May 2, 2014

The plot thickens. Recently, when I got to work one of the receptionists said she needed to take my picture. I thought that was strange but I let her do it. She mentioned that she wasn't very good at taking pictures and apparently that is true. This morning, the librarian came into the lab and said "They said I need to take your picture." She didn't elaborate on that but I let her take my picture. A couple hours later, during the middle of a test, the receptionist called the lab to ask whether or not we had testing around 1:00PM or 1:30PM this afternoon. I mentioned that we kind of did because first grade would be coming back and a few of them would be finishing tests. She made an offhand remark that "maybe she'll get here before then." Whoever "she" was. Then the receptionist asked how tall I was, like it was a question she has always been curious about. When I answered she said "oh, you are tall, aren't you?" and then the conversation ended.

Around 1:45PM I'm standing in the lab with my clipboard, waiting for the last couple of first graders to finish their tests, when the receptionist pokes her head in and motions for me to step out into the hall. She takes my clipboard and tells me to stand against the blank wall. There is a lady with her with an actual camera, like a really expensive DSLR, and she tells me to smile and that it won't hurt, unless I don't smile. She snaps a few and the receptionist makes sure the lady has gotten my shoes. I have no idea who the lady was or why my shoes were so important. Or why my height is important for that matter. For all I know, several people throughout the building could be receiving the same treatment, but I am feeling a bit singled out. It is very strange.

As for the rest of my day, there turned out to be a lot more testing than I was expecting. There was only one test on the schedule but I figured there would also be the last couple of sixth graders who still needed to finish their last MAP test. While I was setting up for the first graders, who were testing first thing, the fifth grade teacher came into the lab and asked if I had gotten an email from the principal yet. I hadn't checked (and it turns out I hadn't) but the principal and the fifth grade teacher had decided to make her kids retake the Reading MAP test because almost all of them had gone down, most below where they were at the beginning of the year. Not good. So they were coming in right after the first graders to try again. The teacher said she bought them donuts holes and she was going to make them where their headbands (that have their names on them and which they wore for one of their State Assessments) and tell them that she had sprayed it with knowledge spray, and she had a bunch of mints for them to eat during the test. It was a full-on assault. And it turned out to be worthwhile because so far, everyone's score has gone up. Some only a point or two but others have gone up significantly. There are still a handful more that didn't finish but hopefully their scores will go up as well.

One of the sixth graders was able to finish her test this morning but the other one came back a couple times before he was able to finish. It was actually worth the time because he scored almost twenty points higher on his Math test than the next highest person. I commented on how high the score was and he said he had one last year that was almost as high (something I didn't check but might) and my only response was "So I guess you know a little bit of Math." That got a smile and a little chuckle, not quite a laugh but I'll take it.

The first graders came back in the afternoon to finish testing and a few of the fifth graders also came back to finish. When that wasn't happening, I made two trips up to the third floor to help my favorite substitute. The first time was to get a laptop hooked up to the projector. I stared at it for awhile and decided I needed a another VGA cable so I ran down to the library to get one. And then back upstairs, so I guess I made three trips up there. My decision turned out to be the correct one because when I plugged the cable in the laptop desktop was projected onto the board.

My next trip up there was basically the same problem. This time she wanted to show a video but it was just a DVD played on a laptop. I couldn't quite figure out why it wasn't working since it had just worked not too long ago. I solved the problem by swapping the two VGA cables plugged into the overhead thing. At some point since my last visit they had been switched. When I came in there were a couple paras trying to help and one of them had switched them, fairly, so they were matching the colors on the overhead. There was a blue cable and a black cable, and a blue port and a black port. Dell has taught us to just match up colors. Unfortunately in this case, the colors were entirely coincidental. After swapping the cables the DVD popped up and all was well.

That pretty much covers all the noteworthy stuff from my day at school. Leaving out the boring bits where I input scores into my spreadsheet or logged almost all of the fifth graders into the sixth grade test before I realized my mistake and had to go back and switch everyone's test. That was annoying and a literal pain in my back.

When I got home I tried to take a nap but I don't know how successful that was. At best I may have drifted off for a couple minutes here and there. My dogs kept randomly barking so I will blame them. It was nice to lay down for a little while though. I think it helped because I made it through the eleven o'clock hour at the theater without feeling like I was going to pass out. I spent the majority of my time at work knitting. I can't remember the exact length when I stopped but I think I'm somewhere shy of three feet. The most annoying thing was a mistake I made on the edge at one point and I couldn't figure out how to fix it. I carried on but now it is all I can see. I also read a little bit and did some actual work because several of the projectors were acting up. Mostly because the projectionist that opened wasn't on their game and wrong movies were starting all over the place, which screwed up preshows. So tonight I earned my keep. And I got off before one o'clock. I was worried I'd have to stay until the midnight shows got out but the right manager was working so I got off early. But now I need to go to bed so I can take advantage of a couple hours extra sleep.