December 4, 2015

I forgot that yesterday I helped one of the custodians at work apply for another job within the district. He started the process on his laptop but it died so he switched to the iPad which wouldn't let him attach his resume. It only had the option to attach a picture. That is when he was sent to me. I messed with the iPad for awhile and couldn't figure it out so I had him get on one of the computers and we got it to work that way. The whole process was weird though and I don't remember it being so convoluted when I applied for my job. You can attach a resume to your profile but when applying for a job you don't attach your resume to the “application” (which is actually just a few questions), you just fill in some blanks with information from your resume. At least I hope that is what you do because that's what we ended up doing.

This morning I printed off the photoshopped picture of one of the SPED teachers I made for one of the para's for the SPED teacher's birthday on Monday. The original picture was the SPED teacher sitting at a table, holding an alphabet card, and wearing a yellow John Deere hardhat. I cut out everything but her torso, put her next to a fence so it looked like she was leaning on it, added a really colorful clown dress so it looked like she had legs, added a party hat on top of the hardhat, and erased the alphabet card and added in a smaller version of the picture I had just made with fireworks on it, so she was holding a picture of herself. Who was then holding a picture of herself, but at that size it was pretty much just a random mix of colors. It turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.

I went to give them to the para and found her in one of the first grade rooms. She was across the room facing away from the door so I went over to her, walking right behind her to end up beside her. Right as I was walking up beside her she turned the other way to put something on the table and when she turned around and caught sight of me out of the corner of her eye she not only jumped but also full-on screamed, which kind of made me jump a little. For a second or two I was worried because she is very pregnant and I didn't want to be responsible causing something to happen. But when it turned out she was just scared, it was hilarious. I've accidentally made people jump before, and maybe make a sound of exclamation, but this was a scream. And it was great.

When I got back to the lab from that adventure I edited a couple pictures for one of the cooks that she wanted for a craft project involving a clock that sounds pretty interesting.

There was another funny moment this morning in third grade. They had a substitute, who is the husband of the third grade teacher and a retired music teacher. Firstly though, I ran into him on my way back from the kitchen and he showed me a funny picture on his phone. Then he stopped off in the library and I headed back to the lab. Maybe a minute later he came into the lab to show me a picture on his phone. I figured it was a different picture but it was the same picture and he pointed out the same thing he had just pointed out and asked me if I had ever seen it before. It was incredibly awkward. He obviously had no memory of showing it to me a minute before.

But let's move onto the funny. When his class was in the lab most of them were working on writing a letter in cursive because they hadn't finished it before coming to the lab. They're all trying to write and he never stopped talking. And he's got a very loud, one volume kind of voice that I imagine is very distracting when you're trying to write. Which might be why so many of them hadn't finish writing in the classroom. Anyway, at one point he commented on a sheet one of the girls had with the alphabet written on it in cursive, saying that if it didn't have an 'L' it would be a Christmas song. He then sang the first line of The First Noel, replacing the words with “No L, No L”. The girl didn't get it, stared at him, and then went back to writing. Several seconds of silence later one of the boys several computers away, who had been working on Type to Learn, turned toward the substitute and with a blank stare on his face, started slowly clapping. It was probably the funniest thing I have every seen a kid do.

This afternoon I had a new pair of second graders come to the lab to work on spelling. One girl is definitely bipolar and needs medication before it is too late. The other is just an odd duck, who seemed a lot stranger last year but some of the new kids, especially one in her own room, definitely outshine her. Now she's just a quirky odd duck. The two together make quite the dynamic duo. And it was all going well until the final minute. The plan is for them to come in, sort their word list (which is in the form of paper strips with the words on them), pick one activity to do with the words, and then get on the computer and play a game with the words on Spelling City. The odd duck finished with a couple minutes to spare and was able to get onto Spelling City, but only just long enough to load a game before it was time to go back. The bipolar girl didn't have time to finish and was unable to get on the computer, which turned out to be the greatest disaster to befall her since the last great disaster, which probably took place earlier in the day. She threw a complete fit and even tried to break the pencil I let her borrow. Thankfully she wasn't strong enough so it was just funny to watch. I tried to explain that it was just the first day so things went slower and next time she would probably have time to get on the computer. More rage. I also explained that coming to the computer lab was a privilege and her teacher wasn't going to let her come anymore if this was how she acted, because that is how the teacher explained it to me. Still more rage, and she eventually grabbed her coat and ran out of the lab and back to the room. I followed her with the other girl so I could tell the teacher what happened. We are going to try it again on Monday and hope for a better result.

Near the end of the day I briefly got to talk with the fifth grade teacher when her class came to the lab (before getting distracted by helping one of the second grade teachers with something). This is the fifth grade teacher who started a grad school program this semester and was kind of complaining that they hadn't really been doing anything and she was feeling like it was a waste of money. Well, it seems the professors remembered that they needed to be doing assignments and now the teacher has six projects to work on. The final day of class is supposed to be next Wednesday and I think most of them are due by then. More and more this program is seeming shady.

After work I came home and wrapped presents for my mom's birthday. Then my sister came over and we all went out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. We left a little after five o'clock because my mom wanted to be the crowd. And we did because when we got there the place was practically empty. By the time we left the parking lot was completely packed, so my mom made a good call. Dinner was good because I didn't eat too much and after paying, I drove home because my mom ordered a margarita and we didn't want to take the risk of that kicking in on the way home.

When we got home we at birthday cake and gelato before my mom opened her presents. My sister got her some cool baking stuff and she liked what I got her because it was the stuff she had asked for. After that my sister showed up more ornaments she had made so I took more of them. I haven't counted how many ornaments I have gotten from her this year but I'm going to need a bigger tree. The small one I had last year was pretty packed with the ornaments I got from my grandma and I'm pretty sure I have doubled that total now. We'll have to see when I finally get the time to put the tree up.

I was too tired to do any schoolwork after all of that so I listened to music for a while with my eyes closed before deciding to call it a night and write this. And now I'm going to go to bed, early-ish, so I can wake up early. The plan is to work on my report all day tomorrow, for reals this time. I want to have at least the bulk of it finished tomorrow, preferably all of it. Then I would have time to look over it once or twice on Sunday before submitting it. And bring this long ass semester to a close. The finish line is within reach, which is when I do my best work.