Moving along

So, I finally took my last CSET test on Saturday at about 2:00 pm at a middle school in Larchmont. The CSET is the California Subject Examination for Teachers, and if you are possibly missing some classes which would allow you to teach math, for instance, or history, or English, then you can take this test in the chosen area of study and if you pass, you can teach that subject. Last year I passed all 3 huge subtests covering World History, U.S. History, California History, Civics and Economics, which will allow me to teach social sciences in high school.

Last month I took the first and third subtest in English, and Saturday I finished the second and fourth subtests. Now all I have to do is complete one more quarter of study for my California Teaching Credential, and do my quarter of student teaching from January to March, and I'll be fully fledged to get a job teaching high school history and English. Oh, and after we get a job, we have to complete a 1-2 year on the job training course in order to get our 'clear' credential, something completely different. I've already finished a year's worth of graduate study to get to this point as well.

California has the most rigorous training for teachers in the whole country, which is good, yet LA has the biggest, and the most troubled, school district in the nation. They've been preparing us for it, however, and it's often a thin line between cynicism/despair and a pragmatic enthusiasm. I have been doing observations, substitute teaching and tutoring students who come from bad neighborhoods, and it's both heartening and slightly depressing to see some fantastic students who are struggling in their environments; students who would excel and do much better than I did if they had attended my upper middle class school in Austin. It really makes you work harder and realize that these kids deserve everything you can give them. They're giving me their time, of which they don't have much, and I need to devote my best efforts to helping them out. It's the least I can do.