April 24, 2013

There were three assessments today and it kind of felt like I was testing all day. It made the time go by fast after it was all over but during it felt like time was standing still. Especially with the kid who takes an hour to take the test and then another half hour going back over every single question. He spent at least twenty minutes on one question the second time around. And he didn't change his answer. He should qualify for special accommodations and shouldn't be testing in the lab. Purely based on speed. He holds up the whole operation and the lab can't be used for at least thirty minutes (sometimes closer to an hour) after everyone else is done. He should be in a small room where he can take all the time he needs and not hold things up for entire classes that are wanting to use the lab. It's really too late now because his last test is tomorrow. One teacher was telling me today than an hour and a half is an improvement because last year he would take up to three hours. That is some very thorough, misplaced dedication to a state assessment.

In celebration of para/aide appreciation week, we all got gift cards and a special lunch today. I didn't plan on going up to the lunch because I tend to eat in the lab, but my mom brought me down some vegetables and a massive piece of cake that the receptionist made. She is known for her cakes. And for good reason. It was a white cake on top of a chocolate cake, sandwiching a bunch of fresh fruit held in place with frosting, with more frosting on top. And the frosting was homemade and involved white chocolate pudding mix I think. It was amazing.

The highlight of my day, other than the cake, was the second grader's life statue museum. For many weeks now they have been researching famous people throughout history. This culminated in them dressing up like the person they researched and giving a speech about their lives. They were each standing behind tables in the gym with a “Start” button made out of paper in front of them, and they would start their speech after you pressed the button.

The gym was a pretty poor location because there was way too much background noise and the kids couldn't really talk over it. I leaned down for each one but I could only pick out bits and pieces from each speech. I went through all but two of the kids I think and built the anticipation by slowly lowering my finger to the button and trying to catch the kids off guard. I figured it would take some of the tension away and they seemed to enjoy the levity of it.

My favorite living statue was a girl playing Helen Keller. She was the most animated out of all the kids with big gestures and dynamic changes to her voice. She'll probably be a drama kid someday. One of her lines was “I got really sick when I was little and everyone thought I was going to die... BUT I DID NOT DIE!” She said the last part with genuine, Christmas-levels of excitement. It was pretty great.

Dinner was Chipotle and it was pretty good. Not much to say about it really. I showed my mom and sister several videos and funny pictures. Then my sister and I watched an episode of Radio Respawn in honor of Sark leaving Machinima. He says he will still be coming back, pro-bono, to do Radio and Inbox but it kind of feels like when Hutch took a month off and then quit right after coming back. I imagine Radio and Inbox will survive maybe a month at most before it either goes away completely or becomes very sporadic, at least with Sark hosting.

The rest of my night was spent doing a lot of nothing. With no intention of actually playing the game I checked Black Ops 2 to see if the Nuketown playlist was still active. It was not. A little disappointing but my left wrist and forearm have been bothering me so I wouldn't be able to play it anyway. Woe is me. Now I am going to record my day. Maybe. And my yesterday. I'm falling behind.