Tuesday, December 21, 2021

  

Tuesday, December 21, 2021

 

   When I went to bed last night, my ankle felt just fine. During the night, it started bothering me. I was able to crack it. It immediately felt better. Then it hurt in the morning; it bothered me so much that I had to cut short my morning walk.

   I finished washing the remaining window screens. Yvette got on the roof and did the outside of the guest room windows. I replaced the screens and finished vacuuming the wall-to-wall carpeting.   I also took on Mike’s library. I have never cleaned it. I doubt Mike did much. Because the windows were generally closed, the room never got very dirty. I dusted some shelves and washed the stone floor. I was amazed at how little dirt I found. 

   As I sat working on my updates and blog, I realized that my ankle hurt more while sitting than it did walking. That suggested the problem was coming from my hip. I felt the tightness in the muscles on the back of my thigh. Instead of focusing on my ankle, I put a tennis ball under my leg as I sat. Bingo! Much better already. Because I was desperate, I made an appointment with my chiropractor today. It felt like the problem could be fixed if the ankle was forcibly adjusted. Now, I see the problem is with those leg muscles. The appointment is for January. I may be able to cancel by appointment. I wish I had such an easy fix for my crazy hammer toe on my right foot. My second toe has gone crooked and is climbing over my first. Yikes!

   Yvette sent me a joyful text thanking me for gifting her a facial with the Cryotherapy lady. What! That was my Christmas present for her. The owner had no business telling Yvette about my gift. I was furious. So unprofessional. I texted the lady and let her know. She got back to me, apologized, and said it was a misunderstanding. I never said, Let Yvette know when she comes in.” I have no idea what she could be thinking of. She knew I bought other gift certificates as Christmas presents. 

    I got my Covid test results by email from Kaiser. Negative. This is not a surprise, but it is a relief to have definite news. 

  I had two tutoring sessions today, one with third grade A and one with adolescent D.  I  continued working on Phase III with adolescent A. He was making tons of mistakes. Then he had trouble remembering some words he had recognized automatically in the past. I started working on the memory problem by asking him which part of his brain he used for reading the words. He pointed to his forehead. Ah! That again. He overuses that part of his brain. We know from fMRIs that good readers use the auditory section in the left hemisphere. Frequently, students will switch after one session. It’s like removing a log that blocks the flow of water. Once they experience that easy flow, they don’t even have to think about using it. A is resistant to change. Doing something differently than he usually does makes him feel weird. Doing something differently than we are used to doing makes us feel somewhat weird. Good learners love the feeling; bad learners hate it.   A hates it. I have to bully him into using it. “If you want to become a good learner, you’re going to have to use that part of your brain.”  “Oh, okay,” in a resigned tone. The immediate difference in his reading surprised even me. Of course, his mother had been playing The Phonics Discovery System 5 Stories audio file from YouTube while he sleeps. Today I asked her if she d been playing it. She said not every day, which means less rather than more. All she has to do is turn it on on her way to bed.   There is a chance the difference I saw today may be related to her playing the audiofile at all, even once while he 

slept.  

   Once he switched to using the left side of his brain, I saw a more significant difference in A’s behavior. He often displays ‘weird’ behavior, the very thing he dreads. He moves his head around in inappropriate ways, looking up at the ceiling, tilting his head, so his face is to toward the ceiling, and giggling inappropriately. I had asked him what was funny when he giggled, careful to make my tone one of neutral inquiry rather than judgment. He said, “I just thought of something funny.” He has always looked lost, out of it; he had that look the first day I met him, and he has never lost it. Today after he switched, he didn’t have that look. He held his head appropriately, and he didn’t giggle for the rest of the session. I hope this happens more often. 

    I had adolescent D later in the day. We continued working on healing his self-hatred. I didn’t write it up immediately and can’t remember anything specific.