The weekend was pretty quiet.  My daughter caught my cold.  We watched Science Fiction together.

Today, I was feeling a bit better, though I still had sniffles.  A teacher was actually sick, so I got a call.  She had three “Intro to Bio” classes and two “AP Bio” classes.  I’d like to say that the AP classes were both excellent, but one was on task, and the other was not.  I expected that the “Intro” kids would not want to work (actually, two of the three classes were excellent!), but AP kids?  I expect them to act like college kids.  I was really let down by the last class of the day.  Still, they weren’t horrible; they just weren’t as studious as the previous AP class had been.  It was sort of funny that a group of boys in this last AP class were actually betting on whether or not they would get answers correct as they studied.  I had never seen that before.  It was some sort of geek gambling.

I was free and no one called me!  I guess that teachers don’t like to get sick in December.  It made me sad to only work one day this week.  I studied a little, bought some stocks (based on the research I had been doing for my son), and then watched a movie.  Somewhere in the early part of my day, my wife called me because she was short some spaghetti sauce for her class.  I had to bring some to her.  While I was at the school, I told the principal the good news that I would be there starting in January.

The movie I wound up watching was a German movie called “The Black Box.”  It was about the Dutch Jewish resistance during WWII.  It was a pretty great movie, though per usual with European movies, there was full frontal male and female nudity.  Europeans don’t have the same hang-ups that Americans do about nudity, and truthfully, the nudity didn’t bother me at all because it sure didn’t bother the actors.  It just was what it was, and it was very appropriate for this movie.

In the evening, my son and I went to band practice.  We got there at the normal time, only to discover that a Christmas Play rehearsal was in progress.  We had to wait until it was over before we could play.  Based on the dress rehearsal, I don’t think this play is going to be a huge hit.

I didn’t get a phone call, but I also couldn’t take a job today: I had a layout contract meeting this afternoon.

I worked on supplying some stock ideas for my son’s two week long stock contest in his Econ class, then I ate, watched an episode of Top Gear, washed my Porsche, and then headed off to the meeting.  The meeting cleared up a lot of things regarding this new chip project.  I spent at least an hour looking through a microscope at the competitor’s chip (which is no longer sold) and determined that it was even simpler than we had originally thought.  How often can you say that?  We also met with the fab people and another outside design consultant – my former, former boss.  It was good to see him again.  After a couple of hours, everyone was on the same page, and had come to the same conclusions about the chip and the process that I had come to after looking under the microscope.  Starting this weekend, I can set up the chip environment for layout and then hopefully begin.

Alas, the meeting ran long and I didn’t have time to pick up groceries for dinner.  I had to get on over to my last evening class for the year.  Today was the continuation of the student presentations.  I had done mine on Tuesday, so I was really only there for support.  I had also turned in my final project via email earlier in the day.  When I got all my papers back, they were all A’s.  Yeah!  Class let out early too; yeah again!

Just before class had started, I sought out my counselor to see what progress had happened on the student teaching front.  It was good news: I would start at my wife’s middle school, and I was approved by the district for all twelve weeks.  The only hoop that remained was whether or not the supervisor would allow me to do the entire twelve weeks at the same school.  She’s the only one who might change things at this point.  Everyone else is quite alright with me doing everything at one school.  I’d be setting a precedent for the university, but I’m fine with that; I can be a trailblazer.

I didn’t get a phone call.  No sub job.

I decided to take some recordings off of my DVR and put them on to a DVD.  Today was a science fiction sort of day, and I stayed in bed watching all these movies.  First up was Futureworld, followed by The Kovak Box and finally Book of Eli.  It was a delightful “do nothing” kind of day!

I took no medications yesterday and survived.  Today, I feel great.  Sure, I’m still sniffling on occasion, but this cold seems to be gone!

I couldn’t take a sub job today because I had way too much homework to do and because I had a meeting with my (hopefully) temporary employers at my wife’s middle school for my student teaching assignment.  The homework took longer than I had anticipated: I worked from when I woke up until it was time for the meeting at 2:15.  I then worked for another hour after I got back.  I did finish though.

The teacher meeting went well.  I had two willing master teachers, and the approval of the principal.  Things were looking good, but then I got to the university.  I told my counselor about all that had transpired and she was excited.  The principal had had some questions on a particular document, so the counselor said she would talk to her supervisor about the possibility of changing the document.  I guess it was good that the counselor did this because it turned out that the supervisor questioned almost everything we had done to this point.  No previous student has ever, apparently, done both student teaching assignments at the same district, let alone in the same school.  Also, the document cannot be changed without reapplying for CA credential certification (translated: the document WILL NOT be changed).  Finally, my district had recently told the school that it was not taking any more student teachers this year — at least not at the High School.  OK, so I had worked to get two master teachers lined-up, and now the supervisor was throwing a wrench in things.  Things were running a little too smoothly…

I asked the suddenly very apologetic counselor if she would find out if it’s “the law” that I can’t do all my student teaching at the same school/district, or if it’s merely a tradition.  I have no problem with breaking traditions.  We’ll also have to see if my district is still allowing student teachers at the middle school.  If I really can’t use one or both of my teachers, the university had better find me one or two replacement teachers in a hurry!  I was doing the university a huge favor by finding my own master teachers!  Hopefully, they’ll get back to me tomorrow with some good news.

If indeed I have to make some modifications to the current plan, I can’t imagine it would be good press for the university.  The principal at the middle school, who has already questioned the validity of this particular university’s program, has already made a point of telling me that their district has never hired anyone from this program, and that based on what they have seen so far, it’s unlikely that they ever will except for the odd special case (like one of the other subs, who is particularly excellent… if only he’d graduate!; I don’t get the feeling that I am a special case so far).  Hmmm, just what have I gotten myself into?

I stayed very sick over the weekend.  Saturday was spent in bed watching Science Fiction movies.  Sunday, I dragged myself to church to teach a class on the Nativity then play in the band.  I pretty much went straight back to bed after that (watching the 49ers win in spectacular fashion!).  This morning, I felt a bit better, which is fortunate because I had a substitute job.

Today, I taught a “college style” class on van Gogh (powerpoint mixed with group discussion) to a middle school art class (four periods worth, plus a class of “year book”).  The teacher had asked me to do this ahead of time to help introduce her next unit: painting.  And depending on how her jury duty goes next week, I could wind up teaching the class some or all of next week.  By the last class of the day, my voice was gone from talking, but I did have enough stamina to make it through the day.  Yeah!

I’m feeling even worse today – perhaps on the verge of bronchitis.

I did a little computer work today, but mostly I rested.  Today’s disaster theme would be world-ending asteroid movies.  I watched “Deep Impact” and “Armageddon.”  My family came home towards the end of the second movie.  Jeffrey needed his passport number for his upcoming trip to Ghana (10 months away), but I just sent his passport to the social security people so he could get a social security card so he could get a job.  I tried to find his passport number by looking up old trips, but no luck.  Hopefully, my travel agent has it on file.

Tonight is band practice.  I don’t know how I’m going to survive.  I’m beginning to get a fever and my chest hurts from coughing.

I woke up sick.  Good thing I didn’t get a call to sub.

Actually, I would have turned down a job anyway – I had too much homework.  It took me around four hours to complete.  After that was over, I watched a disaster movie, which is something I do when I’m sick.  It cheers me up.  For years, I always watched “Independence Day,” but I have since widened my scope.  Today’s epic was the movie “2012.”  About the time that movie ended, it was time to go to class.  This session was better than most in that I actually learned something, but I still would rather have been home in bed.  I could feel myself getting worse (cold-wise) about half way through class.  My nose began to run like crazy.

Today I was both a presenter and a substitute for my wife’s class.  She has both “home economics” classes and “college prep” classes, so I got to do a couple different things today.  For the college prep, I did my college/engineering presentation – the same one I did on Monday at the High School!  For the other classes, we did kitchen safety.  All the classes were excellent and well-behaved.  After classes, I talked to the guy who will soon be my master teacher for my student teaching assignment and we sorted things out (when do I start, what are the expectations, do I have a second master teacher yet).  It was both positive and brief.  The “real” meeting that makes things official will happen next week.

I woke up sick so I did not take a substitute job.  It turned out that I still had a lot of reading to do for classes so I’m glad I didn’t take a job.  I did homework until 1PM, and then got very hungry.  I ate, took pictures of my now completed Minecraft Cathedral and posted them on Facebook.  I then took a nap until it was time to go to class.  It was not that thrilling of a day.