I kind of feel like crap at the moment. I've got a headache and my
left kidney has been nagging me for a couple days now. I feel like
it is on the verge of some awful thing but it is just waiting for the
least opportune moment. I've been wary of moving too vigorously in
the fear of tipping the domino.
Today was the day where we stress-tested the state assessment
servers. The real assessments aren't until the Spring but they went
so horribly last year that someone had the bright idea that maybe
they should give the thing a dry run this time around to make sure
everything is in order. It turns out that everything is not in
order. We had three tests schedule for today but only had the two in
the morning because there was an assembly during the afternoon test.
The first test of the day was an exact recreation of assessments last
year. There was a whole bunch of waiting and weirdness and in the
end only eleven out of twenty-five kids were actually able to get
into the test. According to all the emails I received from other
schools, that seemed to be pretty much par for the course during that
time frame. Other schools tested earlier in the day without a
problem but that might have been because none of the elementary
schools, which comprise the majority of the schools in the district,
were actually in school yet. The second test of the morning went off
without a hitch. There was no indication that things had been
utterly broken just an hour earlier. This was also similar to the
assessments last year. There didn't seem to be much rhyme or reason
the the bipolar-ness of the test.
After the first test the teacher made a point to tell his students to
keep the functionality of the test, or lack thereof, in mind when
picking a college later in life (because the test was made and hosted
by a rival college). I thought that was pretty funny.
In between tests I went down and helped out with literacy centers in
one of the kindergarten rooms. That actually went pretty well. My
group listened to Bee-Bim Bop!,
which always makes me hungry, and then they had to draw pictures of
their favorite foods. There are always some kids that rush through
the coloring part by scribbling all over the place and then getting
bored and becoming disruptive. There was one kid like that in my
group today but somehow I convinced him to keep going and adding
detail and we made it through the half hour. I was mildly amazed.
I spent a good chunk of my morning
trying to figure out why the testing program wasn't working on one of
the computers. Most of the files were missing from the folder but it
wouldn't let me drop in the correct files. I also tried logging in
using the repair and upgrade logins that the tech guys sent out but
the upgrade one didn't even register and the repair one just locked
up the computer. I then tried using the old install folder, which
got the program on the computer but it wasn't updated so it didn't
actually work and I couldn't update it. Eventually I found the
download on the testing website and was able to use that to get
everything working. Not too long after figuring this out the
librarian forwarded me an email from the tech guys saying the
previous testing login information for updating and repairing had
been wrong and it gave the correct one. Originally they sent out the
testing login along with a login for Type To Learn 4.
The one for Type To Learn 4
was said to be an update but after several more emails we learned it
was just to install it on new computers. Now we find out the testing
login was wrong, too. So that original email was pointless.
When I wasn't doing work-related
things, I worked on school-related things. I managed to get another
annotated bibliography written and downloaded a few more articles. I
worked on that instead of walking around the building to stomp out
bullying or going to the assembly immediately following the walk. It
was a whole school thing but with my kidney messing with me I wasn't
really in the mood to go for a walk. My mom was telling me later
that the assembly was actually pretty cool. All of the staff had to
go up front and sit on the stage while all the kids sang and danced
for them. I always miss the cool things.
Tonight I managed to knock out two
more annotated bibliographies, bringing my total up to five. The
last one was from a 100+ page report but I managed to get pretty much
everything I needed out of the first few pages in the executive
summary. Not bad. My goal today was three bibliographies but if I'm
up for it when I get home I might try for another one so I can be
halfway done with the whole thing. Or I might just go to bed because
I was up past midnight writing one last night and I'm pretty tired.
We'll see what happens. Probably sleep. But I'm getting there. I'm
on track to getting it finished and turned in on time.
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