I forgot to mention a couple things last night. First, there is a third grader who I get in
hand slapping “fights” with. This
started last year when he was in second grade.
Last year his thing was to call me over, ask me to put my hand out, and
then he’d swat it away and say “Get your hands off me.” This turned into the hand slapping
“fights”. Yesterday in the computer lab
one of his classmates asked him what we were doing and he explained that we
were archenemies. This was new to me but
I went with it. This is also the same
kid who says “Give me candy” in a deep voice every time he sees my mom, which
is a throwback to last year when she was playing a game with a group of kids
that involved candy.
Also from yesterday, after school I was on my way to clock
out and then head to the book fair when I ran into one of the fifth grade
teachers. We ended up having two
entirely different conversations at the same time, each oblivious to the fact
that the other person was talking about something different. Essentially we were both giving each other
crap for not being in the lab. Her class
normally comes down on Wednesday morning but last week they came in the
afternoon because she had student teachers that needed to teach a lesson. She told me it would be the same for this
week so I ended up going down for second grade reading groups that morning
(something I normally don’t do because the second grade teacher usually has
student teachers on Wednesday but this week she had them on Monday). It turns out the fifth grade teacher’s
student teachers also came on Monday so her class ended up coming to the lab
Wednesday morning. Something I wasn’t
aware of. So she was giving me crap for
not being there and I was giving her crap for cancelling on me because of her
student teachers. We eventually sorted
out the confusion.
As for the book fair, I ended up getting the three books I
saw earlier in the day when I was down there helping out with the first grade
class. There were obviously way more
books that I wanted but three sounded like a healthy number, especially
considering all the other books I have and still need to read. One of the books is one I found out about
while looking for science books a little while ago for a second grader. The other two belong to the same series I
started last year at the book fair. The
series is called Deadtime Stories and
it is kind of in the same vein as the Goosebumps
series. According to Wikipedia it looks
like the series actually came out in the 90s, so around the same time I was
still reading Goosebumps books. Last year they had one of the books and this
year they had two books bundled together.
I don’t have time to read any of the books now but on December 6th
I will be done with class and finally able to read for fun (without
guilt).
I also donated my change (four dollars) to go into the
envelope to buy books for kids who don’t have the money for it. It makes perfect sense but the thought of
donating money hadn’t occurred to me until my mom mentioned it. She was in the library looking at the sale
and the librarian gave a book to one of the kids who had been looking at it but
wasn’t able to buy it and she told him that it was because people had donated
money but he couldn’t tell anyone.
(Later on he had to deny it to one of his classmates who said she saw
him talking to the librarian). So my mom
asked if she could give some money. They
don’t have a sign out or anything asking for money but after I got my books I asked
if I could donate it to go to a book for a kid and she said yes, so there we
go. I will have to remember that for
next time. If I remember right the book
fair at the end of the year is buy-one-get-one so I can give even more money.
This morning I got everything together for my weekend trip
and brought it all upstairs. That way I
didn’t have to worry about throwing it all together right before I left and it
gave me time to think about all the things I forgot. Turns out I didn’t really forget anything. As an afterthought I added in my stocking
cap. I also packed my boots and extra
jackets just in case something happens and I need to be outside for an extended
period of time.
I had second grade reading groups this morning. The first group just used Tumblebooks on the
iPads so I just had to show them how to navigate around the site and use the
videos and then constantly tell some of them to stop sticking their erasers to
their body using suction. (They were the
erasers with a wedge shape that you stick on the end of your pencil when you
wear down the pencil eraser. You’re
welcome future me who will have no idea what I was originally referring to).
Reading groups were cut short because there was a traveling
orchestra assembly. They were really
good. The conductor lady was kind of
funny but it was verging on mean. Right
after the first song she was explaining where the kids usually practice and how
they have to adjust how they play when they tour schools and play in gyms. She went through all of this explanation just
to make the offhanded comment at the end that the kids didn’t sound very good
during the first song. Even though they
sounded just fine. She later had the
cello section play a specific part of a song where they are supposed to sound
like bagpipes. That was a bit of a
stretch but after they played there few notes she again had an offhanded
comment about one of them being really out of tune. She went on talking and all the cello kids
tried to subtly check if they were the one out of tune. I don’t know that I would want my kid in her
orchestra.
I feel like I did something else before lunch but it might
just have been entering information into a spreadsheet regarding parents coming
to the Thanksgiving lunch next week. And
if there was something else I’ll probably remember tomorrow.
After lunch I went up to help the gifted teacher with
internet things. She had been having
trouble connecting her tablet to the wireless again but that seemed to be
working when I got up to her room. She
also recently got a Galaxy Note 3 (or maybe 4) and said it wouldn’t connect to
her home wifi. I got it to connect to
the school wifi but in messing with it I discovered that when you were putting
in the password for a wifi network, it wouldn’t even give you the option to
connect until the password was eight characters long. The teacher’s home network password is only
four characters long. She thought about
figuring out how to change her password at home and I found a couple resources
on the internet because she said trying to go through AT&T is a big
pain.
As I was sitting here writing this I had another thought and
did some searching. It turns out requiring
eight characters for a password even if the network you’re connected to doesn’t
have a password that long, is a known issue with Samsung phones and
tablets. And I found a couple of
solutions. The most promising one
assumes that Samsung products assume that all networks are using a newer security
setting that requires longer passwords.
The solution is to manually create the network you are trying to connect
to (even if it automatically shows up in your list) and then change the
security setting to the older one, which is hopefully what your network is
using so you can use the shorter password.
That seems to make sense so I just sent the gifted teacher an email so
she can give that a shot and see how it goes.
My last class of the day was out of the lab around 2:50PM
and I was clocking out by three o’clock.
My mom wanted me to take her vehicle this weekend because it has
all-wheel drive and my car does not.
Originally it was supposed to snow in the afternoon but now we’re
supposed to get a few inches in the morning.
I was kind of on the fence about taking my mom’s car because I like the
being able to listen XM radio. Regular
radio has too many commercials and it is annoying having to constantly flip
back and forth to avoid them, and then inevitably hear the same song multiple
times. But then I remember she had a USB
port in her car, so before making my decision I went out, pulled the thumb
drive from my car, and tried it in her car.
And it worked. So I decided I would
take her up on her offer, not only because I’ll have to potentially navigate
some winding back roads in the snow, but also because I can listen to my thumb
drive that is packed with CDs. I even
remembered to get everything out of my car, including my sun glasses. I did actually forget my driving directions
but I don’t actually need those anymore.
After leaving school I stopped and got gas before heading
home to pack up, make a sandwich for dinner, and then head out. The drive down was uneventful and I’m okay
with that. When I turned off the winding
bit and back onto the last stretch of highway, the bit where I keep getting
stuck in long, slow caravans, I was again in the middle of a group of
cars. Luckily I had to stop and use the
restroom, at the first gas station I came to.
My timing was perfect at the gas station because I got there right as
the bathroom became available, and my timing was perfect when I left because
there wasn’t a car ahead of me for the rest of my trip. It was amazing getting to drive at the posted
speed limit all the way into town.
The last time we met for this class we were in a computer
lab and we were crammed in, to the point where some of us had to sit in chairs
brought in from other places. Tonight we
met in another computer lab but one in a different building. It was pretty fancy. When the professor got there he mentioned how
he was trying to find out where the building was and he should have just
assumed to look for the nicest building on campus after he found out it was the
building for the business school because they always have to most money. Which is a true statement.
We started the evening off by talking about Curriculum
Vitaes. That was an interesting
conversation and I think I got a lot out of it.
I made one a few years ago when applying for a campus job (that I didn’t
get) and I would be interested to look back at it and see what it looks like
now that I have a better understanding for what it should look like.
We then started the group presentations. Earlier in the week the professor said he
wanted to move things around because of the weather and be done on Saturday by
three o’clock. Tonight he said he wanted
to stay a half hour later and do four presentations tonight, instead of three, and
then come in tomorrow a half an hour early and cut back on breaks so instead of
going for a lunch break we could be done around that time. We all agreed with that.
The presentations went pretty well. Instead of having the group up there it is
only the person who made the presentation.
I am glad that wasn’t my job because it was bad enough when I was kind
of solo during my last presentation. The
first guy got a little flustered and lost his place a few times but everyone
else did a pretty good job. After each
of them spoke their group researcher went up and explained how they conducted
their research. That is going to be my
part and I’m not looking forward to it but it is better than giving a full
presentation. When I eventually get done
writing this long-ass entry I’m going to look back over my annotated
bibliography just to refresh myself on the research (because some of the group
researchers ended up having to talk about some of the stuff they found) and
then go over some possible answers to the questions I’m supposed to be
answering tomorrow.
I was talking to my partner at the end of the night (our
other group member had car trouble so he was actually their via Skype,
thankfully he isn’t the presenter) and we ended up moving onto talking about
kindergarten because she is a kindergarten teacher. She mentioned how bad her kids were this week
and I told her how both of the kindergarten teachers at my school had both
commented on how bad their kids had been acting this week. Something must be in the air. She said today she ended up making four boys
cry (she has a class of fifteen boys and five girls, good grief) because they
have apparently been having a peeing contest all week that involves peeing on
the floor in the bathroom. She was tired
of having to call the custodian in to clean up the mess so today she just
ripped them a new one. It is kind of
hard to believe because she is so quiet and soft-spoken, but there are teachers
like that at my school who somehow manage to flip a switch and turn on their
teacher voice.
At the hotel I got a room on the very end so I didn’t have
to worry about noise on that side, and I don’t believe there is anyone in the
room next to me. I love it. In the request section when I was making my
reservation I requested a room that didn’t have an adjoining room so maybe that
helped. It was also recently cleaned
because they just had their inspection, which they passed, but they had an
issue where a room was supposed to be clean and it wasn’t and the guest was a
little annoyed. So they are on their
best behavior at the moment. Also, the
girl at the desk remembered me. The first
time I came down she was in the middle of being trained and now she’s all on
her own. I think it was last time that
she recognized me and I mentioned that I was down here for class. Which she remembered this time around. That’s hospitality.
Now, I’m going to freaking stick a fork in this entry
because it is way too long and I am way too tired and I still need to look over
stuff for the presentation tomorrow. I
could have fallen blissfully asleep several hours ago. The morning it going to come way too early.
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