Perhaps this conference/correcting thing should have been called "The proper care and feeding of teachers". I have never ever eaten like this in my life!

The company that is sponsoring this must have done their research and relaxed that when it comes to lunches, breaks and food, teachers are among the forgotten masses.

In general, most teachers get about twenty minutes for lunch. And they are crammed together in the teacher’s room, which often resembles a closet. The food selection is limited to whatever they have left over from the night before, or whatever the cafeteria is serving the kids. Then we wolf down whatever is before us, spend a few minutes chatting, and rush off to recess or to make a phone call, or to use the copy machine.

And, of course, to use the facilities.

This week we have been served breakfast every day. There’s coffee, juice, Danish, muffins or bagels.

Then there’s the mid-morning snack. It’s ranged from granola bars or home made cookies, to dried fruit dipped in chocolate, to chocolate covered pretzels. And not just milk chocolate, white chocolate. And of course more coffee or juice is available. As well as soft drinks and bottled water.

At noon we have lunch. There’s been a wide range each day. There have been turkey or roast beef sandwiches, fancy chicken pesto sandwiches and other wraps, a different salad each day, different soup each day, and today there was Caesar salad that you could add chicken or shrimp to. And let’s not forget desserts! There’s been cheesecake, tiramasu, chocolate cakes of infinite variety, carrot cake, strawberry shortcake… the list goes on.

And the feeding frenzy isn’t over! At the afternoon break we’ve had cookies, dove bars, ice cream sandwiches, and today we had a bar to make our own sundaes!

I’m never going to get back to normal eating patterns. I’ve been spoiled for the rest of the summer!

So if there is anyone out there who is looking for a way to recruit teachers, offer them food, regular breaks, and freedom to use the bathroom! We are putty in your hands! We will do anything you ask!

I’ll miss this correcting if only for that!

I’ll be dying to hear what the food is like at the other sites that will be operating in the next few weeks! One of the teachers from school will be there, so we can compare notes!

The computers were operational today, so we were back to cranking them out. They also gave us our statistics for what we had done earlier in the week as far as correcting was concerned.

I had corrected 56 on Wednesday, with fifty-one percent of my scores matching the other scorer’s exactly. Only one had to go to resolution, the rest were adjacent scores. I think that’s pretty good.

Yesterday I’d only done 24, but considering the computer problems that was to be expected. My statistics for dead-on scores and adjacent stayed the same. I don’t remember how many had to go to resolution.

They had decided that if there were computer problems today that we wouldn’t be able to read in between as they thought our scores were less accurate. I thought that was a crock, as I felt as if the breaks allowed me to clear my head. But fortunately the computers were working so I didn’t need to get bent out of shape over it.

Thus ends the week. It went by fairly quickly and was interesting.

I met some interesting teachers and got the opportunity to talk to them and hear what other systems are going through (the problems are all the same).

I also think I’ve got a good amount of information to bring back to school and share with the rest of the faculty about the test itself. At least I have a clearer picture of what is expected from the kids.

I think they’ll be willing to come to an after school workshop if I put one together – and if the system is willing to pay me!

Tonight I went wandering to the stores. I checked out the craft store (didn’t get anything) and the discount stores. I’m still looking for a new backpack that I can use as a pocketbook, I’m so picky that I can’t find one that I really like.

I did get a rug to put in front of the sliding glass door in my bedroom; I hate dragging the dirt in when I go out to water my plants.

I think I just needed to move around a bit. I’d been sitting for so long this week that I needed to stretch my legs.

Maybe I can find time to finish Harry potter this weekend!