Many of you have asked me about the school where I’m teaching. I’m going to try to keep the name of the school private so that my students don’t accidentally find this site and realize I’m talking about them. So, let’s just call this school RCHS (Random California High School).

RCHS is a new school and has wonderfully new facilities. There are actually two schools sharing this campus, and our school has three small learning communities (SLCs), which I understand are all the rage these days. I will be teaching in the business-related SLC.  This SLC has roughly 450 students, and the whole school roughly 2,000. Approximately 85% of the students can be classified as Hispanic or Latino. The school follows the full inclusion model, in which all students, even those with the most severe educational disabilities, are integrated into regular classes with the help of teacher aides and resource personnel.

The school operates on a block schedule: class periods are roughly 80 minutes and not every class meets every day. Students take 8 classes in the usual schedule, so they accumulate 80 credits a year; they need to pass 55 to move on to the next grade level.

I work on the fifth floor of the school, so I think I’ll be getting quite a bit of exercise using the stairs everyday. This school is roughly 15 miles from my home. Over the last few days, it’s taken me about 25 to 30 minutes to get there, so I have a relatively mild commute.