I went to bed early last night but only woke up when the alarm sounded this morning. I felt much better than I did yesterday. My leg was somewhat pinchy, so I limited my walk to up and down my street so I could make a run for home if I needed to.
I spoke with my friend Carol from Ohio today instead of Dorothy. We're on the same page politically, so we share complaints. There are others, but they become so upset that I don't introduce the topic. It's nice to have someone to share with, but it also makes me think more about the political situation. I am not optimistic about the outcome, regardless of who wins the election.
She also shared how traumatized her elementary school grandchildren were by online schooling. When they are 'in school,' they can't change their focus point; they can't move around in their chairs. With online schooling, they are tethered to that screen and can't budge. It's too much for most people, no less elementary school children. I suppose if this goes on long enough, someone will realize that there have to be some changes made, like just moving around every 5 minutes, changing their gaze, something. This is altogether too much for these kids.
There are tragic consequences to the shutdown; there are tragic consequences to allowing the virus to take its course without intervention. If everyone respected the mask rule, it would lower the rate of infection somewhat. Then perhaps we could say, let happen what may. I don't know. The poor and the disenfranchised are suffering the most. They can't do their jobs online. In-person contact is forced on them.
On the other hand, if we let the virus run its course, who's to say it won't leave young people debilitated. All I have to say, I am so happy I'm not in a position to make any decisions. I pity the people who are.
When I got home, I felt called to deal with one of my infected hibiscus plants. B. had told me that there was one in the lower garden severely infected with blister mites. I did a tour of the grounds after the landscaper left on Monday. I found several plants in distress. I also found what I consider sloppy yard work.
I'm not sure if these guys are taking advantage of me or if I'm getting my money's worth. How do I tell? What can I expect for what I'm paying them? Mike set it up. Were they doing the same quality of work for him as they are doing for me? Mike never went out to check the grounds. I don't know if he cared much one way or the other as long as it looked neat.
I found the hibiscus that B. had told me about. Yikes! It was as tall as a tree and badly infected with blister mites. When the gardener came around yesterday to pick up more waste and his check, I walked around with him. It was clear he didn't know there was a problem with that hibiscus. He's like me; he's good at weeding but not planting. We agreed that he would cut the tall hibiscus down to waist high on his next trip so I could treat it with Sulfur powder.
I took care of the smaller hibiscus I found that was similarly infected to the side of the driveway. It didn't take long to cut it down. I bagged the cuttings with plans to take them to the trash dump, not the green waste. I do not want to spread these mites to someone else.
I found the sulfur powder to treat the hibiscus in the shed, took it inside, and read the directions. "Shake well before using. Mix the powder with air liberally. Frequent light dustings are more effective than one heavy one."
I didn't go out immediately. I did some catch-up work on the updates. I had worked on some from the week yesterday, but they needed to be reviewed today before sending them out.
I had a session with D. He chose to continue working with the book Socks. I told him to start with the second paragraph on page 24. He had no idea what a paragraph was.
I switched to the whiteboard on Zoom. I drew the outline of several paragraphs, a box with an indentation in the upper left-hand corner. I told D to find the word that fit into the indentation from the book. He got what a paragraph was. Let's see if he remembers it the next time he sees it. That is always the big question with D. I wonder if there was some brain trauma when he was young. Regardless, he's young enough to rewire. If Bach-y-Rita could get his dad to rewire after a stroke, anything is possible. We have to figure it out.
He is doing better on comprehension in general. When he read today, he read passages with feelings. It was amazing. He still makes mistakes with word recognition. More importantly, he still makes mistakes with meaning. He will put in words that make no sense whatsoever. He does that less frequently, but he makes at least one error in each session.
A comprehension issue came up where I had to tell him that I thought his answer was better than mine, although mine didn't change the sentence's meaning either. The words were "This decision . . . "It referred to something that had happened in the previous paragraph. I had to direct him to refer back. He wanted all the meaning to come from the words in the sentence we were working on. He did try to twist it into meaning. He failed. But when he did get it, I think he did a better job than I did. I told him of my error. I love telling children when I make mistakes, especially when they get it right.
Yes, I am making them feel better, superior for a moment, but there is a much more important lesson in that action than that: everyone makes mistakes. There is no shame in that. You acknowledge it and move on. You credit the person who did it correctly regardless of who they are. I'm modeling the behavior. I think it's important for everyone to have.
We did a little work on the math. D told me how he was practicing, but he made the same mistakes he always does. He went through everything he was doing to learn those facts. It does sound like he is making every effort. He understands he has a problem with his memory. We had to figure out how to fix it. I gave him Mike's line, "It's a problem to be solved." You might ask why I would tell a young child that there is something wrong with the way his brain works.
To begin with, there is. That's reality. D has a terrible time remembering things. Second, and most importantly, I want him to work with me to solve this problem. I have often told children that even if I can't solve their problem, someone in their lifetime will. More importantly, the student is part of the problem-solving team.
What was D.'s response to these comments? He said, "I am so lucky to be working with such a nice lady like you." Whatever his problem is, it is only "A problem to be solved," and I believe there is a solution. If not, and it proves insoluble, I will teach him how to deal with it honestly, which I believe will work the best for him in work situations when he is an adult.
Sadly, I can imagine teachers who think everything can be solved by effort without determining the correct action in the first place. Then these kids get bullied and told it is all their fault because they're not studying. Would you want to study the same material over and over and over when you can see that it makes no difference?
On behalf of the teachers, the idea that a problem like this could be neurological or cognitive is new. The teachers in Ohio thought I was weird. I told them they would all be doing what I was doing in ten years. Neuroscience became relevant to learning when fMRIs could look in our brains and see which parts were firing when we performed a task. When the expected parts did not fire in children, those were the people who were having problems.
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Musings:
I previously mentioned that scientists developed a method for using imaging techniques to tell what people are thinking. When someone thinks of an apple, the object, not the word, a machine can accurately identify their thought.
While this development has a scary downside, it also confirms my BrainManagementSkills (BMS) theories. In BMS, I help students identify which parts of their brains they use for sensory processing and memory. If the student has problems, I help them switch the part of the brain they are using to work better. This usually works, frequently quickly.
Over the years, I have identified which parts of the brain best perform a function. People who don't have problems with, let's say, visual perception consistently use particular parts of the brain; people who do have problems don't use those parts of the brain. (This theory addresses issues with visual processing and memory and auditory processing and memory. I'm not even beginning to try and explain how it works in this musing.) I remain open to the possibility that it works differently in different people but have never encountered such an example. This research strengthens my belief that we all use the same brain parts to perform specific functions.
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