Monday, February 20, 2023

 Monday, February 20, 2023

  I was up and out by 7 am. I started fast-paced walking while walking up a hill until my calves gave out. My breath is not a problem. The hills around here can be steep, with 20% angles. I started out with fifty consecutive steps. 

  I ran into Ann Marie, a local fifth-grade teacher, today. She is one of my walking acquaintances. I saw a lot of her when I got up at 5:30 every morning to make the 7:30 Bikram class. Today was Presidents' Day; she had off. We were both out late. 

   The teacher I spoke to yesterday works with Ann Marie. Jenn was interested in getting me to work with children in the school but not learning my method herself. I had previously told Ann Marie I had developed a method for teaching reading. She hadn't expressed interest. I didn't blame her. I was a miscellaneous woman claiming to be an effective teacher and an effective teaching method. I wouldn't bite either. But now, someone had evidence of my effectiveness. 

    I told Ann Marie the method was easy to learn and incorporate into an existing program. It could advance the reading of her best students and her poorer ones. My reading improved when I was fifty-eight and already had straight As for my master's and 760 out of 800 on the verbal section of my GRE. She expressed interest. She made sure she had my number. Having a teacher express interest did the world for my mood. I want this method to be used in schools. It kills me that I have a strategy for teaching reading that can resolve problems for many of the students who fell behind during Covid, and it's not being used.

  I signed up for Yoga Go for a month to see if I would do it. I had to pick my level. I chose Intermediate. I have a lot of experience with yoga. Boy, was I off. This is a challenging program. It's way beyond my ability. The instructor modeled an 'easy pose." Oh, yeah. I can't sit cross-legged anymore. I may never be able to do it again. It was never my strong suit to begin with. Easy pose is not so easy for me. And that's for starters. I modified the poses; I used them for strengthening exercises. Downward Dog is good for my whole body. The exercises energized me. What can be bad about that?

  I contacted my two appointments for today, asking if they would like to meet earlier in the day since there was no school. First-grade M's parents took me up on the offer. Adolescent D said he wanted to keep the appointment he had.  

  I continued working on math with second-grade M. She said her math is helping her reading. I had her read passages at a high second-grade level she had worked on long ago. Where before she needed a lot of help, now she read them easily. She needed some help with the word enormous. She had to be reminded to read each syllable separately before blending the whole word together. This procedure is only necessary when the reader has difficulty reading the word. I have to use it when encountering new words. 

  After the session with second-grade M, I went to my old-lady chair and worked on the updates. While I worked, Elsa slept wrapped around my neck. This works at this time of the year but not so much during the hot, humid months of August, September, and October.

   I met with Adolescent D at our usual time, 2 p.m. He read so well today that it felt weird to both of us. Who are you? Then, he had a problem with the word future and the -ure sound. I showed him the word sure. I teach students to think of where they have seen a spelling pattern before. They can apply what they know to the new situation if they can recall a word. I wrote the word sure. He knew that word, but it became clear there were various ways to pronounce that final syllable. I tried modeling. He responded so well to the tracing activity that exploring modeling in other contexts was worthwhile. 

  However, I was thrown for a loop when I explored the possible pronunciations for -ure. Here it is pronounced as /-oor/, rhyming with poor. It can be /-er/, or /-or/ in the word future. But it can also be pronounced as /your/, as in secure. I thought aloud as I worked and discovered patterns. When we went back to the text, D still couldn't read the word secured. I asked if he had heard anything I said. He said no. He blanks when he gets scared. He gets scared when presented with information he doesn't already know.  

  I have seen the pattern repeatedly. It makes him difficult to teach. His mother said he was that way at a very young age. He didn't want to do anything he didn't already know how to do. D said that's how anyone feels when faced with something they don't know. "No."

  Everyone responds with increased spinning, but not everyone responds with fear.