Tuesday, January 27, 2015

January 27, 2015

Last night was one of the best nights of sleep I have had in a really long time. It wasn't one of those where I completely pass out and it seems like I don't move an inch until I wake up in the morning feeling completely rested. Those are great nights. Last night I woke up at least a few times to go to the bathroom because that's what being hydrated gets you, but the time seemed to drag on forever, which sucks most of the time but at night it is the best.

This morning one of the first grade classes was going to take their Math MAP test. They should have taken it last week but their first test was canceled when the internet was cutting in and out. After logging into all the computers I was just finishing logging into the test on the first row of computers when the power blinked off. Just long enough to ruin all of my work. Although I'm better off than the sixth grader who was just about to save his story. Hopefully he didn't lose too much.

After turning all the computers back on, except the front row, I headed down to help out with literacy centers in kindergarten, stopping off in the office on the way to have the custodian flip the breaker that popped with the power blink so I could turn on the front row of computers when I got back. That was a really long sentence. Fifty-seven words. Moving on.

Six of the kindergarteners were out sick today. With that news I wanted to turn around and leave immediately, but I didn't. My group was listening to Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten because tomorrow is the 100th day of school. After the story they had to say what they would bring to celebrate and then draw one hundred of them. At one point I pointed at one of the kids' paper and his wet pencil touched me. He spent the whole time coughing and sneezing and wiping his nose with his hands. I had to send him to go wash his hands after he wiped his nose along his arm and it left a snail trail. The kid next to me was also coughing the whole time and he told me that he was the only member of his family that hadn't been sick yet. So it will be a miracle if I'm not sick tomorrow.

Despite my inevitable illness at the hands of these kindergarteners, it was worth it because one of them asked me if turtles lived with the dinosaurs (because he picked dinosaurs to draw but quickly discovered it was much easier to draw turtles). Before I could respond one of the other boys, the one with the snail trail, said “No, turtles live in sewers.” The third boy just shook his head and said “Not the Ninja Turtles.”

When I got back to the lab I logged into all the computer for the second time and then all of the tests. Then I set them all up, just in time for the first graders. A whole bunch of them didn't make it through the test and on top of that, three or four of them were sick. It'll be interesting to see if we can get them all tested by the end of the week.

When I was setting that test up a lady stopped by the lab to schedule a time for the ACT Aspire test, or something like that. There was one last semester and parents have to decide if they want their kids to take it. Last time there were five or six kids maybe. All of the times either conflicted with the State Assessment window of the next MAP window so I tried to pick a time in between. I spoke with the principal about it later and she said she would see if there was a way out of it because she agreed it was just way too much testing. At the very least I suggested she urge parents not to sign their kids up because the kids should be focusing on the State Assessment and the MAP test because those actually count for something.

This afternoon I had both kindergarten classes and one of the third grade classes in the lab. Nothing too exciting.

With all my free time throughout the day I nearly finished updating my spreadsheets. I only have sixth grade left, not counting all the kids who I don't have final scores yet for. Hopefully soon I'll be able to print off the final reports but I don't think there is a single class yet who has everyone completely done with no tests to be deleted.

After work I got my car washed and bought a Powerball ticket. For weeks now the only clean part on my car was a small area underneath my door where my jeans hit when I get in and out. The other day it sprinkled just enough to make my car look even worse and I couldn't take it anymore. I still need to clean the inside of the windows but it looks so much better.

I stopped by the old house not only to look for my TV stand screws, but also because I wanted to read a textbook without any distractions. I looked almost everywhere for the screws but couldn't find them. I even looked through the stuff I put in the hall closet that I had completely forgotten about. I left the closet propped open so I don't forget that stuff again. While taking a small breather from reading the textbook my mind wandered back to the screws. I thought maybe they ended up with my tools and I made a mental note to check in the garage when I got home and look through my tool bag and router table. But then I pictured my tools being downstairs at the old house and how I had put a bunch of random crap in a box that was out in the living room. I had overlooked it before because on top there was a box of dust masks and a pair of noise-canceling headphones. Well, I went out there, dug through the box, and found a bag of random screws that looked like the ones that came with my wall mount. There were also four black screws (all the rest were silver) that looked promising. And they looked that way for a reason because they ended up being the correct screws.


I finished a chapter in my textbook before heading back to the new house for dinner. After dinner I watched TV and wrote my discussion post for the week. It was set up like it was at the beginning of last semester where you can't see anyone else's post until you submit one. It would be nice if that would change because it is easier to write when you have an idea of what other people are saying. I also felt like my post sucked after glancing at some of the other posts. In the topic, which was about our music collections, the professor asked us to cite examples when talking about different collections being organized the same way. I talked about examples but other people quoted the textbook. I kind of feel like I should quote the textbook now. Maybe in my responses to other people. I need to post two responses but I didn't want to read through all the posts tonight so I'll do that tomorrow.

No comments:

 
UA-26164694-2