Over the weekend, when I wasn’t doing homework, I was playing tennis or Minecraft.  Now my left arm hurts (elbow from tennis; wrist from Minecraft).  I feel like I’m falling apart!  I may have pulled something while playing tennis.  Jeffrey and I have taken to simply wailing on the (very dead) balls to see who can hit the fastest return.  It’s fun, but probably not beneficial for my arm!

The “girls” at my table were absolutely silly tonight, which made the class go fast.  They were truly enjoyable to be around.  At one point, I was an “honorary girl” during a skit on bullying.  It’s nice that they seem to accept me (as the lone boy at the table) despite the fact that I am old enough to be their father.

Everyone seemed to like my Lesson Plan on the Bataan Death March.  I will definitely use this in class – I like it too!

Friday – Yeah! No class!

Still, I wound up doing homework all day and knocked-out two of the three assignments that are due next week.  I don’t know how I’m going to get homework done once I start substituting or student teaching (I’ll probably have to do all my homework on Friday & Saturday).  Right now, I have 2 – 4 hours of homework a day, six days a week.  I guess that’s the downside of taking concentrated classes.

Our Filipino students mentioned that they have rarely ever had steak, since there are no cows in the Philippines.  We decided to take them out to Outback.  The meal was nice, and they liked their steak very much, though they did not thank us for taking them out to this moderately expensive place – actually, I don’t think they’ve thanked us for anything this whole week.  Maybe it’s a cultural thing.  We had to rush dinner a bit because we had to get everyone to church for the corn maze event tonight.  For the first time this week, it was cold out!  The kids got through the maze with no difficulties.  When we got home, the rest of the evening was spent packing – our kids leave for San Francisco at 7AM tomorrow morning.

I was so tired when I woke up this morning; probably the after-effect of so much stress and study yesterday.  Still, I had to drag my butt out of bed because today was another field trip.  This time, I’d be taking foreign exchange students plus host families to the Tech Museum of San Jose.

As was the case on Tuesday, we took public transportation.  I felt like an old pro at this public transportation thing, which is funny because up until Tuesday, I hadn’t taken public transportation anywhere in California for 10 years (Though my heavy use of public transportation in Europe, NYC and DC helped considerably).  Because I was a sudden pro at all this, the Vice Principal who accompanied us (super nice gal!) asked me lead the group to and from the Tech Museum.  Maybe she shouldn’t have.  The two of us were having such a nice conversation on the Light-rail that I lost sight of where we were.  We were supposed to get off at “Convention Center,” I looked up at one point, saw the word “Center” on the sign, and we got off.  It turned out to be “Civic Center,” about two miles from our destination.  Fortunately, there was another tram only 10 minutes later and we still arrived at the museum precisely at 10AM when it opened.

To start things off, the Tech Museum had all the 10AM groups participate in the “world’s largest earthquake drill” (on 10/18 at 10:18AM).  All schools in California and many in the US, and some in the rest of the world participated at the same time.  The announcer said that 9.3 million people (students mostly) would be participating in California alone.  At precisely 10:18, we all huddled under tables, cheered, and then went to the museum.  To me, it seemed like a waste of 20 minutes (of our two hour stay), but it definitely was a unique experience, and it was sort of exciting to be a part of something so big.

My group of eight headed downstairs to the “Earthquake” exhibit so the kids could experience what an earthquake felt like.  For some reason, they weren’t impressed with the 45 second 8.7 magnitude Tokyo quake that we simulated.  I’ll tell you though, having been through the Loma Prieta quake in 1989 (6.9 for 15 seconds), they would have been really impressed (if not dead) had this “Tokyo” quake happened here… maybe at 10:18.

From that point on, we marched through all the exhibits for the next hour and a half.  I tried to show them my area of expertise, semiconductors, but the exhibit was more conceptual than visual, so they didn’t care.  Nor did they particularly care that we were in “Silicon Valley;” whatever was inside their technology was “magic” as far as they are concerned, and it didn’t concern them so long as their technology worked.

From what I understand, two students had made a special trip to see the Googleplex (and Stanford), but the other 20 foreign exchange students just wanted to hang out with each other, shop and eat.  This is so different from last year’s group, which was definitely college-focused and fairly aware of our Bay’s unique place in the world.

Lunch at Mezcal was amazing.  Most (including me) had two plates of food at the buffet they had set up just for us.  After that, we made it back to school, walked home, and then our two foreign exchange kids went back to school to see the carnival and hang out with their friends.  I went to my evening classes dragging a bit, hoping there would be coffee when I got there (there was… and cake!).

I spent all day creating a write-up and powerpoint for a presentation I’ll be doing tonight in class.  The subject is “Cyber-bullying.”  As per usual, I have way too much information; I’ll need to pare it down a bit.  This is good because I can then concentrate on the essentials and throw away the rest.  In the afternoon when I started rehearsing my presentation, I kept getting 23 minutes… which is bad.  Anything over 20 minutes is a major deduction.  Just before going to school, I cut two slides that are good information, but not essential.  I was “guessing” that I had been speaking on these two slides for around four minutes.  When I did the presentation in the evening, I did it in 18 minutes.  Yeah!  I think that I hit 18 minutes largely due to speaking fast, which might get me docked a bit on the presentation score.  I’ve done better, but hey, I got through the evening, and I had more than one person come up to me after class and tell me that they enjoyed the presentation very much and that it was information they could use.  Yeah again! – mission accomplished; I hope I get a good grade (I got a perfect score on the write-up – a good start!  I’ll have to wait until Monday for the presentation score.).

So far, our exchange students have: asked to sleep in the same room (they are male and female… so no); asked to go to all the classes together (maybe on Wednesday and Friday); refused to go to bed at a decent time; they shower twice a day for half an hour at a time; seem to have no interest in America, though they say they do.  They’re not being really good foreign exchange students, but they are finally interacting with my kids a little.  They still seem scared of me.  I guess I’m scary.

Today, I led 30 of my wife’s 90 students who went on a Mission College field trip.  The public transportation there was a blast – two busses, two light rail trains.  We got everyone there on time.  Our tour started immediately.  Leo, our guide, was very informative and sort of laid-back.  I went to places on that campus that I had never been to, and I used to go to school here!  It was a good tour.

Alas, I wish I could say the same for lunch.  We were told that we would have a dining hall all to ourselves.  Some big wigs asked at the last moment if they could throw some sort of gala, and they took the place instead.  We had to eat outdoors.  Also, the wonderful looking lunch that was described to us is not what we got.  Our lunches were not worth the price we paid.  The administrator “decided” on her own to change our menu, figuring that middle school kids didn’t eat much.  All the kids left hungry.  We may not go back to Mission college if they persist in mistreating us this way.

Yeah, my group caught a couple of busses/trams early and got home way before the other two groups.  This turned out to be a good thing because our exchange students had to be somewhere by 4PM (the organizers announced at 11PM last night of this sudden, three hour change in the schedule).  I was able to get them there on time… and then I went to school.

My new master cylinder leaks.  I guess I’ll be going back to the shop on Monday.

On Saturday, I officially met the new pastor candidate, and then my family picked up our foreign exchange students.  I think they’re overwhelmed by America and by us.  They spent Saturday hiding from us in the corner of a room.  We even had some of their friends over, which they enjoyed, but once their friends left, they went back to hiding.  They were also pushing boundaries, which I didn’t expect.  These two (unlike last year’s two) are a little less mature and a lot less outgoing.  I get the feeling that neither one is used to many rules or restrictions.

Sunday, we all went to church, which went fine, then everyone but me went to the Redwoods.  Our two exchange students liked that, but from what I understand, they are pretty out of shape.

The car went back to the shop on Monday.  I tried to do homework, but was overwhelmed by the amount of work I had to get done.  I concentrated on two projects, but didn’t finish either one.  This is OK because neither is due tonight, though one is due on Wednesday.  I have to get that one done by Wednesday because it’s a presentation for class.

I started today by parking my car at the garage.  They’ll be putting in a new master cylinder later today.  Next stop was putting up tables and chairs at church for an event.  While there, I also met the pastor we’re interviewing this week.  He seemed nice.  I had a couple of hours free when I got home so I did some homework, but I didn’t get to the projects that are due next week.  I guess I’ll tackle them over the weekend.  At 1PM, my car was ready so I biked to the shop and got my car.  Not long after that, I went to NHU to talk to my student teacher placement person.  She was half an hour late (a miscommunication on scheduling), but we did meet.  It turns out that one of my classes is only two units, not three, so I’m one unit short of being able to student teach in January.  Bummer!  She’ll try to sneak me in anyway, but I don’t know that she can.  She has a perfect master teacher for me, she says, though he is in the South Bay, far, far away from me.  Oh well, it’s only six weeks.  The six weeks after that, she’s going to try to get me into the school right by my house (actually, she had just come from there and had just placed her first student teacher there; sort of funny then that we both drove half an hour from the same location to meet up!).  Since she asked, I gave her the names of the top teachers in that school.  Having kids at that school, and a wife just across the street at the middle school really helps.  My adviser did tell me that it is vital that I start substituting at the high school, if I am to have any chance of being a student teacher there.  I’m working on it!

Over the past couple of days, I’ve sort of just done homework and nothing else.  I’m now ahead of most of my classmates, but in truth, I won’t be there for long.  I have two field trips to go on next week and foreign exchange students from the Philippines arriving on Saturday and staying for a week.  I don’t expect to get much done next week – a week that’s filled with presentations and papers (that I must complete tomorrow, since it’s about the only time I can!).

This evening, I took the midterm in my Inclusion class.  I got an A-, which I’m not too pleased with, but it was a fair grade.  Conversely, one of my papers was deemed so good that the teacher made a copy so she could use it as an example for future classes.  I also got credit for two papers instead of one because I went way overboard on the paper, and it just happened to fulfill the requirements of another assignment.  It was a good evening!

While I was away at class this evening, my son went to the Air Force recruiter.  He absolutely blew-away the preliminary test that all military folks have to take, so chances are that, should he pass the physical (which he should), he can pick any job he wants… if he gets in.  I had warned him not to sign anything, but I forgot to tell him what the Air Force is looking for, and what things they don’t accept (the list is actually quite long – most applicants fail the initial screening by the recruiter).  If they call him back and ask for him to continue the process, I’ll see it as a good thing.

Gaaa!  I spent all day at the Social Security office!  What a colossal waste of time!  I somehow thought I could just pop in, get my new social security card, then take it to the district office.  NOT SO!  I received a number when I got to the office and was told that the wait was around two hours – TWO HOURS!  His timing was off.  I was there 3.5 hours before my number was called.  Fortunately, I had been assigned about 2.5 hours of reading for tomorrow night’s class.  When I got to the window (finally!) I was complimented for having everything ready for her.  In 45 seconds, she said that everything was input into the system and that I could expect my new card in 10 working days.  WHAT!  I opted to come here (and wait!) so I could get the card today!  If I had simply sent my passport in to them, I would have received a new card in seven days!  What a day!

What a weekend!  We decided to go to San Francisco on Saturday morning, just to see some sites.  We didn’t realize that it was Fleet Week.  We got to our first destination, Fort Point, just as the Navy ships were pulling in.  We had the best seats in the house!  Our next stop was Little Italy for lunch (Stinking Rose), then up to Coit Tower for a view of the Bay.  Today that view included many ships and an airplane show.  Actually, what we really liked up above were the Geico ads done in smoke.  We went down Fulbert stairs, walked over to Chinatown, and then left.  Saturday night was a 30^th reunion for Kevin, and since they had opened it up to other classes, I attended my 31^st.  Neither of us knew too many of the people there.  Kevin maybe knew 10; I knew 5.  We left early, about the time the drunken dance contests started.

Sunday was church, followed by a 49er game with my friend Jeff.  Yeah, we won!  After that, Kevin and I rode around the Calaveras hills in my Porsche (Kevin drove), then tennis, then we ate out at a Vietnamese noodle house followed by frozen yogurt.

This morning, I dropped Kevin off at the airport.  I spent an hour in my wife’s classroom today observing several special needs kids, and how they integrated in her classroom.  From there, I interviewed a special education teacher (homework assignment for Wednesday), then went to the district office to see if I could get a job as a substitute.  The district said that there were no openings (I expected that), but I had a backer in my wife’s principal, who would like me to sub.  This may get me in.  Alas, I am missing a social security card, so tomorrow, I’ll have to get one so I can complete the application process.  From there, we’ll see if I can get in.  I also have to fix my car at some point.  The breaks still do not work properly.

This evening’s class had a simply wonderful guest presenter from the YMCA’s Cornerstone organization.  She showed us how teachers can really influence their students for life.  I really liked all she had to say!  My wife wants a copy of all this as well so she can take it to her school.