March 28, 2013

Today was not nearly as busy as yesterday. I liked being busy yesterday. Oh well. My main bit of work involved yearbook pictures. I finished dividing them into class folders and then renamed all of the pictures, changing them from student ID numbers to the student's name. So much fun. It actually went a lot faster than I thought it would. My student directory came in handy because I was able to open it up, pick a class, and then scroll through the kids and rename photos as I went. There are several kids who for one reason or another don't have a picture so I might end up having to go around and take their picture. Those always tend to look like crap so hopefully if it does come down to me taking them I can do a decent job.

This morning I read with kindergarteners, helped out with one kindergarten literacy center, and had my second grade reading group. One kid was absent, bringing the group down to three kids, and that made a world of difference. It is a lot easier to keep track of three kids, instead of four. Especially when that fourth kid can be a tad obnoxious at times.

One of the first grade teachers responded to my email about wanting work saying she needed someone to fix her car, ice maker, and garage door opener but she said she would try to think of some school-related work. I sent my email out to the whole school and accidentally replied to the whole school. So I got several comments from people who thought it was pretty funny and I think she did too. When I ran into her in the hall she mentioned that she didn't mean to reply-all and I told her she was just lucky she kept it clean for once. She thought that was hilarious. It is funny because she doesn't use bad language or even watch Rated-R movies.

When the second grade class came in I helped the teacher pull certain papers out of folders while she entered grades and we talked about a bunch of random stuff. I can't even remember most of it because it was similar to a stream of consciousness conversation that just jumped all over the place. I do remember talking about outlooks on religion/politics/stress, foreign languages, and minor events we remembered from grade school and high school. Random conversations are good times.

After work I had a carrot and some sourdough for a snack. The carrot was fantastic. I can't remember the last time I had a full-sized carrot, I typically just those tiny baby carrots. If baby carrots were candy bars they would be called “fun-sized” but there really isn't anything fun about them. Full-sized carrots are where it's at. They are more solid than the small ones and a bit harder to eat but that just adds to the appeal. There is a sense of accomplishment when you crunch through a substantial vegetable like a big carrot. I could very well lose interest in this rediscovered pleasure by the time I am halfway through my next carrot but I can say with a fair bit of confidence that I will thoroughly enjoy the first half of that carrot.

Speaking of halves, I had the second half of my Chipotle burrito tonight. Once again, I was happy with my choice to not get cheese or sour cream this week. It was a good second-half of a burrito. For dessert I had a Jimmy John's chocolate chip cookie. I'm not sure when it happened but they are now triple chocolate, one of those chocolates being white chocolate (even though it isn't technically chocolate). This change had to have happened somewhat recently but it has been several months since I've had one of their cookies. They were good before but I enjoyed the change.

Tonight I was supposed to have my visit with the new volunteer kid but for the second week in a row it didn't happen. I got ahold of the foster dad and he said he didn't see a problem with me coming over but then when he handed the phone off to the kid, the kid said he was busy doing stuff around the house. I'm going to start looking like a delinquent volunteer if I can't schedule of visit with the kid. He mentioned that there is a case plan on Monday which I was unaware of so I'll need to contact my supervisor, but I should be able to see him at that at least.

I wasn't really prepared to have a free night and ended up not doing much with it. Just watching YouTube videos and clicking around the internet. This afternoon I for real used my microphone for the first time. I made a short recording explaining why I got the microphone and then I made a recording about my yesterday. It actually went smoothly I think. I glanced at my entry from yesterday as I spoke to hit the basic points but I didn't really plan out ahead of time what I was going to say and I didn't read my entry word-for-word. I think the lack of planning was a good thing because I didn't over think it. I'm not sure if I am to the point of actually doing it every day but I've made a start.