My Own Atascadero High School PechaKucha

Today marked my real passage into being educator as I taught world history in front of a classroom full of fifteen year-olds for the first time in my life. My master teacher Ben Tomasini needed to be absent most of the day to coach a football game in Ventura so he handed me the reigns and I reigned. Because my substitute teacher packet is not yet completed I could not be given solo control of the classroom and be paid. For that reason I had a substitute teacher (Molly Morgan) in the classroom with me and she helped me at times but I ran the classroom. I'm glad she was there as the co-teaching model calls for a teacher candidate (me) to be gradually shifted into teaching but not dumped into the deep end. Had I been alone today even with a full substitute permit, I would have been diving in too quickly relative to what the co-teaching model prefers as this was only Week Two of the academic year. Hopefully, next away game I'll have my ducks in a row and be able to sub all to myself and get paid.

As part of the Cal Poly Early Start program for the 2016-2017 Single Subject Teaching Credential Cohort, I have been required to take Education 410 which features three collaborative presentations of varying sizes and configurations. One is a PechaKucha exercise and below are some of the images I captured on the campus of Atascadero High School for this PechaKucha project. Only about a quarter of these images will be selected for use with my three other project mates own images.

Note: initially I do not yet have 20 images but will add more until there are 20 images below at which point I shall delete this note. 

I had no idea until this week that the next graduating class after I left donated this monumental sign.

This Building B is going to be demolished by 2020. It holds bad memories for me. I was looking at this set of glass doors on the afternoon of Tuesday, November 26, 1985, when I espied a police car coming up towards the building. I immediately knew in my heart it was coming to get be and that something bad had happened. As it turned out, I was right: dad had died that day. For more on this read Losing A Father.

Woodpeckers have been getting an early start demo-ing the B Building in order to make storage compartments for their acorns.

The most famous octagon anywhere in Atascadero.

Building F at left is currently being remodeled while Building B at right is slated for destruction by 2020.

Ewing Gymnasium. I played junior varsity basketball here in 1986-87.

Westward view from east end of the football field. I have many fond memories in this space having played four years on this field.

Fancy new scoreboard and track (relative to when I was there and neither were as nice).

The refurbished seats in the home stand of the football stadium.

Lots of memories here: where players ascended and descended to and from the football stadium and varsity locker-room.

A lot of memories here: the walkway from the locker-room down to the practice field.

Practice field for the football program. Many memories here made in rain and shine.

A who's who of school football celebritydom.

No such thing as this existed back in my day here (I was class of 1989)

This is a closer view of the front of the newish "weight" room.

This is found between the senior parking lot and the F Building and honors the student who died in the swimming pool several years ago.