Jane Ching Fung (right), Mindy Yip (center) and Marilyn Garza (left) at the Milken Educator "teaching Oscar" award ceremony on April 18. [chinapressusa.com]

Primary school teacher Mindy Yip from San Francisco was the sole Chinese-American among 70 teachers awarded the Milken Educator "teaching Oscar" award on April 18, 2009.

Mindy Yip has been a first-grade teacher at Visitacion Valley Elementary School in San Francisco, California for eight years. She and her parents migrated to the US from Laos. Apart from English, Yip is also fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Laotian and Thai. Now 36, Yip graduated from San Francisco State University. She is a teacher of science, math, reading, art and PE, and has helped students from diverse backgrounds achieve academic success.

Yip was gratified but self-effacing about her award. She said she cares for her students and does her best to find creative ways of motivating them. "I don't restrict my teaching to textbooks, and try to make games out of methodical learning like multiplication tables. I've introduced my own teaching aids of models, toys, pictures ¨C sometimes food ¨C into the class curriculum," Yip said.

Yip plans to donate half of her US$25,000 award to her school for the purchase of textbooks. The other half is earmarked for graduate studies.

More than 2,400 teachers have received the Milkden "teacher's Oscar" award since it was initiated in 1985. The 2002 Chinese-American winner Jane Ching Fung, a pre-school teacher from Los Angeles, and last year's winner Marilyn Garza, a teacher from Santa Barbara Junior High School, were special guests at the ceremony.

Jane Ching Fung has been a teacher for 25 years. She and her parents migrated to the US from Hong Kong when she was three years old. Fung taught pre-kindergarten through to second grade classes at the White House Place Primary Center for 11 years. Her students, who were mostly from low-income Hispanic and Afro-Caribbean families, improved their reading scores by 20 percent after one year of her classes. Fung now works at the Alexander Science Center School in urban Los Angeles.

Eighth-grade science teacher Marilyn Garza, who has a degree in materials science engineering, was instrumental in designing the engaging and creative curriculum at Santa Barbara Junior High School. "Watching the ceremony brought back how nervous and excited I was last year. I am proud of Mindy Yip," Garza said.

(Source: chinapressusa.com /Translated by womenofchina.cn)