Monday, December 13, 2021

 

Monday, December 13, 2021

 

   I slept well last night until about 3:30am.  After that, I dozed on and off, but I was also tormented by thoughts that made me sad.  I don't know which is worse, relationships that are not working out to my liking, or the lack of response to my work.  The work is so simple, obvious, involves no additional cost, can be easily incorporated into other methods, and is frequently effective quickly.  Will it work with everyone?  I assume not. Have I had enough success with it to think it's worthwhile paying attention to?  Yes.  I understand; people prefer the familiar.  I don't have a glossy package with familiar bells and whistles.  As my niece likes to say, I'm weird. One of the teachers I the video links so wrote, "Betty, you're way ahead of your time." That doesn't make me feel good.  Damon says I'll get recognition in two hundred years. I think he was just being snarky.  I don't think he has any idea what I do.  He did help me edit my first video, so he has some idea.  However, this is not his area of interest or knowledge.  Understanding the point of view of those who don't get it doesn't stop it from hurting. I need a hundred people who get it and want to learn what I do. Then I'll be happy. The rest can do whatever they want.  

     I am Orton-Gillingham trained and certified.  I value every minute of that training.  I learned so much. While it has influenced my own work, what I have developed presents a serious challenge to that approach to teaching.  Orton-Gillingham emphasizes student-dependent learning.  My method teaches students how to be independent learners.  The Orton-Gillingham method I studied is designed to be taught over three years; that's an hour each school day for three years (180x= 540 hours).   I started with adolescent D in mid-March of 2021. He was evaluated as reading on the first-grade level until September. The public school evaluated his reading on a 2nd-grade level. They said he had no phonics and had a processing problem.

  When I started with D, he still couldn't distinguish between her and here and often had trouble reading the word they.  As of this week, yes, only this week, he felt he had enough skills to read the material in his 8th-grade class.   I have completed tops 41 weeks, tops (There were some vacation breaks and missed classes) at 1 ½ a week.  That makes 41 x 1.5= 61 hours. Moreover, I have taught him how to teach himself.  D was the most resistant to taking responsibility for his own learning.  He is a bright child with good comprehension but incredibly passive.  He did NO reading in school.  I would ask him, "Did the teacher write words on the board?" "Yes, but I didn't read them." Record-breaking passivity.  This week, for the first time, he reported making any effort on his own to use whatever knowledge he has to promote his own learning. Even with this difficult-to-work-with child, it only took 61 hours to get him to the point where he felt he could do some classwork at his grade level. Do I know if he got it all right?  No.  But I know he read some of it.  I know I have given him the skills.  I also know that someone will say he must have been misdiagnosed. There is no way he could have made this kind of progress, given how weak he was in September.   You can see why I'm sad. If the tutoring company doesn't reevaluate him before starting, no one will know how much progress he made.  The tutoring company will get all the credit. Yes, it is much more important that this poor boy improved, but it still makes me sad to be totally overlooked, to get zero credit. In terms of him, I hoped he was ready now to work with someone less qualified who could apply standard methods.  Having another person work with him maybe the best thing that happened to him. 

    Darby called last night and asked if they could come to our house to connect on Zoom with Patrick's doctor.  They had no internet connection at their house; it had been out since Sunday's storm. They were scheduled for noon. I had to check if I had any tutors requesting help with reading. I have my reading office hours at noon on Monday.  No one signed up. The time was free.  I got to work cleaning in anticipation of them using my tablet on my dining room table.  I eat while on the computer. Need I say more? I detached the keyboard from the tablet, sprayed it with rubbing alcohol and wiped it down. Wow! That worked.  Desperate times call for desperate measures, or is it necessity is the mother of invention? I would never have dared to clean the keyboard like that if I wasn't threatened with embarrassment.  I also cleaned the table and put some books away that I had sitting there in case I needed them.  I hadn't used them in months.

     Around 9:30, Darby called to say the doctor was ready now. It took them a while to get themselves together and walk over. I had the tablet opened to the Zoom sign-in page. They didn't have a password; they had to call the doctor's office.  The doctor had given them two numbers. They got a voicemail on both calls.  They tried several times and were unable to get through. They finally called the doctor's cell.  He answered right away and said Christine would send them the link. 

    They received it on their phone, just the link,  no meeting id or password.  They didn't want to do it on their phone; they wanted a larger screen for comfort.  After some back and forth, with me repeatedly asking the nurse to give me the passcode, she explained that this wasn't going through on Zoom but on a secure service the hospital used.  She could send the link to their email address. This meant I had to find it on my computer.  When I signed into Gmail, it immediately connected to my address. I wasn't too sure how to get theirs. They finally resolved to do it on their phone. That wasn't great, but it was doable.  

    The connection on their phone was weak. It kept on going to 'trying to connect." The nurse asked them what kind of phone they had. "An android. "Ah, that was the problem. Did anyone have an iPhone? I did. I gave my number, the nurse sent the link there. They were in like Flynn. The conference only took a few minutes.  The doctor wanted to see the wound.  He okayed the removal of the stitches for the next day.  Patrick was going to get that done locally.

     Judy had called while twice while they were using my phone. I called her back.  She was frantic.  She and Paulette ran Mei's Turo business while she was gone.  It is a madhouse. The cars had to be detailed between every rental; people changed their reservations. It's hard work.  Those ladies are earning their money. 

   Judy asked how I was. I was doing better, but I still felt weighted with grief about family relationships and work. I have no idea what to do about the relationship problem other than withdraw. I don't hold out any hope of resolving those problems, so reconciliation results.. However, I can make an effort to put the work out there. I immediately posted The Phase I and Phase II videos on Facebook, my personal account and the Step Up Tutoring one.  I watched the number of views of my videos jump by one almost immediately.  I guess this is a way to go.  

   I had checked the Tutor Doctor service yesterday to see how they would serve me.  It seemed that before I could get any information from them, I had to fill a police report with them. That costs money. I wanted to know what they could do for me.  How much would they pay me? What were my obligations?  I don't like to work with someone more than half an hour at a time and no more than 2 hours a week. Do they dictate all these elements?  When I Googled the company, a search engine came up for online tutoring services. There used to be just one. Now there were four or five. Covid has made working online feasible.  These companies have popped up like mushrooms after a shower.

   I checked the prices this company advertised, $10 to $15 an hour. Tutors would be making between $7.50 and $12.50 an hour. That's less than the minimum wage.  I assume no trained, experienced teacher works for this company.