December 20, 2013

Yesterday on the way to work I heard Barry Manilow's version of "Frosty The Snowman". It got a little better as the song went on but the beginning was especially painful to listen to. It was a like William Shatner's acting cadence. There was no real rhythm to it and it felt like it was just coming out at random. He was like someone trying to jump into the double-dutch ropes that just couldn't quite figure out the rhythm.

I lugged the bags of popcorn to school. The teacher's loved it so it was definitely a good call to bring a bag for Boys & Girls Club and one for the staff at school. As for my day, I came so close to finishing another storybook. I ended up copying the files for the ones I haven't finished in case I get really bored over break and want to feel productive. They will be easier to edit on my larger monitors at home. I also managed to get Type To Learn 4 installed on all the computers in the lab, so that was productive.

This morning I helped out with literacy centers in one of the kindergarten rooms because the teacher decided to have them for some reason. In the middle of that I swapped out with one of the SPED interns or someone (I don't know what she does) because one of the SPED teachers couldn't get their projector working and they were trying to watch The Polar Express. When I got up there it seemed to be stuck in Standby mode so I unplugged it and plugged it back in and that seemed to work. I'm always amazed how often that fixes technology issues.

Second grade didn't really have reading groups. When I went in they were working on a Christmas ornament. They were looping yarn around rings cut from toilet paper tubes, then tying the tails together and trimming them down so they kind of looked like little stocking caps with a big poof on the top. For most of the time I just stood around and talked with the kids, offering helpful tips every now and then. Then I pretty much made one for the little girl with Down Syndrome. She came in from her group outside of the room and I got her set up with a bunch of yarn, and managed to hold her interest for the first several pieces, getting her to fold the yarn in half and pull it through the tube, and then helping her pull the tails through the loop, but then I lost her. The most I could get was her holding her arm out and I would fold the yarn over her wrist to get a loop. At the moment my through is swelling up and I'm a bit congested and I feel like it is from her but I don't know how quickly a cold can set it. And I'm in a building filled with sick kids. But she was dripping snot, her hands were covered in candy cane residue which she kept trying to clean off with her tongue, and she wanted to put every piece of yarn in her mouth. So now I'm interested to see how I'm feeling tomorrow. It was pretty funny when I mentioned her hands to her and she immediately perked up at the mention of candy canes. She is obviously a fan.

This afternoon we had the school sing-along. Last year I sat next to the library clerk who sang along (seems obvious) but it was distracting and I couldn't hear the kids. This year I ended standing next to one of the math enrichment teachers and she was talking the whole time with a parent standing next to her. That was even more distracting than the singing clerk. But the sing-along went pretty well. And it ended with a whole school dance-along, which seems to be a theme with music assemblies now. Something that I am cool with because the kids love it.

After school I talked with the librarian for a little while about graduate school. She asked about the schools I was considering and she told me she was going to text me over break to see which ones I had picked and what kind of progress I had made. She also told me she would write me a letter of recommendation, and write one for the principal and just have her sign it, which was pretty funny. I'm not working much at the theater over break and I would really like to finally sit down and get the graduate school ball rolling.

I got a few Christmas things at school today. The librarian gave me a small USB-powered LED Christmas tree, my fifth grade teacher friend gave me a card and my copy of The 'Burbs back, the principal gave me a card written in incredibly small print because she can't believe I write so small in my notebook, a big thing of trail mix from one of the kindergarten teachers, and I got a "secret" card from a couple first graders. I say "secret" because I have no idea who gave it to me, even though I was sitting there when they put it on the chair next to me (I was intently staring at my monitor editing a storybook), and the first grade class was apparently going around the building secretly delivering big handmade cards to different people. That was kind of cool. I feel a little bad but I ended up throwing it out because it was covered in glitter which was getting everywhere. I did take a picture of it first though.

Tonight at the theater I was exhausted. It is hard working from 8:00AM to 1:45AM with six hours of sleep beforehand. And on top of that I get to work a double tomorrow. Thankfully I can sleep in a little because we don't open until 11:30AM, but that is still going to be a thirteen or fourteen hour day. I like the old day when if you opened the next day you got to leave when we locked up, not at the very end of the night. I have a headache and I just want to sleep.