After entering his 41st year of teaching at Cal High, no one knows the school better than Algebra II teacher Fred Albano.

He has watched the school grow over the years and has a lot to say about it.

Albano started as a student teacher on campus while he attended UC Berkeley in the summer of 1975.

“When I started teaching here, there were no houses on the hills and I-680 was basically empty,” Albano said. “I’ve seen the school progress from its baby stages to a quality high school, educationally speaking as well as athletically speaking.”

Many people know him as a math teacher, but before he began teaching academics,he was an athletic director. He coached sports such as basketball, tennis, football, and track and field.

It was only after 17 years that he progressed to teaching everything from basic math to honors Pre-Calculus.

He believes that math can be dull at times so he likes to joke around with his students so they can become involved and engaged in his class.

“I inject humor in my lessons,” Albano said. “Teaching mathematics at times much too serious.”

Many of his students agree that he can keep math lively and interesting.

“He’s a funny guy,” said sophomore Davis Young.

Sophomore Ursella Cheung finds Albano helpful and entertaining at the same time.

“He gives a lot of examples and puts jokes at the end of his lessons,” said Cheung.

Then, there are students like sophomore George Yu who seem to be uninterested in class from an academic perspective, but still enjoys the class and having Albano as a teacher.

“He lets us use our phones in class, so he’s chill,” said Yu.

Overall, students seem to enjoy his sense of humor and teaching style, but Albano has no doubt that teaching has always been a “work in progress.” He describes teaching as a trial-and-error process and that there are concepts that just don’t work out so they have to be tweaked.

Gary Triebwasser, a math teacher who has known Albano for 40 years, has also seen Cal evolve into the high school it is now. He has also seen his fellow co-worker grow into the teacher he is today.

After many years of working together, Triebwasser describes Albano with one word: “professional.”

“He’s a very dedicated teacher,” Triebwasser said. “He’s always had the best interest in Cal High.”

Albano has seen the physical changes that the school went through throughout the years, but he also has seen students, the heart of the school, come and go.

“The students have changed just like society has changed,” Albano said. “Students in the past were pretty much more engaged and there were less distractions. Now, there are so many more distractions involved because of the Internet, games, things like that.”

Albano believes that students in the past were more determined and focused on their future, whereas now, students would rather live in the moment.

“In the olden days, students pretty much had a solid track of where they wanted to go and how they were going to get there,” Albano said. “Now there are just different avenues, which have good points and bad points.”

Albano’s 41 years of teaching have been such an incredible journey.

He has watched his surroundings change throughout the years and has learned much from it.

But, as every journey must come to an end, when the time is right, he dreams to retire and travel the world with his family.