It's officially over. I have completed my BEd in Secondary Education with a major in physical sciences and a minor in biological sciences. This brings an end to six years of post-secondary education at the University of Alberta.

I was the last person to leave the science staff room, because I needed to mark the quizzes my Science 20 class completed today. I said good-bye to one of my mentor teachers, I have no idea where the other one was for the entire day. They were probably in a rush to get home for the weekend.

There was a slight bump in today's activities, but it's a little difficult to explain, but let's just say it was resolved peacefully. I observed a Science 24 class, an English 10-2 class and an Applied Math 30 class today before teaching my last class.

I need to submit a criminal record check to Alberta Education (because I was *randomly* selected) before I get my interim professional certificate (IPC). I'm going to do that sometime next week.

Now, on to the next stage of my life - finding a teaching job ...

Yesterday, I went to McDonald's to purchase their special, two double hamburgers for $2. It was in the early evening, and hence, quite busy.

I saw a young woman with her friends in the line-up. She asked the cashier for more ice cream with her McFlurry. She got an extra whirl of soft-serve.

The woman behind me was quite rude. With one hour to go until her daughter's dance lesson, she was in line and decided to call her husband (I think) on her cell phone and whine about how long the line-up was. When it was her turn, she ordered two strawberry sundaes and one caramel one. Total was $3.18. She tendered $5.25 and got her change.

After she got her order, she told the cashier she ordered three strawberry sundaes. In the meantime, while another sundae was being made for her, she tossed the peanuts back on the counter, and made a remark about how one of the plastic spoons was dirty. She complained about the peanuts again, and simply gave the young cashier a dirty look as payment for the fourth sundae before removing the tray and leaving the counter.

Week 8 of my student teaching round has been completed. I have learned so much throughout this field experience: unit planning, classroom management, organization.

I have Science 10, Science 20 and Chemistry 20. Of course, each class has its share of quirks. My favourite class is probably the Science 10 class (29 students). They're fun to teach, and there is a good balance of students. In the Science 20 class, there is 14 students, but 2 students ask all of the questions (not necessarily good questions, just annoying ones) and show obvious symptoms of ADHD.

"Mr. L., I think you're better suited to teaching academic classes." No kidding!

Today, I'm on campus for the "APT callback day". There was a little over half the class that even bothered to show up. We shared any interesting stories, and were done within half an hour. I talked to about two students, and that was it. A complete waste of time.

I'm in SUB, right now. This is what I've been doing for the past hour:

- stream other people's music collections through iTunes. Now whether they're notified that I'm listening in, I'm not sure.
- download large files without having to sit through low download rates and capped bandwidth at home (e.g. linux distros).
- there are many fragmented networks, so you can't just walk across campus (well, at least I didn't try). The library has their own system, the Faculty of Education has their own, SUB has their own.
- the SUB is filled with people toting their notebook computers to chat with their friends online and work on essays (or play games).