Monday, May 10, 2021

Monday, May 10, 2021

 

I had my appointment with the plastic surgeon this morning. I thought, "This is going to be a waste of time," but I wasn't inclined to cancel. I have a very low forehead. If they raised my brows, I would have less. I look like Cro-Magnon man as it is; less will not be good. Surprise! The plastic surgeon had wonderful suggestions, if a few too many. I stopped him from going on with options and details on how to execute each of the procedures. It seems he could do surgery on me and leave me with a forehead. Whatever he, it would be a six-week recovery with blackened eyes for three of them.

            I mentioned something to him Dr. Kao had not suggested, but Sandor had- reducing the flesh in my eyelids. Sandor said doing that made a world of difference for his parents' vision. The plastic surgeon said there wasn't enough drooping flesh in my lids to make a difference. He did suggest that we try Botox. My hairdresser, Randee, had suggested the same thing. The Botox would paralyze those muscles which pull the brow down. He had never tried it before for a medical problem; he only used it for cosmetic purposes. He pointed out the neurology department used Botox regularly for medical purposes. He said Kaiser charged about $300 a treatment if for cosmetic reasons. I would need a follow-up once every six months or so. However, everyone is different. One person had the effect last several years.    Since this was for a medical rather than cosmetic purpose, Kaiser may spring for it. If they don't honor his request, I have also thought I could follow up with Dr. Kao and ask her if she can pursue the Botox option. 

            I had my reading support office hour this morning. I offer advice and support on teaching reading to the Step Up Tutoring tutors once a week. Last week, I had three people participants; this week, I had five. Most of the volunteer tutors don't know how to teach reading. What they don't know is that most teachers don't have a clue either. Yes, there are lesson plans available. Attentive teachers recognize the limits of those lessons. They don't help those who don't know how to teach themselves. My work focuses on the learning process as much, if not more than the subject being taught. 

            I always start the session by asking the tutor participants what problems they want help with. Most have no idea what a phoneme is or what the word decoding refers to. They are total novices. My approach is ideal for this crowd. Today one of the participants said it would be helpful to show a video of me working with a child. There are legal problems with that. I broke into a riff about modeling how to deal with uncertainty and failure for our students. The tutors could do that by exploring something they are uncertain about. If they start with the Phonics Discovery System method, they will have to deal with uncertainty and failure. I told them to engage the students with their exploratory process. Tell them they are trying something new and need the student's help to see if they are doing it right. When I started using this decoding method, I used it with a girl who only knew how to read and write her name. I had no idea what I was doing. I assured them not to worry if they made mistakes. Between the misinformation teachers teach their students, and the student's inability to correctly understand what is being taught, tons of misinformation is passed on. That's life. It is more important to teach our students how to deal with the unfamiliar than to teach them information. 

            One guy got it. He said he had to change jobs three times in his life. He had to learn whole new systems. This ability assured his survival, not coming into a job with full knowledge. He got it. This method is a system of discovery and exploration. It involves risk-taking. It's built into the program. The most important thing is modeling how to deal with uncertainty and failure. I need to include this in my video.

            I had 14-year-old G. at 1 pm. I had already started him with holding an image of a letter on the left side of his head. I did a little of that today before I launched into the handwriting work. I am teaching it by modeling – on the whiteboard of Zoom. Then we switched to reading. We had determined that his reading was accurate, even fluent, but it felt like bumper cars in his head, or as if he's driving down a rocky dirt road, holding on to the steering wheel for dear life. It's not smooth inside his head. I introduced the spin release.

      It took a few tries to determine the pattern of the interfering spin. First, he felt like it was moving from left to right, rocking back and forth. Then he could see it as a spin moving from the front of his head to the back. The spin followed the right-hand rule from his forehead. I guided him in a spin release. While I had instructed him on how to complete the release, letting the spin reach maximum speed and then spin-off, he didn't give it free rein. He was cautious. Perfect. I prefer a cautious student looking out for his interests to one who blindly follows everything I say. Last I looked, I wasn't God. There is no way I can always be right.

            No word from J today, although I texted him, asking if he wanted to meet. I would prefer it if he let me know. His family is Guatemalan. I'm not sure if they're legal or not. I worry about them. Silence is frightening.

            I had my adolescent D at 3:30. I sent two emails- neither went through. We got on the phone, and I gave him the ID and password. He had trouble with this process. He needed his dad's help. I'm not sure what caused him problems. He didn't have a procedure for doing it. 

            When I did my before-dinner walk with Elsa, I saw pigs in the road. I was scared. I think of them as nocturnal animals. I never see them about during the day. A teenager was walking down the road. He said he had seen a third. I turned and went the other way, hoping to avoid them. They turned and walked down the road in my direction. These weren't super big pigs. I suspect they were adolescents on the loose. One stood right in front of my driveway. I frantically called Yvette to come up and close the gate to the driveway so he couldn't get in. After the third try, I called Josh. He answered and came right up. I was afraid they would attack Elsa. Josh checked the top of the driveway- no pig to be found. He closed the gate as I ran into the house.