Yvette had grabbed my mat and yoga towel while I rinsed off at Bikram after class. I was confused about not finding it when I returned but not alarmed. This is a good group, I couldn't imagine someone walking off with my sweat-soaked towel and mat. I headed off to HPM and Home Depot. HPM is known as the local building store used by contractors. They had nothing I wanted. They had no acoustical materials and no carpeting- off to Home Depot.
My first step at Home Depot was the flooring department, where I checked out some carpeting samples. I didn't want a solid color; it shows dirt. I have multi-colored carpeting on my lanai now. I like the pattern: it is various shades of brown with a touch of red woven in. HD didn't have anything like that. I'll check at Lowe's tomorrow. Maybe I'll also check if an independent carpeting company exists here in Kona.
Next, I went to look for acoustic insulation. Lowe's had something appropriate in the building department, so that's where I went at Home Depot. I couldn't find anything or anyone to tell me where I could find it. Finally, I spotted one guy. When I asked my question, he pulled out his phone and looked it up on some app. He explained he was a loader. I asked him what he did. He patiently explained that he "loaded." I smiled and said, "What?" He helps people load their cars with the materials. Oh! He didn't know where to look. We walked around, and he spotted Stanley.
I grabbed Stanley and asked him where I could find acoustical insulation. He gave the loader a dirty look and said, "You should know where that is." Then he led me to the other end of the store, far away from the building supplies section, lumbering along with what looked like annoyance. When we finally arrived, he pointed to some packages with a sullen face. I had no idea what I was looking at. But then I spotted the Chicago Bars. There were panels to be attached to the ceiling. I explained their function was to muffle sound within the room, not from the floor above. He gave me a dirty look and walked away. Bunions or hemorrhoids would be my best guess.
I came home, got dressed, and headed out to school. As usual, I started with the students in Mrs. B.'s class. I had K read in the third-grade text. We opened to a story deep into the text. She said she knew the story. Had she read it already? No, but they were talking about it in class. She makes me feel like I'm in a bumper car. Her behavior is much better than it used to be, but, boy, she makes nothing easy. Okay, we start reading the story. She did a great job with most of the words, including the ones she had to decode, but then, we ran into some longer words, 4 to 5 syllables. I showed her a procedure for decoding those babies. I tell the kids over and over, "You're not just figuring out this word. You are teaching your brain how to decode longer words. The procedure is always the same." She wouldn't follow my instructions. To a certain extent, she couldn't, but there is also that attitude of hers that leaves you wondering how much is just an unwillingness to cooperate with someone else, anyone else. Patience isn't this child's long suit.
Next, I worked with D. We worked on one of the early stories in the book. He also struggled with multi-syllable words. He worked hard. He's an ideal student. He tries to do it my way. My tolerance for difficulty is weak these days. I don't have Mike to come home to so I can destress.
I didn't put the audio file on with either of these children because they listened at home. Well, I'm sure D is. Who knows what K is doing.
Then, I went to work with Mrs. D's students. I started with R., whom I didn't get to work with on Tuesday because of the emergency drills. No recall of the word there. I switched tactics. I worked with the word family -at: bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, and rat. I had to have her decode [a-t] each time before she added the initial letter for the first few words. For the last three, she saw the pattern and was able to blend them on her own without first decoding -at. It looks like this might be the way to go. If she can retain the word family,-at, -in, an, etc., and blend the initial sound to it, it would be a way to work her auditory processing and recall problems and teach phonics. If her recall problems weren't remedied, she would never read adequately.
I went into Mrs. D.'s class to ask her who I should work with next. Before she could select a student, two others asked to work with me.. A. came with a big fat book at least 6th-grade level. (This is a third-grade class.) Mrs. D. suggested that she get an easier book. I figure if that is what she wants to work with, it's good as long as she understands that it is a challenge and she's not using it to pretend she is better than she is. She wasn't. Her word recognition was pretty good. She had some trouble understanding the sentences. I did the sentence comprehension exercise, demonstrating how the words within the sentence relate. That exercise kind of blew her mind. As she read the sentences, she thought they were weird sounding. I spoke the sentences in a context that would be more familiar with a conversational tone. Then, the sentences sound familiar. She understood it. We only worked on one paragraph. She started fading. This work was hard. She didn't realize how hard, but I did.
I finished up with B. and N., reviewing how to decode larger words and put both of them on the audio file.
When I got home, I worked on the blog. Then, I called Judy to ask more questions about Richie. I want to know how easy or difficult he is to communicate with. Then I called him. I told him I had decided I wanted to go with carpeting because that was guaranteed to provide the most acoustical insulation. He said he didn't do carpeting because he didn't have the tools. I will have to explore hiring someone through the stores.
I also told him that the clerk in Home Depot showed me tiles and Chicago Bars. He immediately interrupted me, telling me that he had told me they would never work for my purpose. I told him I knew that. He asked why I brought it up. I explained that I recognized that what the clerk showed me was useless because of what he had taught me. At least he asked why I had brought it up and listened to my explanation. But the answer to "Is he easy to have a discussion with?" Somewhat.
Time to start moving stuff out of the bedroom to get someone in there to do the work. I started in the small office, clearing out the closet to move stuff in there from the closet in the other room. I gathered six of Mike's winter coats and heavy sweatshirt jackets to give to the Friendly Place, serving the homeless. Winter is coming. It never goes below freezing, but it does get down to the low 60s or high 50s at night. A warm jacket will be a welcome relief.
I also cleaned out the bookshelf in the lanai section of that room, which serves as a storage area for extra supplies. I have to empty the breakfront of all the dishes, move the wine rack, and the four-drawer file cabinet. Then, all that will be left will be the large pieces of furniture. Hopefully, I can get a few young folks over here to do that. We'll see.
I worked on the library last night. I didn't find any more requested books, but I did find a manuscript of Mike's- a big fat spiral-bound thing. It was the book he had told me about; it covered a course he was teaching. I just hugged it to my heart and rocked for a while. When I opened it, I saw the dedication, "For Betty and my students." I took the book to bed with me and put it on Mike's pillow.
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