I got up shortly after 5:30 when the alarm went off. I spoke to Dorothy on my walk. She had texted me saying that she wanted to get together on Zoom to go over the corrections she made to my article. She said the article sounded good, but she does not sound excited about the work.
Now Dorothy is a linguistic wiz. She read before she got to school. Exposed to a new language, all she has to do is inhale it. There is no way her phonemic awareness is not off the charts. It freaked me out that she didn’t get the work. I think what is going on is that her phonemic awareness is entirely automatic. Having to think about it consciously feels/is awkward. Teaching someone to tie a shoelace: It is something I can do automatically without paying any attention. My fingers know what to do; they need no instructions from my conscious mind. However, if I want to teach it to someone else, I can’t just show them what I do automatically; I have to break it down step by step. To do that, I have to become consciously aware of what my fingers are doing. Making something conscious that your nonconscious does automatically is awkward and uncomfortable. This conscious rendering of phonemic awareness is only necessary for those who have not developed it automatically. I also believe that it will enhance the reading skills of those whose automatic processing is already off the charts. This should be interesting. Both Dorothy and Shivani were readers, always way ahead of their grade-level peers. Also, both of them have been compulsive readers all their lives. Getting them to see the advantages of what I’m doing should be interesting. While there may be few teachers who were as advanced in their reading skills as Dorothy and Shivani, all teachers read well by this point and may have the same resistance to becoming conscious of the process. It does produce an uncomfortable experience.
When I went to the bathroom, I noticed brown liquid dripped on the floor. That could only mean one thing; Elsa had diarrhea. Sure enough, there was most of her waste sitting on the shower floor. Yay! Elsa. That’s so easy to clean up. I just took the handheld showerhead and washed it all down the drain. I wiped up the floor and washed it afterward.
I met with my one student at 10:30. I’m still struggling with Zoom. His mother isn’t very patient with my struggle. However, we work well over the phone with just audio. I’m distressed that she is only focused on what she needs. I’m doing this for free; accommodating me for a few minutes several times a week until I have master Zoom doesn’t seem to be too much to expect in return.
The boy is reading better. He still has problems when it comes to decoding unknown words. However, he is a little better at remembering the procedure. He has to start with the vowel. All this is hard for him because he has trouble sequencing letters. What is the letter after thee? He could say the one before thee just as easily as the one after it.
After my session with him, I spoke to his mother about his sequencing problems. She told me that she was diagnosed as dyslexic. I told her that it is just a label for a problem. I am looking for ways to solve it. I gave her some directions over the phone. She asked me to write them up and send them to her.
I asked the boy today if he felt his reading was better. He said yes. His mother also said she thought he was better. It’s only the teacher that doesn’t seem to see any improvement. I find the flow of his reading improved as well as his comprehension.
After working with him, I called K. He bucks working with me, although I only do short sessions with him. He uses up more time fighting the work than actually doing it. He says he doesn’t even find the sessions that bad. Unfortunately, I understand all too well the impulse that makes him behave that way.
After working with K, I drove down to Eyeland to get another scan of my retina. When Sandor was here yesterday, he said Meaali’inani was concerned about my eye and wanted to do another one. Meaali’inani had time after the scan was completed to discuss it with me. The separation looked somewhat better. Huh? Meali’inani also checked my vision on a wall eye chart. There was a substantial improvement in the left eye. What was I doing? I have no idea. Have I been taking the eye drops? No. “Please, please, please take the drops, even if you only do it twice a day instead of four times as it is prescribed.”
On my way home, I stopped at Safeway. They had plenty of salad stuff. I can stop worrying about there being none in the near future. As I wandered up and down the aisles, one woman pointed out that each aisle was now one-way, and I was going in the wrong direction. I thanked her for pointing it out to me. I had an opportunity to pass that information on to another shopper going in the wrong direction.
I was going to go to the post office, but I had to go to the bathroom badly. I wasn’t prepared to use the restroom at Safeway. I headed home.
I was exhausted when I got home and lay down for a nap. Even when I got up, I didn’t feel great. The oxygen meter arrived today, but I can’t figure out how to make it work. I must be putting the batteries in the wrong way. Sandor said he would come by today. When he comes, hopefully, he will know how to deal with my new toy.
Sandor arrived. He fixed my sunglasses. One of the lenses popped out when it fell on the floor at Safeway. He figured out how to put the battery is into my pulse oxy meter. I took my oxygen measure immediately; it was 95. Wow! That is low. The last time I had it taken in, it was 98. Of course, that was years ago. I checked the appropriate oxygen saturation level for my age. Ninety-five is the lowest it can go and be okay.
As Sandor worked on the books, I worked on editing blog entries and did some work on the article. It was wonderful having someone around as I did my own thing. We talked now and then but not continuously. Perfect. I told him he was welcome to come over to the house to work on the library whenever. I don’t even have to be home; just let me know.
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