So it looks like I won't get to do the workshop tomorrow. No one can cover my lunch supervision duties, so I wouldn't get there in time. Maybe next time.
On a brighter note, when I go in tomorrow I will have a cubicle! No one but me would be excited about this, but up until now I've been working at a desk in the middle of the room connected to the desks of 2 other people. I hate talking on the phone because there are always at least 2 people that hear every word I'm saying. The open plan also makes noise carry from all the offices into the intern area, which makes it hard to concentrate sometimes. Now we'll have our own cubicles! With walls! I'm so excited!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Boring day
On Friday, I finally cracked down and decided to go through the database. The combined files had 3 different listings for some items, so I had to go through and double-check each to make sure they matched up, then delete the columns that were no longer needed. It was pretty tedious. I am glad I did it though, because some of the data didn't match up and I had to go through and fix it. Actually that was quite a few of them, so I suppose it was a valuable use of my time - just boring. We might have an accurate record of each school now!
This upcoming Friday there is an opportunity for me to do a workshop in Surprise. The catch is that the workshop is at 1 pm, and I get out of school at 1 pm. Technically I stop teaching at 12:15, so I think I'm going to ask if I can leave then to try and make it to Surprise. I really like the workshop stuff, and it definitely beats sitting in the office working on databases (the alternative), so I hope it works out! It is a new school, which would be a different experience than the ones I've done previously. I'm sure I'll blog about it either way, so you'll know in a few days if I get to go.
This upcoming Friday there is an opportunity for me to do a workshop in Surprise. The catch is that the workshop is at 1 pm, and I get out of school at 1 pm. Technically I stop teaching at 12:15, so I think I'm going to ask if I can leave then to try and make it to Surprise. I really like the workshop stuff, and it definitely beats sitting in the office working on databases (the alternative), so I hope it works out! It is a new school, which would be a different experience than the ones I've done previously. I'm sure I'll blog about it either way, so you'll know in a few days if I get to go.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
I love Surveymonkey
So, we decided to send out a fall survey to all the charter schools to gauge interest in a few projects that are being considered. I helped write the surveys awhile ago, and now we are approaching the deadline. At first, the results I was given to analyze were only in Excel. Normally I'm a fan of Excel, but for this particular purpose it was pretty overwhelming. Some of the surveys were done on surveymonkey.com, so I went there to see what I could do with them. It is awesome! It will analyze them for you and you can download the results into a variety of formats. I love it! Unfortunately, about 50 of the surveys were done by hand and mailed in. I started putting them into Excel, but then someone at the office suggested that we just input them ourselves into surveymonkey so that it will tally up all the results for us. I put in about 15 of them today and it is going much faster.
My other task right now is kind of boring, but necessary. The database we have is getting clogged up with repetitive data. We're getting information from different sources, but some of it is stuff we already have. I have to go through and clean out the duplicated columns. That would be simple, but sometimes the data doesn't match, so I have to double check them all. It is much more tempting to work on surveys than to sift through data. I guess it is part of doing research though. Sigh.
My other task right now is kind of boring, but necessary. The database we have is getting clogged up with repetitive data. We're getting information from different sources, but some of it is stuff we already have. I have to go through and clean out the duplicated columns. That would be simple, but sometimes the data doesn't match, so I have to double check them all. It is much more tempting to work on surveys than to sift through data. I guess it is part of doing research though. Sigh.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
More excitement. . .
This weekend we went camping. It was pretty nice, a little hot during the day, but perfect at night. On Friday night, we were all up sitting around the campfire, and my friend's dog starts chasing something. Then my friend just started screaming at the dog to get away, and I looked over at a giant tarantula. I've never actually seen one in the wild, so it was really weird. It was very gentle though, and not that scary once we actually got close to it. We chased it into a bush and never saw it again. The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful - on the Arizona end.
Then I got a call from my mom on Saturday saying that my sister was in the hospital. Apparently she is having contractions (babies not due until Dec.) and they are trying to stop her from going into labor. I wish I was still in Seattle, since I'm sure my family is completely nervous, but I can't really afford to take more time off. Hopefully everything will work out okay. Even if the babies are born now they should be allright. I'll update you on what happens when I hear something!
Then I got a call from my mom on Saturday saying that my sister was in the hospital. Apparently she is having contractions (babies not due until Dec.) and they are trying to stop her from going into labor. I wish I was still in Seattle, since I'm sure my family is completely nervous, but I can't really afford to take more time off. Hopefully everything will work out okay. Even if the babies are born now they should be allright. I'll update you on what happens when I hear something!
Monday, October 13, 2008
Family excitement!
Currently I am in Seattle. I came up here for my sister's baby shower and to visit the rest of my family (I'm a Washington native). The shower was on Saturday and was really cute. She is having twin boys, so there were lots of matching outfits and blankies and it almost made me want to have a kid. Then there was today.
I woke up to the phone ringing, and my mom telling me that my sister needed to go to the doctor. I had to get up to go watch my nephew while they figured out who would be going to the doctor and who would be taking my nephew (18 months) to speech therapy. It was divided up so that I went to the doctor with my sister. She was itchy this morning, and it turns out that itchiness, if you're pregnant, can mean that your liver is failing! How weird is that? We went to the doctor and she got her liver tested and they checked her skin and everything and the doctor didn't seem nearly as concerned about it as my sister was, so we took that as a good sign. It seems that every time I visit her I want to have a baby less and less. Why is everything so extreme during pregnancy?
On a happier note I got to see the ultrasound (they checked the babies just in case), and they got a great shot of one of their faces. He is adorable!
I woke up to the phone ringing, and my mom telling me that my sister needed to go to the doctor. I had to get up to go watch my nephew while they figured out who would be going to the doctor and who would be taking my nephew (18 months) to speech therapy. It was divided up so that I went to the doctor with my sister. She was itchy this morning, and it turns out that itchiness, if you're pregnant, can mean that your liver is failing! How weird is that? We went to the doctor and she got her liver tested and they checked her skin and everything and the doctor didn't seem nearly as concerned about it as my sister was, so we took that as a good sign. It seems that every time I visit her I want to have a baby less and less. Why is everything so extreme during pregnancy?
On a happier note I got to see the ultrasound (they checked the babies just in case), and they got a great shot of one of their faces. He is adorable!
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Data! Arg!
The greatest frustration of this internship is that none of the data we receive seems to match up. On Tuesday, I was at the office until 7 pm trying to figure out how to present test scores to compare district and charter schools. For some reason, the data reported by the Dept. of Education is not the same for district and charter schools, which makes direct comparisons impossible. We also found that some districts will be reported as not meeting AYP (adequate yearly progress), even when all of the individual schools have met AYP. How can a district not be meeting something if all of the schools in the district met it? Inconsistency drives me nuts!
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Issues with other states
This week I came in to find two data requests waiting for me. The first was to organize data about alternative schools in South Phoenix, which, though time consuming, is fairly simple. Once I figure out what exactly I need to report I should have it all somewhere in the databases. The other is the complicated one.
For a conference bid, I'm not sure exactly why, we need to report data about Arizona and all of our bordering states. This wouldn't be that difficult except that the data requested is nearly impossible to obtain. The organization wants the last day of school for all of the states, which is determined by the district or individual school. Therefore I'll have to generalize all of that information and hope it is acceptable. They also want the testing dates for state-wide standardized tests for each state through 2012. As far as I can find, Arizona is the only state that publishes test dates out that far. California has them published through 2010, but they have 9 test dates per year. Sorting this out is not fun, but I suppose it will help me learn how to deal with difficult requests. At least the experience is useful!
For a conference bid, I'm not sure exactly why, we need to report data about Arizona and all of our bordering states. This wouldn't be that difficult except that the data requested is nearly impossible to obtain. The organization wants the last day of school for all of the states, which is determined by the district or individual school. Therefore I'll have to generalize all of that information and hope it is acceptable. They also want the testing dates for state-wide standardized tests for each state through 2012. As far as I can find, Arizona is the only state that publishes test dates out that far. California has them published through 2010, but they have 9 test dates per year. Sorting this out is not fun, but I suppose it will help me learn how to deal with difficult requests. At least the experience is useful!
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