March 28, 2016

 Today went by fast. I hit the ground running this morning when I got to work getting everything ready for the first state assessment of the day. That involved turning on and logging into all of the computers, getting the tickets out of the principal's office, getting my testing signs ready, getting the access codes from the principal and dropping off copies to the second and third floor, and getting back to the lab in time for the test. And then I stood there and watched kids test.

The test is annoying. Each subject test is broken into four sections and they wanted them to be adaptive. So the questions a kid gets on the second section of a test is based on how they did on the first section. In comparison, the MAP test is adaptive at the question level, so as a kid gets a question right, the test gets harder, and easier if they get a question wrong. The MAP system works really well. The state assessment system not so much. They want kids to take two sections a day but there is a delay between sections while they figure out what should be in the second section. The low end of that delay today was around twenty minutes. Testing sessions are scheduled in hour-long blocks, which is a long time to be testing for anyone. The average kid takes around half an hour on the Reading test. With a half hour wait for the next section to unlock, that leaves no time to take the next section. We had four classes test today, two in the lab and two on iPads in their rooms, and none of the kids were able to take the second section. A couple had it pop up but it was when they had less than ten minutes left in their testing session. I'm not sure if each section is based on the previous section or if they're all based on the first section. If it is the latter than we might be alright because each class only has two scheduled testing sessions per subject and, at least with the classes today, three sections left to finish. For some kids that might be doable because the last three sections are smaller, but not if there is a half hour wait in between each section. It will all work out in the end because it has to but it would be nice if it could just fit into the nice testing schedule that has already been laid out.

After the test this morning I went down and helped out with kindergarten literacy centers. At one point the kid sitting next to me got my attention and then started slowly raising his leg and kicking it, telling me it was a good warmup. Completely random and funny.

On my way back from that I stopped in the library because the librarian had a laptop with a wonky key. I messed with it for an hour and finally got it to stop popping off but it wasn't a complete fix. It's usually easy enough to pop a key back on but this one had obviously been violently removed, which was exhibited by two corners of the key being bent upward. The underside components of the key were also cheep plastic and some really soft, easily bent aluminum. I tweaked everything as best as I could but it still wasn't great.

When I got back to the lab a para came down to print something for one of the kindergarten teachers and I ended up having to go down and install the new lab printer on that teacher's computer. The document still wouldn't print so I went down a second time and while leaving I got called over to the second kindergarten room to fix a paper jam in their printer (which was caused by the para trying to print to that printer initially). I fixed the paper jam but the printing issue ended up being forgotten about.

On my way back to the lab, once again, I ran into one of the preschool teachers who was having another issue with a laptop. They hate her and the feeling is mutual. She had someone bring it to the lab later in the day and I took a look at it. It had definitely been dropped more than once. I opened it up and the connection for the hard drive was loose, which probably isn't good. It was either that connection or the hard drive itself but I couldn't get it to work. I also had to work quick because I heard roomers of a tech guy in the building and I'm not even supposed to blow dust out of the desktop towers, let alone open up a laptop and take the hard drive out. Thankfully I didn't get caught.

This afternoon there was another test and that led right into a fifth grade class. I finally got to ask the teacher about having to record herself teach for one of her graduate classes. I had heard it was interesting. She had set her iPad up by the laptop cart in the back of the room and not too long into her teaching a fifth grader from the other class came in to get a laptop. She stood right in front of the iPad and then had an external debate with herself about whether or not she should move the iPad, all recorded on the iPad. She then moved it, pointing it at the students instead of the teacher, which resulted in one of the kids interrupting the lesson the tell the girl they were recording and she needed to move the iPad back. And then the rest of the kids from the other class came in to get laptops. Not long after that the art teacher walked in asked the teacher how much she loved her and then asked if she could borrow her iPad dongle. (Later on the teacher was detailing the experience in the teacher's lounge and that was when the art teacher found out there was a recording going that she had interrupted). So it was less than a perfect teaching session, but at the same time, it was a very typical one, having to persevere through countless interruptions.

On top of everything, the teacher apparently heard her voice for the first time, as other people hear it, and couldn't believe that other people have to listen to it. I'll admit that I found it a bit harsh when I first started working at the school but now I think it is perfectly normal. I'd say people probably think the same thing about my voice. I think I'm probably a little better about not having a monotone, at least not as severe as I once had, but I still felt bad that people were actually having to listen to it for extended periods of time. The teacher also wasn't a fan of all her mannerisms. Again, I don't think anyone is a fan of seeing themselves on film. There are even actors out there who don't like seeing themselves on screen. Human nature I guess.

One of the office ladies emailed me earlier in the day saying the annoying yearbook guy had stopped by to see me but they sent him away because I was testing. She wanted to let me know that he planned on coming back at the end of the day. They don't let him past the office anymore after he pretty much ran past them last year when they weren't looking after they told him he couldn't come down and see me. I was worried about getting trapped because I had to be down at the library after work to volunteer and the other office lady said I could email her and she would clock me out if it came to that. At the end of the day I scouted things out and made it in and out of the office without getting caught.

At the library it took a little bit of work finding the PR lady. Last week someone sitting outside the staff area had to go in and get her after my knocks went unanswered. Today another lady went in but couldn't find her so she took me down to the administration area. The guy there was able to call up and got her at her desk, so when I went back up she was waiting for me. Must have just missed her.

Today I continued working on the list of businesses that allow the posting of flyers. I finished the list last week but today I added in addresses. Next week we'll be able to break it into separate lists and map out the most efficient routes to travel when dropping flyers off. I might have gotten that far today but we had several random breaks to talk about food and travel and other things.

Tonight I downloaded the articles that I need for my classes this week and I watched a forty-five minute video of a conference panel about libraries implementing a new discovery tool. It was interesting and boring all at once. I also read through my universal design paper again before submitting it. That was a wise choice because I found two instances, in back-to-back sentences, where I had used 'quite' instead of 'quiet'. Yikes. That's apparently what happens when you're up until three o'clock in the morning writing a paper. Thankfully I caught it. I was going to read a textbook chapter after I wrote this but then I ended up writing way too much and it is now almost eleven o'clock. I've been ready for bed since 7:30PM. So I'm going to do that now instead.