A morning walk and Bikram as usual. Since I had a 1 pm haircut appointment, I had to leave school by 12:30 pm. I went to school early to work with two children in Mrs. D's class. When I got there, neither one was available. R. hadn't come to school in the first place, and B. got sick and had to go home.
I couldn't work with the children in Mrs. B's class because they were in other reading groups. Mrs. D. asked if I wanted to work with the other children in her class. We announced that I was available. At first, no one spoke up, but then this one girl did.
When I asked her what she wanted to work on. She said multiplication. I asked, "Memorizing the facts or understanding how it works?" She tried to understand it. Traditional methods employ examples of what it is: grouping three groups of twos, etc. What I don't see a lot is showing children what multiplication is not. I showed her two problems, 3 + 3+4+5+3= and 3 + 3+3+3+3=, and asked her which of these two could be turned into a multiplication problem. She had no idea. It took a few examples for her to get the point and convert an addition problem into a multiplication problem and a multiplication problem into an addition problem. She was a bright student; it took all of five minutes.
Then another student came out. He also wanted to learn to memorize the multiplication facts. I showed him how to use his visual and auditory short-term and long-term memory to memorize. I also showed him the Fernald method to help him memorize the facts. He could remember the four facts from the flashcards I created on the spur of the moment. My theory is that if he can memorize these four facts and understand how he is doing it, the rest will come easily. He learned so quickly that I thought he would have good lateral transfer to other contexts. He didn't. He didn't recognize the problems when presented in another form, i.e., written on a larger piece of paper.
Then, I worked with a third child. He wanted to work on word recognition. He squirmed painfully in his seat, had trouble making eye contact, and chewed on his necklace. It was hard to hear what he said. He told me he read with his mother; when he missed a word, she told him what it was but did not tell him how to figure it out. I felt inclined to ask him if he thought something was wrong with him. He said," Yes." I told him there wasn't; he wasn't using a part of his brain as he should. I gave him the example of hitting a baseball while holding the bat with only one hand. He has to be taught to use both his hands. He relaxed somewhat.
I broke some words down phonemically while transcribing them. I asked him how this exercise felt. He said okay, but he didn't look like he felt okay. A big problem with many kids is getting them to tell me what they think or feel rather than what they think I want them to say. I can usually tell the difference because when their focus is on me instead of what they're feeling, their eyes are wide with fear and hope, their bodies are contracted, and their voices are hard to hear. They are not comfortable.
I asked him where he heard the sounds in his mind. He pointed to what I understood to be the right place, but something interfered with his perception. From his behavior, I assumed fear could be a good possibility. I told him to listen to me talking German. I made it clear to him that I did not expect him to understand a single word. Listening to language this way is a little like listening to music while using the left side of the brain instead of the right, which is better for music. I could see him relax. I told him that's what it should feel like whenever he listens to someone talking. Then, I did the phonemic production, slowing the process down. That means holding each phonemic sound as long as I can. He smiled. I sped it up when he said he was comfortable with that process. He found it fun to listen to. I had him select some words that he was secure with. At the end of a half-hour of work, He could look me straight in the eye without terror. I don't know yet what this all means for his reading.
How much effect will this one lesson have on his ability to read? He finally understood there is a letter-sound relationship. He missed that point despite phonics lessons since grade one. Some kids do miss it. Maybe his mother always insisted that words had to be learned as wholes. I don't know. I'm not planning to work with him extensively. I have two other kids to work with in Mrs. D.'s class, and I'm trying to limit what I do. I could spend the whole day there helping kids. I'm just not up for it.
Before I left, D. from Mrs. B.'s class came out because I wanted to set him up on the Quiet Queen audio file to work on phonemic awareness. I didn't have much time. Yesterday, I worked with him on letter naming in continuous text. I asked him if he had done it on his own. He gave me a clear YES. I thought he was telling the truth. Yesterday he started finding the activity fun. Once students see the fun in the exercises, they are off and running. He said he thought he could find the site and knew what to do. I had to run because of my appointment with the hairdresser.
When I go to bandcamp.com, I can see the stats showing how much my stories read phonemically were listened to. Here's the problem: Sometimes, I know it was played because I sat there while it was, but it doesn't register on the site. Hmmm! That's not that helpful.
Jean was transferred out of the hospital to a rehab center. She sent me an email telling me what was going on and that she loved the rehab center. She called today while I was tutoring and left me a message that she loved the rehab center but wasn't up for telephone conversations. I sent her an email thanking her for the personal message.
I made it to the hairdresser just in time. The parking lot was jammed. Fortunately, a truck pulled out, and I got a spot. There was one large jeep taking up two parking spaces. I thought it looked like one a fellow Bikramite drove, but I thought the wheels were smaller. When I went to the hairdresser's, I told her the problem. She looked out the window and said, "That's Jen's Jeep." I thought it was one of her employees. But then Jen came out of the restaurant across the street. It was my Bikram buddy. I'm telling you, Kona is a small town.
The hairdresser suffered from a silent migraine, and I distracted her as she worked. She started by shaving the back of my head up to the ear line and the sides of my head. When I distracted her, she forgot that she had taken the shied off the razor and went after my head as if she continued with an earlier process. She shaved a spot down to the scalp; you know the kind of shave job you see with skinheads. Of course, this was only one spot. Fortunately, I'm not particularly vain, and this woman gives me fantastic haircuts that never look bad. I figured, what the hell! It will grow back in. She begged me to let her even the bald area out. So she shaved both sides of my head down to the scalp. I wonder what Mike would have said. He always loved the haircuts this woman gave me. What would he have thought of this cut, which is way more appropriate for someone half my age? I'll never know now, will I?
When I got home, I called Science News to order a year's subscription for Elijah. I discovered I could order an online version and a hard copy. I texted Elijah to find out if he liked the online version. Then I took a deeply satisfying 3 ½ nap. I woke up around 6:30. I texted Yvette that I was out walking the dog and would be home soon. We had made arrangements to talk about some projects I had in mind. I want to insulate her ceiling acoustically so she doesn't hear every pin drop up here. She says she's good when she hears me, but it's a strain if it's someone else. I can't have that.
If I insulate through her ceiling, she will have to clean out her bedroom for at least four days. When I described the work, she said it would take two weeks, given everyone here works on Hawaiian time. Hopefully not. Now I have to set it up. I will call our old contractor, Ken, who did the world's most amazing work ever on our house, particularly the bathroom, kitchen, and Mike's precious library. I am so glad he got to have his dreams come true. God, I loved making that man happy. What a pure joy!
After dinner of another turkey burger, sugar peas, a piece of bread, limeade, and pills, I went into the library to watch TV and do some work. I have almost filled one more box. Lord knows how long it will take me to empty this library. But it should go faster when I get the following list of requests because I will have alphabetized all the shelves. Just doing that makes it easier to find books.
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Musings:
About sacrificing yourself for something outside of yourself: as mentioned in the article on altruism, Sandor gave me:
The author said that the term altruism is avoided in Catholicism because it can go wrong, as in extremism and fanaticism. Altruism is an extension of our desire to get out of ourselves and be part of something larger than ourselves. Being in ourselves means constantly worrying about our existential, if not physical, survival. We live like wounded animals in that case. What a nightmare! People need to escape that brand of self-centeredness. That is what lies behind some drug addiction: you get to forget yourself. That is probably true for all addictions. What a relief! Suppose you view the need to get out of ourselves as a basic drive, part of the original setup. In that case, we have the problem of the law of unintended consequences. Sometimes, it looks like virtue, and sometimes, like vice.
Caring about others gives us a natural high if, and it's a big if; we are together. If we are wounded, our primary concern is for ourselves, as is the case with all wounded creatures. The need to care for others and get out of ourselves is biologically driven; we are social animals. It was part of the original design when we lived in small groups, and physical survival dominated our thinking.
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