AP Reading

Appropriately, we'll begin this Pittsburgh blog in Louisville, Kentucky. That's where I arrived on June 4th at 3:15am to grade AP Computer Science exams. They gave me a badge to wear that said I was from "The Harker School - CA." Having just turned in my computer and all my keys and departed from CA for good, this didn't sit right. But having not made it to Pittsburgh yet, it definitely felt wrong to put "Carnegie Mellon University - PA" either. I might just has well have put "ETS - KY". I ended up modifying the badge to say "nowhere", which was a good conversation starter.

the people I graded with, as photographed by our fearless captain

Nobody really goes to the Reading to grade--the real draw is the chance to interact with other CS teachers. But I didn't get to do much of either, because I got sick on the first day, and spent most of the week quarantined at my own little table, grading and sneezing alone, and then sneezing and watching TV in my hotel room.

It was a lame Reading all around. The expo center provided us with a grading facility that was just a curtained off section of a large warehouse loading zone (complete with mice). And the food was terrible. One day the main course in the lunch buffet line was literally a potato. It was like working in some sort of forced labor grading camp. Thankfully, next year's promises to be better, as it'll be a short drive to a place in Cincinatti.