May 10, 2013

Today was the last day of MAP testing. Good riddance. It was another back-to-back morning with fifth grade finishing up their Math tests and then fourth grade coming in to take their Reading test. Immediately after that, third grade came in for typing practice. And just like that, my morning was over.

After lunch I had a fifth grader come in to retake his Reading test because his teacher thought he could do better but was probably too distracted during the first test. I think the teacher was thinking, and I was with him, that the kid would test with a para in the resource room, but the resource teacher wasn't very helpful and the principal decided he should just take it in the lab with me sitting with him. I was supposed to encourage him to read out loud, and he did for a few questions but then he decided he didn't want to. He got about halfway done before I had to kick him out for the first grade class coming in.

In the first grade class I was able to give the teacher the potholders I made her and the note I wrote. I was messing with the printer while she was reading the note but she mentioned and my para friend verified, that she laughed, then cried a little, and then laughed again. So job well done. I started with a joke about Teacher Appreciation Week, then thanked her for helping me discover a love for reading years ago (because she was my reading tutor when I was a kid), and then I ended with a joke about a pile of books collapsing on me. I like to sprinkle in jokes with my sentiment. Jokes make everything better.

Sometime after the first graders left, the fifth grader came back to finish his test. I gave him a piece of scratch paper and a pencil and he said he didn't need it but I said maybe he would come across his favorite new word and want to write it done for later. He asked me if that had happened to anyone before and I said no but that he could be the first. The rest of the test itself went well and his score went up several points, enough to almost double his percentile rank, so his teacher made a good call. When he was done I asked him if he had a favorite new word, like “and” or “is”. He went with “a”. Kids that get sarcasm are cool in my book.

He finished up his test in time to catch the last few songs of the choir assembly so we headed down to the gym. After the assembly I only got to put one chair away. I started with two but a kid took one of them from me. Then I went and got another two but a second grader wanted to take those and I didn't put up a fight. Definitely my weakest showing.

After the assembly I had two more classes in the lab and then I had about thirty minutes to myself to make a little progress on my spreadsheets. The day went by really fast and it didn't seem like I had much time to be productive on my side projects. In the in-between times in the lab it was kind of nice because neither of the math enrichment teachers or their subs were there today so I had the place to myself. I like the quiet. Not that the math enrichment teachers are loud, I just like my quiet, alone time.

I remembered to stop by the UPS store on the way home to finally return the AverMedia LGP. I nearly forgot. Now I need to call and start the exchange process for my green hoodie. Maybe next week.

Tonight was the end of the year party at the house of one of the kindergarten teachers. He has a really nice backyard. Anyway, my mom and I got there after six o'clock, about thirty minutes after it was supposed to start, and there were only two other people there. For a brief while I was afraid it was going to be a small, awkward party, but then other people started showing up and eventually there was a decent turnout. I spent most of the time sitting at one of the tables, talking with my mom, one of the kindergarten teachers, my para friend, and her boyfriend, who is a new para in one of the kindergarten rooms.

When he discovered that I had been at the theater for twelve years he asked me if I knew his cousin who had worked there seven or so years ago. And I did. Pretty well actually because that was back when a lot of us would hang out outside of work. And after discovering this, this para looked a lot more familiar. There was always something that seemed vaguely familiar in his appearance but it was way inside my head, just below my ability to even acknowledge its existence. But finding out he was the cousin of this dude I used to work with, and that he lived in the house that I hung out at several times, awakened that familiarity. The odds are really good that I saw him on more than one occasion years ago. It is kind of like when you see a movie a bunch of times and then someone from it does something and becomes famous and you go back and watch that old movie and there they are, and you had no clue they were even in it. It is just really strange when it happens in real life.

Now I am kind of sort of remembering a Halloween party where I was standing out on the driveway talking to my friend, I think we were both leaving the party, and one of the roommates wanted us to come inside so the cops wouldn't be called. So my friend and I stepped out into the street so we weren't on their property and they wouldn't have to worry (and to be dicks, really). The roommate was a bit of a hot-head and I think wanted to fight my friend over it because he was drunk (and my friend was not and probably could have easily kicked the guy's butt). And I think maybe my para friend's boyfriend was wearing a ridiculous costume and trying to calm the hot-headed roommate down. I'm going to have to ask him about it.

But yeah, the party was pretty good. The weather and scenery were nice, I had some good conversations despite the fact that I wasn't overly social because I'm not good at initiating interactions of any sort, and I had some good food, even though that food was mostly just some fruit and vegetables, along with more homemade hummus and pitas that my sister made.

And now I am going to go to bed because it is freaking late and I want to sleep. And I want to sleep in late. The main thing I am looking forward to about summer is the fact that I won't have to wake up at six o'clock every morning. Beds are always so much more comfortable in the morning and that is just cruel. So I am going to go to bed now so I can enjoy that comfortable morning bed without the annoyance of an alarm.