September 17, 2014

This morning was picture day. I doubled checked my pictures from the last two years to make sure I didn't wear the same shirt. When I got to school I walked in the building, dropped my stuff off in the library, and then walked back out to my car because I had forgotten my ID badge. Then I walked back into the school, clocked in, and went back to the library to get my picture taken. This year they took the pictures while we were standing up, which threw me off because they normally have us sit down. I think I was too concerned about that to focus on my smile and I once again went very robotic with it. She showed me what it looked like and I didn't really look at it. Fingers crossed I don't look too goofy. If I do, I'll just put last years picture in the yearbook.

The nurse was there after I got my picture taken and she went for the mullet of dressing up. She had on a very nice top and then scrubs for pants. She was trying to get an opinion on her hair and everyone was in their own conversations with other people so she finally turned to me, exasperated, and asked if everything was working as she motioned in the general vicinity of her head. It was pretty funny.

After pictures I went down to help one of the third grade teachers fill out a trouble ticket for the laptop cart in her room. The same one where I was having to take the battery out of most of them for thirty seconds and then put it back in before it would recognize that there was actually a battery present and turn on. She said she tried to figure out the ticket thing early and couldn't but she did manage to fill out a ticket for the broken screen in her window, which she has been dealing with for at least a few years. She was able to do this because when you first log into the trouble ticket page it puts you in the maintenance trouble ticket tab. You then have to click over to the IT trouble ticket tab. This makes no sense because I'm sure the IT tab is way more popular. Anyway, once I pointed the teacher to the correct tab she was pretty much able to handle things.

There were two MAP tests this morning. The first was a second grade class. After one kid had finished the second and last part of his test I asked him if he wanted to take another one, he said didn't. I responded with “Don't you like taking tests?” And he came back with “Heavens no.” Hearing anyone say “Heavens no” is pretty great but a second grader saying it is the best.

During the second test I had to run up and take some pictures for one of the resource teachers. She needed pictures of her working with kids. I don't know why she needed them but I took a bunch. They were supposed to pretend like I wasn't there taking pictures but one of the kids kept looking up and smiling at me. It was funny and weird.

Shortly after I returned to the test one of the kids caught a case of the giggles. He was writing something for school and apparently thought of something funny and started to laugh. Just a short little laugh before he cut it off. But then it kept happening and it was obvious that he couldn't stop it. After several times the teacher asked him if he was okay or if he needed to go out in the hall. He giggled again and then held up his hands and said “Okay. Okay. I'm fine now.” But a little bit latter he giggled again and the teacher told him to go out in the hall until he could stop. Several minutes after his return there was a very truncated giggle and one of his classmates saved him by saying “bless you”. And then several minutes after that he made another noise, which could have been a giggle but before anyone could say anything he announced that it was just a sneeze. Testing is boring as hell and this made it interesting so I didn't have a problem with it.

The last time I can remember get wrapped up in the infectious giggle thing is way back in college when I went to watch some people (maybe grad students) give presentations over the studies they had done. It was in a fairly small room, there were probably less than fifty people in the room, and I was there with my group from class. I can't remember what started it but one of the girls in my group started laughing and that got the other one going. Eventually we were all laughing. Or trying not to laugh because these people were trying to present their studies. I can't remember but I think one or both of the girls had to excuse themselves for awhile. It has been awhile since I've had a good laugh, let alone an infectious one. I need to hang out with more people.

This afternoon we didn't have any MAP testing but there was a practice ACT test in the lab. I was in the middle of eating my lunch when they came to set things up and I ended up having to stop and help them several times. But everything got sorted out and when it was time for the test everything worked, which hasn't been the case in other schools. One four or five kids were taking the test and one of them was kind of being an ass so the lady administering the test reminded him that it was completely voluntary (their parents had signed them up) and he didn't have to take it if he didn't want to. He said he didn't so she said “Okay, I'll take you back up to class and then call your parents and tell them you didn't want to take the test.” He immediately changed his mind and sat down.

The rest of my afternoon was uneventful. I worked on a project for one of the resource teachers and messed with my MAP spreadsheets. After school I went to Chipotle and Jimmy Johns. On my way to the old house I stopped at one of my banks to do several things. I needed to deposit a check, withdraw money, change my address, and set up online banking. I then went over to my other bank to deposit the money I had just withdrawn and then headed to the old house. I didn't really accomplish much before heading to the new house for dinner.

My sister was a little late because she had been dealing with a plumbing issue at my grandma's house with my dad and brother. But when she showed up we had dinner and talked about all the random things. The conversation lasted until almost eight o'clock because I didn't have a visit with the new volunteer kid tonight. He said he actually had tomorrow night off from work so we are going to attempt a visit if we both manage to remember.

After dinner I met my sister over at my grandma's house so I could help her get the cedar chest out of the house. My grandpa wanted her to have it and we all wanted to get it out before it accidentally ended up somewhere else. We also got the chalkboard that used to be in the garage of my grandparents' old house and my sister and I played with it a lot when we were kids. I also grabbed the board that has the train tracks attached to it.

Then I headed to the old house. I was feeling a little overwhelmed by the annotated bibliography assignment because I mistakenly thought I needed to write one for nine articles. Upon closer inspection I saw that I had nine topics to choose from but only needed to write two annotated bibliographies. That is still a little scary but way more doable. I wanted to go with game-based learning but the article selection was pretty poor. I also probably wasn't searching quite right. Instead, I think I am going with library design. I found two full articles which I think I'll print off tomorrow at work and read through. I also need to finish reading the chapters for my research class this week, re-watch the video, and write my discussion post. He threw in some extra questions we need to answer this week so that is kind of annoying. It shouldn't be too hard though, if I can just finish the chapters. I also need to figure out the librarian interview. I need to email the librarian I talked to a few years ago when I first thought about going to grad school, and see if she'd be interested in answering the questions. If not, I'll ask the librarian at school if she has any suggestions. I would interview her but I think it might be frowned on to interview a coworker. I heard back from the last library I emailed about newspaper subscriptions so I need to compile all those answers and email my partner and see if we can figure out our main goal for the project and how we're going to write things up. Maybe I can do that tomorrow at work. I can't remember what the testing schedule is like.

At the moment it is after eleven o'clock and I need to stop writing so I can go back to the new house and go to bed. It will be so nice when we get the internet over there. It doesn't seem like it will be happening any time soon but I am holding out hope.