The first day of state assessments started with a minor hitch. That
being all the kids for the first test who were supposed to test out
of the lab on laptops couldn't because the test wasn't working on any
of the laptops. It said something about the browser not being
compatible so my first thought was to update Firefox. A good thought
you would think but it didn't help anything. Then I looked around
the global drive to see if I could find a copy of the testing
software so I could try reinstalling it. There wasn't one. So I did
a Google search and found the testing website and downloaded the
program from them. I had to do the same thing last year I think.
Thankfully that ended up working and I was able to go around and
update all the laptops that were going to be used for testing.
For quite some time the water fountain on the second floor, right
above the lab, has been broken and today there were a couple guys
there working on it. They started out messing with stuff in the
ceiling right outside the computer lab. When they thought they had
things figured out they poured three gallons of water into the
fountain. Not too long after that we heard a bubbling and gurgling
sound in the lab and when I looked back there was brownish water
bubbling out of the metal plate thing in the floor. I never knew
what that thing covered up. I thought it was an electrical thing but
apparently it is a drain thing. The water slowly came out of the
drain and then creeped its way around the corner and out the door
into the hallway.
During lunch the guys came back with a camera that they shoved into
the hole to look at things. I think there was some more routing and
they left before the next test started but I don't know if they
actually fixed anything. My fingers are crossed. The thing that
annoyed me most was that they made no real attempt to clean up the
water. That was left to the night custodian. I'm not a fan of guys
working on things, making a mess, and then not cleaning up after
themselves. It has always bugged me. It really isn't that hard to
clean up after yourself. It's part of the job.
The tests themselves went pretty well. We made it through all of
them today, minus the two kids that were absent. I was mildly
surprised by that but didn't mind in the least. The laptop thing
right off the bat was stressful but it was nice not having a whole
bunch of broken tests on top of that. But we had good days during
testing last year, at least I think we did, so I'm not holding my
breath. We've got a long way to go.
When I wasn't watching kids test, I did productive things. I scanned
baby pictures for a few sixth graders. I'm all caught up with the
scanning so far but I'm definitely falling behind on the editing. At
some point I'll probably need to do some of the editing at home. I
fixed a laptop that wasn't recognizing Microsoft Office. I was able
to run the repair thing and that seemed to get it working again but I
don't know if it will be a permanent fix. I also helped out the
gifted teacher with her technology issues: shared drives not showing
up, setting the authentication page as her homepage, getting email to
update on her iPad, setting up Outlook on her laptop, and probably
some other things. At the very end of the day I helped the librarian
with Twitter things.
I emailed the two librarians I interviewed last semester to get their
opinions on what electives I should take. They both had interesting
perspectives. I'm leaning toward taking Web Design this summer
because I've always enjoyed coding and I haven't messed with HTML in
a long time. According to the description you work on websites for
real clients, which sounds pretty cool. The problem is that I want
to take way more electives than I will actually be able to.
Tonight I once again accomplished nothing in terms of schoolwork. I
just couldn't bring myself to do anything. It's kind of an awful
feeling. I just sit here knowing I need to be working on several
things but unable to do anything. There's gotta be a pill for that.
And I need it.
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