Thursday, April 3, 2014

April 3, 2014

Today was a day. Much like any other. We received word that testing was going to be pushed back to Monday because the servers had been brought down by hackers. Not so much hacking as a DDoS attack, overwhelming the servers with traffic. Which was entirely pointless because the servers were already crap and were being DDoSed just fine by students trying to take the test. Our principal volunteered us to try things out on Monday so we'll see how that goes. If it doesn't work I think we're going to end up taking MAP tests instead and then going back to the assessment after. Or maybe we can just say screw the assessment because the whole point of it is to get accreditation for the following school year, which we already got because the assessment this year was so unreliable. Bring on teaching, not testing.

I caught up on all the sixth grade pictures for the slideshow and started dropping the into slides. At the moment I am leaning toward not putting the students' names on the individual slides but maybe doing a credits slide or something at the end. If I don't put the name on the slide I can make the pictures bigger, and I think people in the back of the gym would appreciate that, even though they probably won't be able to see them anyway. We'll see. I need to do a mockup with a few slides in my video editing program, not only so I can get a feel for what the hell I'm doing and how long it will take, but also to see how things are going to look. I have ideas in my head and I need to see how close to reality they actually are.

When I wasn't working on the slideshow, I helped out with kindergarten literacy centers and reading groups in second grade. Both were fairly uneventful. There were also some classes in the lab but they were also uneventful.

After work I went and got the blood test done for my kidney stone. Needles really aren't that bad. I used to think they were but then I got them in my toes, and that was completely terrible. Ever since then, needles in my arms and hands couldn't be easier.

I didn't have a visit with the new volunteer kid tonight because he is still trying to catch up on homework but we did talk on the phone for a little over five minutes. Not bad considering teenage boys generally aren't big phone conversationalists unless a girl is on the other end of the line.

Without the visit, I spent my night watching YouTube videos, listening to music, and practicing the piano. I have gotten pretty close to nailing the first two pages of the song I'm working on. I still get tripped up a little on the last two bars but the rest is pretty good. I did a lot better on the section that was getting me last night. I also took a little peek at the next page, playing the first half of it but not really trying to commit any of it to memory. I'll save that for this weekend. Maybe.


Right now it is only 9:30PM but I am seriously considering calling it bedtime. I'm afraid of laying down and having it be a false alarm but as I sit here, it doesn't feel like a false alarm.

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