Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Wednesday, January 26, 2022

     I stayed in bed until a glimmer of light appeared. It feels like it stays dark longer now than it did in December. I know that’s not how it works. Maybe I just had it with the sunless mornings. I worked some more on absorbing the negativity of others with Buddhist equanimity instead of pushing it away. It seems to be having an effect. At least I’m not having intense feelings when I think of those people. I’m more at peace. Let’s see how this plays out in my life.

   I also did some exercises the PT recommended while in bed. I don’t do too well with exercises as such. However, if told the objective of the exercise, I can find a way to incorporate it into everything I do.  

    As I walked, my ankle was slightly swollen, but there was no pain. I emphasized the hip alignment the PT showed me. She pointed out that I limped because I took a short step on my right foot. My right leg is my strong one. Why would I be favoring it? I realized it was short because I didn’t take the time to push my weight fully onto my left leg. When I did that, the limp disappeared. Of course, not being used to pushing my full weight onto my left leg, doing so now makes me look weird, ole Frankenstein. 

     The other day I worked with one of the Step Up Tutoring tutors, teaching her my method for teaching phonics. I had asked her to get back to me to tell me how her session with her student went. She called back today. It went brilliantly. The girl responded as I could only hope she would. The question now is, will there be lateral transfer. Will she apply what she has learned when she reads unfamiliar material?   Jana did everything I recommended. She got through an amazing amount of material. She covered the PDS using writing from the student’s journal. She also covered the ‘sentence diagramming’ exercise using questions.  

    Before she hung up, I asked her what kind of work she did. She was working in an after-school center. I recommended she do this with the students. She said she had asked her boss if she could do tutoring. She was told no because the emphasis was on playing. I recommended she introduce PDS Phase I as a game. Just work with one student and decode their name. Others may join in or not. She is not to force it, just create a situation where children can choose to participate. I told her how I had used this exercise with a group of third graders. By the second session, I had students ask me if they could lead it. That was hard on me. They weren’t doing it ‘correctly.’ Their mistakes in decoding were legion. However, if my theory works, it means if they keep on playing, they will figure it out, particularly when you have a bunch of kids working together. They wind up correcting each other. 

      I called Mama K’s crew at 2 pm. She told me it was the twin’s birthday. I suggested canceling for the day. She said no. Twin A came on the line. No, she hadn’t thought of anything to write about. At some point, I hope one of them will get on and say, “Yes. I have a story I want to write.”  The noise in the background made the work impossible. Twin A was more involved with what was happening in the house than working with me. I asked her to put her mom on. She explained a neighbor had come over to give the girls birthday presents. Now, who can compete with that with a child of any age, not less two eight-year-olds? Forget it.  

  Mama K told me she got a job in a bar. She told her employer she had to have Wednesday afternoons off, so she’s home to get the kids on with me. We still need to get a computer up and functioning to meet on Zoom, and I can continue with the reading instruction.

   I went to my neighbor’s house to weed along the edge of the fence. There are vines rooted on their side of the fence. If I can kill them at the source, it won’t be as hard for me to control them on my side. When I left, Peter offered to carry my bucket of tools. I took them from him when I came to my driveway. My neighbor from across the street asked what I was doing in Peter and Mei’s yard. I explained by weeding chore. She made a face. I assumed she judged poor Peter and Mei for letting me weed in their yard instead of doing it themselves.

       Isaac joined me for my evening walk. We talked about a Kindergarten student who can’t learn the alphabet. I told him some of the theories behind my BrainManagementSkills. He’s a bright boy with a medical background; it was still a lot of information. He can’t possibly have absorbed all that the way I meant him to. He will do his own variation on those ideas. But he got the general concepts. He’s bright. It should be interesting to see what he does with it.

     I got in the habit of texting Isaac to ask if he was ready for his walk. Tonight, he told me he won’t always be available to walk because he’d like to do other things at this time, like go surfing. Thank God he felt he could speak to me. I assured him it was fine with me. I enjoyed his company, but he was under no obligation to me. I did some fake crying and laughed. When I did that with Mike, he dissolved. My crying was so obviously fake; his helpless response was funny. Maybe not so much for him. 

     The mail carrier delivered a package as we were parting at my driveway entrance. I had my walking pole in one hand and Elsa’s leash in the other. This package was too much. I would have put it on the ground to pick up later if I had been alone. With Isaac standing there, I handed it to him. He accompanied me inside, and then he had to see what was in it. It was two containers of powdered protein drink I use in my morning smoothy.

  Tonight was bagel night. I was committed to eating a bagel every other night. Damon sent another dozen. They freeze well. So does the lox. The problem is the cream cheese, the onions, and the tomatoes. They don’t freeze well. Use them or lose them. Therefore, I eat a bagel every other night to make sure I use the fragile ingredients before they go bad.

    When I checked my mail at the end of the day, this is what I found from Isaac:

Aloha,

Thanks for your videos. They are amazing. I absolutely loved phase 1, and I look forward to working through phase 2 and other materials (like the 5 stories). Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Isaac