I'm finally official! I had the hardest time getting my badge done at El Cerrito High. I even yelled at an office lady when she strung me along all day waiting to come back from "lunch". But we had both been highly stressed that day and we had a laugh about it today. Maybe because today was a Friday.

I have the nicest master teacher ever. He's just so nice and the kids love him. Today was funny because in the US history class he has 2nd block there are some chatty girls who are cheerleaders. They asked him if they could do their cheer at the start of class and he said okay. He said aside to me "this might have been a mistake." But it worked out well because they got their energy out and then the principal (who is 32) came into the classroom to go over the student-parent handbook (back to school night is Tues). So they did the cheer for him, too. Of course, he was happy about that since their first football game is tonight. It was just kind of cute and then they settled down and worked after that. He seems like he'll be a good principal. He let them voice their, um, concerns about changing the passing period from 10 to 5 minutes. With 95 minute classes I agree that they need a little break. But he said there's been excessive tardies. He agreed to leave it as is for another week and reassess. The kids were satisfied with that. They are a good group of kids.

I know it wouldn't have worked for me (yet) but Mr Perero can do that stuff without it becoming chaos. And he's getting a lot better with the World Hist ELD/SDAIE kids (English learners) because he found inspiration in a past class he taught. They used to have more social science options at El Cerrito High until the district cut them. He used to teach a International Issues/Foreign Policy course so he worked in some of what he did in that class with stuff that the woman who taught SDAIE WLD last yr used. So, I think he's found his groove there and is enjoying teaching the class now. They're sweet kids from literally all over the world.

Yeah, so I'm busy as can be. I was just assigned my university adviser. Who, of course, is not one of my profs this semester. Because that would be too easy. So I have to find time to meet with him next week. Most of my profs are really nice, especially the one who teaches the social science curriculum class. I think Drew is ready to come to class with me because she brings her German Shepard in. It is the most well-behaved dog I've ever seen. But she's really great, as is my Adolescent Development prof, who met Grace Slick last weekend. Yeah, she's kind of an old hippie. But she's good, too. It's just a crazy schedule. One thing that's good is, that unlike master's programs where after a couple of semesters you never see other grad students again, in a program like this you have basically every class together. Previously, I had only met a few people in my classes over 3 years.

Drew already got a gift from one of the kids at the after school program he's at at Assumption. Guess what it is? Coffee, of course! Anyway, they really like him, of course. He knows some of the kids from the third grade class last year now. He's enjoying it.


All right, time for sleep. Have a good weekend all!