This morning seems so long ago and it
is only ten o’clock. I helped out with second grade reading groups
with morning. The high group usually goes to the library but not of
Friday, so I took them to the lab. They had to do the first part of
a packet about earthworms and then read from various books about
earthworms until it was time to rotate. The classroom would have
been too hectic so we went down to the computer lab. And then
rotated to the hallway outside the room to play reading games until
it was time to rotate again. They ended reading time by getting on
Wonderopolis and looking at things. They a couple of the groups
ended up watching a video about Big Foot so I think they believe now.
Immediately after reading groups I had
both second grade classes come to the lab, one after the other. I
missed part of the first one because I went down to the library to
help the librarian get pictures off her camera. We learned that
Canon doesn't make a driver for Windows 7 for the particular camera
she has so you can't just plug it in and get the pictures. I learned
on a forum that you kind of have to trick the camera by going into
the setting and changing the communication option from PC connection
to a printer or something like that. Then the camera will show up
and you can browse through the folders. That seems like a strange
thing to do, and a bit random, but it ended up working out and she
was able to get the pictures.
The sixth graders came down to the lab
for the first time as a class, without a MAP test being involved.
The teacher wants to get them started on Type to Learn 4
because they have been working on papers and he noticed that most of
them hunt and peck with two fingers. I believe writing will be a
part of the sixth graders state assessment this year and it will have
to be done on a computer. Not a lot of kids are that good at typing
in grade school so the writing assessment is going to be a special
kind of torture for everyone involved.
When I
didn't have classes in the lab I entertained myself by messing with
MAP data. I'm going to try and come up with some charts or visual
representations of data. I messed around with the idea last year but
never got around to actually doing anything about it. So now, while
I'm trying to fill time, I'm going a bit farther and messing around
with the idea in Excel and Publisher. I'm not entirely sure what I
want to do yet or how I want to do it but right now I'm just
organizing the information that I think I will be using. Hopefully
I'll get some other busy work before too long and this little side
project will fall to the wayside. Or I could be more productive in
my personal life and multitask by working on grad school stuff.
Speaking
of, I left work about an hour early today so I could go home and get
everything ready. I was pretty sure I had everything I needed
because I laid it all out this morning. So I packed it all up, made
a quick peanut butter sandwich to take with me for dinner, and hit
the road. The drive went well and I only had to check my directions
once. I think I would have been fine without them but I wanted to
double-check the final exit I needed to take. It ended up being
labeled with the street name I was looking for, so I would have been
fine, but better safe than sorry.
I made
the executive decision this time to stop at the last gas station
before reaching my destination town because last time I passed it up,
even though I kind of had to pee, because I was pretty close to town.
And then I got stuck in a slow-moving convoy. When I pulled in to
stop the highway was completely clear so maybe I would have been
fine. But when I got back on the highway I ended up getting behind
more slow-moving vehicles. There were two big trucks behind a
slow-moving pickup truck. It took forever but we eventually made it
to the passing lane section of the road. And that ended up being a
complete waste because the pickup truck moved over and instead of
doing the courteous thing, the two big trucks stayed in the left lane
to pass the pickup. The problem was they were only going maybe a few
miles an hour faster than the pickup so I barely got around the
pickup before the lane ended and the pickup pulled in behind me. He
slowly fell behind with a long line of cars behind him but I was
still stuck behind the two big trucks which were only maxing out at
60mph when the speed limit was 65mph, which means I should have been
driving 70mph. It was frustrating.
There
were two classes in town this weekend so mine ended up being in the
computer lab off the library instead of the room upstairs where we
were last time. It is a very oddly shaped computer lab and it makes
it kind of awkward for teaching a class. The professor still needs
to figure out the logistics for the Skype interviews we will be doing
tomorrow. I picked the side of the room that the professor ended up
standing at the front of so I now have a bit of a kink in my neck
from looking sideways most of the night and I will probably be
feeling it even more tomorrow.
I sat
next to a friendly girl who is actually not in our cohort but will be
graduating in May. In theory I will be graduating the summer after
next, which isn't too far off, but seeing someone who only has a
semester and a half left makes them seem so advanced. And I am a bit
envious. I have so much more work to do.
I also
sat next to a girl who teaches kindergarten in a town near where I
live, but she lives in my town and is best friends with the mother of
one of the kindergarten students at the school where I work. We
spoke briefly at orientation about it but I hadn't really met the
kindergarteners yet. Now I almost know most of their names,
including the kid she knows. She said that she was scrolling through
discussion posts the other day and he say my picture come up and he
couldn't believe that she knew me. It sounded like it was a pretty
funny realization.
We got
divided into our groups for the group project, which takes up most of
the second half of the class, and I feel better about this group. I
am with the kindergarten teacher plus a guy who works as a para for
troubled kids and writes for a website on the side. He also lives
fairly close to us so if we ever need to get together it won't be too
hard. The project involves picking a topic the covers something in
the area of research, finding twelve to fifteen sources, summarizing
them, writing a paper (like a literature review), and presenting it
to the class as if you were presenting at a conference. Because
there are three people in the group, the professor wanted one of use
to find the articles and write summaries, one to write the paper, and
one to do the presentation. I am the researcher and I am a little
worried. But not too much. We are thinking of doing something about
how technology has changed the way kids learn to research. Like
using the internet instead of books. We're still working on
narrowing it down but once we do, hopefully I'll be able to find
enough articles. I technically have until November 2nd
to find the articles and write the summaries but the sooner I get
them done the sooner my group can do their parts, which kind of rely
on my part. But I'm feeling better about it than my group project in
my other class, which still hasn't really gone anywhere. So there's
that.
I have
been let down by my hotel room. I mistakenly thought my first
experience was typical. I walked in and was immediately overwhelmed
by a smell. I'm assuming previous guests brought in a lot of
egg-like foods or cooked them in the microwave. But it also kind of
smells like the byproduct of that kind of food, to put it in a
not-so-gross way. My first thought was that I am going to smell like
that tomorrow during class. And that sucks. I also realized while
sitting in class tonight that I forgot a change of shirts, so I will
be wearing my school t-shirt again. And it will smell like my hotel
room. Awesome. I left my hoodie in the car so at least one thing
won't smell weird, not that it will matter.
The
second thing I noticed about my room was the screaming child right
nextdoor. At that is literal because I could hear him through the
door that connects both the rooms. He has finally quieted down, and
I thankfully remembered my fan (which I used as noise at home to fall
asleep) so I was able to cover up most of that screaming. I sounds
like he finally fell asleep so that's a good thing.
Now
I'm going to go to bed because it is almost eleven o'clock and I need
to wake up in the morning. And at the moment I am exhausted. I
think a good chunk of tomorrow will be taken up by Skype interviews.
I can't remember what is happening after that. I'll find out
tomorrow.
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