October 7, 2014

I know that today was a thing that happened because I was there for the whole thing, but it was a very blah kind of day. I edited a sixth grader's story today and it made me worry for the future, at least when it comes to kids being able to spell things. It wasn't nearly as bad as a kindergartener's writing, but there were some words that I had to ask her about because they weren't anywhere near something I could even guess at.

I helped out with literacy centers in both kindergarten classes today. In the first class I struggled with a cassette tape. There were multiple versions of the story on the tape and the one I needed was second. I didn't realize this until Ray Charles started reading at such a fast pace that the kids weren't able to keep up with their page turning. I remembered it vaguely from last year and knew there was a version with page turning prompts. I figured maybe it was on the other side of the tape so I fast-forwarded it and then flipped it over. The first track on that side ended up being a version of the story that was sung by children, not even Ray Charles. So I fast-forwarded that side, flipped it back over, and then fast-forwarded awhile to get to the second track, which was thankfully the correct version of the story. It was a bit ridiculous.

In the second class I got the listening group started (with the correct version of the story) and then because the teacher was short on people, I took over another group that involved tracing the words on labels for the parts of the body and then putting the labels on a large outline of a body, before finally coloring the body to look like the kindergartener. While working with that I also helped police the listening group, along with my mom and another para, because after they were done coloring their picture they got to use ink pads and stamps. Those can be dangerous in the hands of kindergarteners.

I mentioned to the second grade teacher yesterday after she told me about one of her students destroying a how to stay calm poster in anger, that maybe he just needed a hug. I asked her how he was doing today and she said she actually tried the hug thing and she thought it may have had a positive effect, even if he was pretending like he didn't like it. I guessed that maybe he just wasn't held enough or shown enough affection when he was younger and maybe that guess was correct. He's been an angry old man since kindergarten and there is a chance it is just his personality but there is a chance it is something deeper.

I did a little bit of research today for my most recent group project but not too much. I spent more time working on my latest MAP project. I still don't know if it will amount to anything but I think there is potential. Today I created a bunch of pie charts based on the data but I still want to come up with some other visual for it. Inspiration has yet to strike.

Tonight I have accomplished very little. I wrote my monthly report for my volunteer thing but that didn't really take any effort. I should have been working on schoolwork all night but I haven't been. I should have gone to graduate school years ago so I would be done with it by now. Although years ago I wouldn't have picked Library Science so who knows what the hell would have happened. It is best that I waited, even if it did take forever, but it would be nice to be knee deep in a job I liked that paid me well. It kind of sucks having a job I like but knowing it can't last because I don't get paid enough.

I still have some time before I need to head back to the new house so maybe I can squeeze something worthwhile in. Probably not. I'm not even going to pretend to hold my breath.