Friday, July 30, 2021

Friday, July 30, 2021

 

          I slept beautifully, peacefully, and discomfort-free until four am. I go to bed around 9:30 pm. I have been using the acupuncture pen on my left glutes as I lie in bed reading before I sleep. Wow! What a difference. I also did a few clamshell repetitions on my left glutes. 

I realized I could exercise those left glutes while I walked. I couldn't turn my feet out but could rotate on that hip while bringing the other leg forward. Because of the chiropractor's recommendation, I concentrate on involving those glutes in my left hip—quite a difference.

         My doctor had given me a script for PT, as requested. The first problem was she gave it for another practice than the one I had before. I was very impressed with the lady I had at the first one, and I knew she was still there. My doctor wrote to tell me she had written a new script and good luck with my foot. My foot? No, I wanted the PT for my back, my spinal curvature. She said she would add that on. My foot is doing very well. It's not perfect, but it's down to a mere annoyance, easily improved with an ice bath and some massage with a golf ball. 

       I had Mom K's crew this morning. I had asked her to help me with her son, K. I needed help with his handwriting. I couldn't do what needed to be done on Zoom. He wasn't getting it. I had emailed her primarily paper and a photo of what I wanted him to copy via text because she couldn't get her printer to work. She created some primary paper on her own; only it wasn't correct. More seriously, she "miswrote" many of the letters. I put that in quotes because they were perfectly legible while they were not the standard form. The letters b, d, f, h, k, l, and t are the same size. She wrote b, k, and t in a single space, making them the same size as a, c, m, n, etc. These letters are perfectly legible. It is only the letters d and h where this would create a problem. The d would be confused with the lower-case a, and the h with the lower-case n. It might not make much difference under some circumstances, but this boy has terrible spatial problems. I want him to work with a consistent model. I wanted to resolve confusion for this kid. He carried too much on his own. Also, she wrote the words as an adult would, writing all the letters in a single space, not filling the lines on the primary paper. I was grateful she was willing to participate. There was no reason why she should understand what I wanted. To do that, she would have to have insight into her son's confusion. That's my job. That's what makes me the great teacher I am.

      I called Mama K several times yesterday, but she hadn't gotten back to me. I asked her to call me before the session at 8:30. She did, and I explained what I wanted. She had the model of my writing in a text image. Hopefully, she'd be comfortable doing this. Her son desperately needs the model.

      When the session started, I learned that K wasn't home anyway. He was at a sleepover. I had Twin A first. She rocked the letter recognition and did very well on blending initial continuant consonants with the -at family. I decided to start her on sight word recognition. I started with the word the as I had with her sister. I could see her sister in the corner of the Zoom screen. I told her to get in too. I asked her if she remembered the word the. She said "the" without batting an eye. Wow! She said the release had helped. I guess so. 

      We worked on blending all single consonants with the -at family. She did well with that except for the word mat, which slipped into the map. She still had problems holding sounds clearly in her mind.

       At 9 am, I had my weekly appointment with my therapist/ life coach, Shelly. I worked on the terror I felt because of this friend. I know she doesn't mean ill. She was scared, and I was scared. We are also crazily incompatible. How did we ever get this involved in each other's lives in the first place, given our differences? Some of my encounters with her retraumatize me. It's hard to understand how much sadness and fear I lived with as a child. My mother adored her firstborn child; she just hated me. I had the image of her stomping me with an object with a flat metal surface about three feet across. She was 'stamping on me' in a frenzy. She was desperate to destroy me, annihilate something in me that terrified her. They were the same qualities my father nurtured in me. How's that for crazy-making? Facing this attack straight on was calming. At first, the attack was just on my heart; as it progressed, it was all on my body's left side, including my head. At the end of my mother's life, she was somewhat more peaceful about me, but she never could accept that I held different thoughts from hers. Oh, well.  

       At 10:30, I had sixth grade D. We only got through one paragraph in half an hour. He read slowly and skipped the function words and, every once in a while, didn't decode a longer content word correctly. While he makes mistakes on some content words, his bigger problem was his errors with the function words. While his reading was slow, his comprehension was generally good. However, today, he made a mistake on a Getting the Main Idea exercise. He picked a detail that was only mentioned once. I showed him how you could count the number of references to a topic to figure out the main idea of a paragraph frequently. You could, in this case.

       I gave him a choice in response to his problems with missing function words. A) ignore the problem. His comprehension is generally good, and the likelihood of having to read out loud in seventh grade is slim. (I would not ignore problems decoding content words.) b) continue underlining the missed function word as he went along, and c) click a pen to signal when he missed a word. He chose the last one. It was a good choice. I believe that option would help him internal the necessary vigilance. However, there were several content words he decoded incorrectly. When he misses a word, he ignores one of the syllables.

      I got around to housecleaning today. In the process, I moved an object and placed it on the floor. As I did, I pitched over. Because of my dance training, I knew to use my hands to break my fall. I didn't lock my wrists; I touched my fingers first, then my knuckles, then my palm, and only then took the weight on my forearms. It was something I did automatically. It was still a shock. Once down, I had to figure out how to get back up. It was a disconcerting moment.

Again, we had sunshine from 7 to 10. Then it became overcast, and it was raining by midday. We were socked in again. It's an unusually wet summer.

      Sixth-grade D's mom called me to compare notes. She said she had seen improvement. She confirmed that he resents the sessions. I needed to address this problem. Resentment involves a lot of energy that doesn't go to the reading.  

       I checked my Step Up email account. One from Julia asked if people would be willing to mentor new tutors. I would work with a group of six, meeting with them once a week and being available for some extra help. I volunteered to head two groups. It is what I wanted to do. It won't last forever. Let's see how it goes.

       While cleaning up, I found a slip of paper with a note about the slide that needed editing on the video. I texted Tommy to ask him if he wanted this information before changing the format or if it would be better if we worked on it afterward. He said before. I have to review the video to find the glitches I'm responsible for. On correcting the glitch on the video, I started my spiel and made an error, stopped with a few accompanying moans, and started again.  

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Musings:

I'm reading Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society by Nicholas A. Christakis.

 

       He writes about our natural tendency to ethnocentricity and xenophobia. Four-year-olds arbitrarily assigned one of two shirts will bond with those like them. Each group bonded and became antagonistic toward the other group.

       The people in a group support their fellow members and do not support members of another group. All that seems natural and appropriate. We favor those we know; we steer clear of those who are not like us. Giving more support to some versus others sounds okay. The problem is with xenophobia when we become antagonistic toward the other group because they're different. When all differences are considered intolerable, we're all in trouble.