This diary is me updating those of you
who are interested in my teaching journey.
This report is about my CSET Testing
and some subbing stories.
Last week I took the CSET tests which are required to get admitted into a teaching credential program. I have previously submitted my application to the Multi-subject teaching credential program at CSU Monterey Bay, which is also where I got my B.S. in computer science.
I took parts 3 and 1, in that order, in Campbell last Tuesday, and on Thursday I drove to Fresno to take part 2, which is science and math.
I am very nervous about the test results. I won’t get the test results until March 22. If I don’t pass any one or all of the tests, I have until the end of April to retake the tests, but it’s unclear whether I would be able to both schedule a retest and get the results in time, which would mean a delay in getting into a teaching credential program.
I am going in circles about my chances of passing. On one hand, I feel like most of the questions on all the tests I did OK, but the written parts I am unsure about. For example, one of the essay questions was about the fall of the Roman Empire. I was to write what I knew of the fall of the Roman Empire and I chose to write about the collapse of the infrastructure, i.e. roads and aqueducts, sewers, and so on, due to political negligence of the increasing unaware Emperors and Senates. I’m sure my answer is true, but I wonder if the person(s) who will be grading it will be lookign for some other reason, and will fail me because they won’t understnad how nonfunctional sewers and water systems can lead to a collapse, and will instead want an answer about some abstract historical or philosophical trivia.
There was a question about dances which asked which of four dances used bamboo poles. I eliminated American Swing as one, so I had to take a random guess on the other three choices.
I was able to mostly eliminate one, two, or sometimes three choices and then picked randomly. I hope due to a combination of getting the right answer by choice, and getting enough answers randomly correct to pass.
With the test on Thursday in Fresno was Math and Science. I am sure I aced every science question on the test, so the question there is whether I passed enough of the math to pass the test. If I pass that subtest, it will be on the stength of my science geekieness that made it possible.
The next month of waiting will be very long and suspenseful. If I pass, I will be admitted without question. If I don’t pass, I will have to postpone starting a credential program until I do pass the tests, and perhaps forever. I am going to keep studying just in case I don’t pass one, two or all three parts of the test so I hopefully can quickly reschedule and retake the test.
As I think about the test, I go back and forth on how hopeful I am that I passed. I have been thinking that the reason I am so anxious over the results is that the consequences of passing or failing are so life-changing consequential.
(-: • • • • • • • • • • • • • :-)
The last few weeks of subbing have been interesting.
I have had a range of grades ranging from a kindergarten class, a roving sub assignment, middle school English, and High School at my alma mater.
I taught a series of Earth Science classes at my Alma Matar high school. Some of them were suitably impressed that I am an alumnus and when I told them about how when I was a student there, there were no houses across the street and when they fertilized the fields, we knew because we could smell them fertilizing the fields across the street. 💩💩💩
I had a special education class at a middle school I’ve been to before but after a while. I ended up sending about half the class to the office for misbehavior, and of course, they told the vice principal that they were innocent little angels who had no idea why mean mister Green was persecuting them. The vice principal came in and I told her what had happened to the various students and she was not at all surprised.
I was a roving sub at an elementary school I’ve been to many times. I went from class to class reliving teachers to go to meetings. I started by going to a kindergarten class, and I started by singing to them a good morning song, which got them happy and laughing.
Later I had a third-grade class, the students were at first rather rowdy, but after a few minutes, and threatening one particularly obnoxious boy sitting in the front with putting him on report, the class got quiet and were working on their assignment when the teacher came back early from her meeting. I told her “I just got them quiet” and she said, “yes they are, I should have you come here more often”. I told them that most of the students knew me and I asked the class “how many of you have had me before?” and almost the entire class raised their hands.
Wherever I go, I repeatedly get the same question, “Are you Mister Green because you like green” and I say “I’m Mister Green because my Daddy was Mister Green and my Grampa was Mister Green and my Great Grampa was Mister Green and my Great Great Grampa was Mister Green and so on.” When I’m asked “what’s your favorite color, I say “I am an artist so I like all colors from infrared to ultraviolet”.
Later, because a couple of meetings got canceled, I was given cafeteria duty during lunch. At first, I was not too jived about this because I figured I’d be standing for a couple of hours and be bored, but this was not how things turned out. Almost every student in school passed through the cafeteria starting with the kindergarteners, including a class I’d had that morning. As my class came in, the kids were excited to see me again. As the kindergarteners were excitedly shouting MISTER GREEN as they filed in, the vice principal walked by and one of the kiddos grabbed him by the hand and pointed at me and told him “THAT’S MISTER GREEN”. The VP confusedly looked at me and said to the kid, “I know” and went on.
As the classes flowed in, every new bunch of students brought in new cries of MISTER GREEN and even the few students who did not know me were hearing MISTER GREEN. One sixth grader said to me “I’m a big fan”, to which I joked, “do you spin your arms around to blow wind” and I waved my arms around in a spin and then I said “or do you wave back and forth” and I bowed back and forth. He and the whole table exploded in laughter and I looked at them with mock seriousness and said, “ARE YOU LAUGHING AT ME???” which of course got them laughing even harder.
Another day I went to a middle school I’ve been to several times since I began working in the local high school district. This was an English class but mostly I was sitting doing not much other than keeping them working. There were a lot of students who had me before, both those who have had me at that school, as well as students who had me in some elementary school. I point out to the elementary school students that they have something in common that they didn’t know. I wonder if some of them are sharing and comparing stories about Mister Green. At one point, a student asked me what other jobs I had, and I told them I take care of my puppies and kitties and I am a YouTuber. At hearing that I was a YouTuber, there was a big reaction and I told them I’m starting a Mister Green Teacher YouTube Channel and while there’s nothing there yet, I’m going to be posting educational videos there soon, and they were excited and I heard one kid go “YEAH!” (PLEASE GO TO THAT CHANNEL AND SUBSCRIBE TO HELP ME GET MY NUMBERS UP BEFORE LAUNCHING). One kid commented how cool it was for one of his teachers to be a YouTuber, and that’s given me some incentive to get that channel going.
If you read all that, thank you, and please REC, TIP, COMMENT, and SHARE. 😺
Ask me anything in the comments. 😬
OK, that’s all for now. 😼
#jtg
(-: • • • • • • • • • • • • • :-)
Please Support my Diaries, Activism and Activities
REC, TIP, COMMENT, SHARE This Post
• Patreon • GoFundMe • Ko-Fi •
• PayPal (James at JamesThomasGreen.com) •
Sending me Pet Supplies means I don’t have to expend my scarce funds
Amazon Wishlists: Pet Supplies • Clothing • Random Gifts
Follow Me: DKos • YouTube • Facebook • Twitter