good people around me. It's a way to thank them for helping me build the brand of "Mr. Yip". The font and coloring scheme is definitely introduced to me by my friend Tan @ CopyCats DS. I would print the name (here, "Catherine" for example) and fit it in an acrylic frame. It's a way to counter those boring metallic/wooden name tags. Mostly, they've been given to school secretaries - they love them. I've given a few to teachers. It's my way to saying: "Thanks for being a part of Team Yip!" Recently, I've added a reflection. Currently, I'm working on a few for my friends. In case you're keeping scores, no one has yet won a Yippy and a name tag.

Getting Old

I turn 30 this week. My awesome roommate took me to a great Japanese restaurant Friday night along with his friend, we had a blast. My two best friends Cong and Sunny planned a dinner with me Saturday night at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Pasadena. It was much more extravagant than I really deserved, but the guys insisted as a way to combine the celebration with my TOY award. They didn't bring their wives when they picked me up so I really thought it was just the three of us. When we arrived, it was a surprise with seven other of my closest and dearest friends: Sunny and Cong with their wives Cathy and Kitty, my college roommate Mark, another college roommate Duy and his wife Mariane, a college friend/ex-coworker Jon Cue, and my actor/comedian friend Bryan. Even with all of the materialistic goods aside (best of food, drinks, gifts, atmosphere, etc.), it was the happiest time for me in a long time. We joked, debated, and laughed all night just as we always do.

With so much ups and downs for me professionally this year, I have spent very little time with my family and friends. At the end of the night, I told Cong that I'll re-evaluate where my life should go and how I want to be. As much as I strive to be the best teacher, I truly want to be a better friend to my friends. At Cong's wedding in August 2008, I was honored to be his best man. During my toast, I said that he's been a better friend to me than I have to him. It's been true. If I'll be so lucky to marry someone special one day, I hope he can say the same to me.

Keynote

One of the inspirations in my MacBook Pro purchase is to incorporate Keynote (Apple's presentation application) into my repertoire. It hasn't happened yet, but I'm working on it. While I think I will continue to use PowerPoint to present my lessons in the classroom, I strive to use Keynote to do presentations for adults. Currently, I am mind-mapping, trying to organize my contents into a coherent slideshow.

Balance

I have not been able to balance my role as a teacher and that of a runner. For the past couple of months, I have been teaching a CAHSEE workshop on Saturday mornings. We just wrapped up our final session last week, which would free up more time for me to run. While I'll miss the students and sessions on Saturdays, I do want my life back.

This picture is from my only race thus far in 2009 - Chinatown Firecracker 10K. 

And the Yippy goes to...

One of my proudest new features is the "Yippys". I give these "certificates" out to some of my coolest students. The categories are silly: for example, Smallest Handwriting, Softball Superstar, etc. This one is for a student who donated a lot of change for our Pennies for Patients campaign. The design of the certificate didn't take long, but to get it printed correctly caused some headache. I designed them in PowerPoint, used various apps to correct the logos, saved them in PDF, and sent them to Staples for print. It's funny how some kids are now asking me for a Yippy. I told them that I'll talk to the Yippys Award Committee...