Today there wasn't a single MAP
test. It was nice. At least I don't think there was a MAP test.
None are coming to mind.
This morning I started working on my
spreadsheets but was asked to come look at a projector in one of the
third grade rooms because it wasn't working. The bulb wouldn't come
on and after the power light flashed green for awhile it would switch
to flashing red and there was a red light next to the bulb symbol. I
looked up the meaning for the lights online and found out it was
either an overheating bulb or a burnt out bulb. The first option was
to clean out the filter, which I did because it was filthy. After a
thorough scrubbing, and some blowing, I put the filter back in place
and got the same response from the projector. That lead to the bulb.
The teacher got up on a desk and borrowed my little multi-tool to
get the bulb out and I went down to the library to see if the
librarian had an extra bulb. Thankfully she did. I knew bulbs are
expensive so as a last effort I tried thoroughly cleaning all the
dust and stuff off the old bulb and putting it back in but it didn't
work. The new bulb did work, however, which seems to be a good
indication that it was a bulb issue. We didn't get if figured out in
time for the Math Enrichment teacher to use the projector, which is
why I was called down in the first place, but it should be ready for
her next time.
I caught up on my spreadsheets and
downloaded all of the reports that were ready but haven't printed
anything out yet. This turned out to be smart because I found out
after school that one of the fifth grade teachers is going to have
one of her kids retest tomorrow.
Throughout the day I worked on
creating a calendar for the former resource lady who is now a Boys &
Girls Club lady. She gave me the real general description that she
wanted a calendar to give to parents for one of the reading programs.
I honestly had no idea what she was talking about but I said I'd
come up with something and we could go from there. I opened up
Publisher and none of the calendar templates did anything for me so I
designed the thing from scratch. I put four small calendars on the
right side (for the remaining months of school because I figured
those were the relevant ones) and on the left side left a space on
the top for a title, in the middle for a list of important dates, and
the bottom for a legend for the eventual shaded calendar days.
I managed to hit the nail on the
head because she really liked what I came up with. She got back to
me later with a list of important dates and all the dates that needed
to be shaded in on the calendar. Figuring out the shading I wanted
to use and finalizing the format ended up taking more time than I
expected it would but I was pretty happy with how it all came out.
And she liked it.
This afternoon I stepped out of the
lab for a minute to use the bathroom and when I returned a small
group of second grade kids were in the lab to use Khan Academy. And
they were freaking out because for some unknown reason the Math
Enrichment teacher thought it wise to tell them there would soon be a
fire drill. Some of them were squatting together on the ground with
their hands over their ears, talking loudly and acting like the world
was going to end. The rest were standing but also had their ears
covered and none of them were actually working on getting logged onto
their computers. Trying to get that done was like herding cats. I
could get one focused on logging in but the others would start going
nuts. And when I left one kid to help another, the first would join
the crazed ones. It was ridiculous. The fire alarm is ridiculously
loud and obnoxious but these kids had no reason to be acting like
that. They were caught up in a land of pretend and make-believe and
it got old real quick. One of the kids in the group has been freaked
out about loud noises since kindergarten and he was actually the only
one completely fine with the situation because he apparently recently
got over his fear. At least when it comes to fire alarms.
The fire drill was a bit delayed but
thankfully it finally came and the kids could get it out of their
system. It was a really nice day out and by the time we got back
inside the second graders were a lot more calm. It would be nice if
they could be like that all the time. I try to remind them that
coming to the lab is a privilege and if they can't stay on task or
follow directions then they can stay in the room and work on the same
stuff all the other kids are doing. That threat usually lasts about
thirty seconds.
After work I got Chipotle and then
headed to the old house. Reading about Organizational Design still
makes me really sleepy. Somehow I managed to finish the reading and
it was none too soon because shortly after a dog started barking
outside. I go over to the old house because I like the silence. Dog
barking is one of my biggest pet peeves. Even when they are my pets.
After dinner tonight I was able to
show YouTube videos for the first time in a long time. There was
been an update to Chromecast since last I used it and it was a pain
in the butt. It looks like you can now create a list especially for
the Chromecast but it seemed a bit buggy. It kept playing videos I
didn't want to play and the general list of videos kept automatically
scrolling up and down so I couldn't click anything. Also, you have
to click a few different times to get out of the list view and go to
the video page so you can fast forward, skip around videos, or adjust
the volume. But sometimes that doesn't work so you have no way of
controlling the video. I eventually found it easier to open each
video in individual tabs and then stop streaming after one video and
begin streaming again with the next video. It was a pain. Next week
I'll try making an actual list for the Chromecast and we'll see how
that works out. It certainly can't go any worse.
When we were done with dinner I
looked at the dishwasher because it had a weird thing on the display
that wasn't listed in the book. I looked it up online and apparently
“iCO” (where the 'i' is missing the little dot) stands for
communication error, which can stand for a number of things. The
easiest solution was to turn the breaker off for ten minutes or so to
reset everything. And thankfully that seemed to work. It had mixed
results online and some said it only helped for a couple days but it
would be nice if it was just a random glitch and all was well now.
Tonight I didn't accomplish much. I
responded to one of my classmate's posts on this week's discussion
but still need to comment on at least one more. I plan on just
scrolling through and responding to any question that jumps out at
me, the more the merrier. I like the addition of requiring questions
in each post because it makes it easier to come up with responses.
And now I'm going to go to bed
because it is currently a struggle keeping my eyes open.
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