Tuesday, February 23, 2021
I called Jean, my hanai sister, first thing this morning. She had agreed it would be good to get the information about my approach to reading into the prisons. I thought of posting a video design for men in prisons. Then it occurred to me that there would be no way for them to see it. They are not allowed cell phones. I realized there is no way they are allowed unlimited access to the Internet. How was Jean picturing them viewing this video? I called her to ask. Her first question was if I could put it in a written format. I told her no. If Dorothy, who is highly educated, has a strong background in linguistics, has worked on editing my book, and my article didn't get it until she saw the demonstration, I couldn't imagine that the men would. As it winds up, the prison has its own channel. They post acceptable material on it. I can put together a video, and Jean can appeal to the head of the prison's education department. She says he's a good guy and would probably do it. Putting together a video presentation for the men won't be as complicated as putting it together for the tutors. It will be stories and demonstrations with invitations for follow-up questions. I will do Phase I in one video and Phase II separately.
I thought of posting ongoing short videos answering questions on how to teach. I am inspired by some of the videos posted by young women giving makeup and skincare advice. They experiment and share their experiences. Love it.
When I went to open the PowerPoint file this morning, it was corrupted. Tommy, my tech guy, worked on my computer last night. He said I was having problems with the Microsoft One Drive because while one computer was a Microsoft, the other was an Apple. His solution was to eliminate One Drive from both computers. I did find one uncorrupted PowerPoint file, only one. I found the modifications I had made yesterday within one of the corrupted files. I was afraid to copy and paste, fearing corrupting my one intact file. Instead, I went back and forth between the two, making the modifications.
I thought to send the uncorrupted file to myself via email. That way, it would be saved. I tried to attach it but couldn't find it on my computer. Now, that was another breathtaking moment. I went back to the PowerPoint and clicked save. It said the file was saved in One Drive. Tommy had told me he had eliminated One Drive from both of my computers and put everything into documents. When I opened all the other files, I saw that everyone he saved into Documents, having removed them from One Drive, was corrupted, every single one of them. Tommy is supposed to come over tonight to work on my phone problem. I will raise this issue with him. I now know why those files were corrupted. It's Microsoft's payback for not playing their OneDrive game. I rejected them, and they got back at me. Yikes!
After I made the modifications to my one intact file, typing it in myself rather than copying and pasting, I went to town. My first stop was Kaiser to pick up some medication for my skin. I was concerned that the order might have been canceled already. I put off leaving the house, not fear out of fear of Covid but out of habit.
Then I went to Costco. The parking lot was relatively empty. I understood that the new shipment will be on the shelves tomorrow. The employees had already configured the piles of flats at the entry to force entrants to walk far to the end. They were ready for tomorrow, and the longs lines, doubling back on each other. The center of one of the freezer aisles was loaded with toilet paper, again prepared for tomorrow, and the customer rush. I had half a dozen items on my list, but only two I really needed, lemons and vinegar. I got everything else but those two. They were both out.
At 3, I had an appointment with A. I had trouble finding the Carpenter stories on the tablet I use with very low functioning readers like A. I was able to find three of them. He was going through them much faster. Some might say, "Well, he's memorized them." In my experience, the low functioning student usually cannot do that. Besides, I can hear him decoding words as he goes along. He is remembering words he had trouble recalling, like very and the boy's name in one of the stories.
I had started the co-writing activity with him in a previous session. His first story was very low-level. Today's story had structure and purpose to it. It was more than 100% improvement over the first one. This assures me that he is not suffering from an intellectual impairment. His problem is all an auditory processing problem. He read the story back to me; he didn't need much help. This is a dramatic improvement.
I had an appointment with J. I was all bent out of shape, figuring out how to help him with his assignment to create a report on a black scientist. He said he had finished it. Huh? I have no idea if this will be acceptable to his teacher; it was three downloads: two photos and one video, all on George Washington Carver. He had written nothing. I don't even know if he read what was written on the photos or watched the whole video. Is this really acceptable work? I suppose it's okay if the only objective is learning the name of the black scientist.
Tommy, my tech guy, was scheduled to come over tonight to help me with my phone. I could not make new entries to my calendar, and all my photos were gone. I hadn't called him in my panic to tell him what happened to my PowerPoint file; he only found out when he arrived. He was able to fix all of the above. I don't know what he did with my phone, but I know he surrendered to the tyranny of Microsoft and reuploaded One Drive. It seems like everything is up and functioning.
On my walks, I ran into t woman who complimented my hair. "Your hair looks great." This always happens right before I get a haircut, no matter how long I wait. When the Covid shut down started, hairdressers were out. I must have gone several months before I got a cut. Again, right before I got an appointment, I got so many compliments. It's some sort of a joke.
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