Thursday, July 7, 2022

 Thursday, July 7, 2022

 

  I slept well despite having taken a nap right before dinner. The surgical advice nurse I spoke to on the PT's advice told me to spend an hour a day with my legs elevated at least six inches above my heart. I figured out I could use the back pillows on my sofa for that purpose. It worked like a charm. I thought I wasn't supposed to spend time in that position for fear of blood pooling around the surgical site.  

      I felt depressed, empty, this morning. I know empty is the goal of all good meditators. I'm sure it's a worthwhile goal if you can come to it from the right frame of mind. If not, it sucks. I pulled myself out of it with a trick I used in grad school in Wisconsin and found myself in a similar frame of mind. I noted everything I did, and I do mean everything. I got up, I weighed myself, I got dressed, I washed my face, I brushed my teeth, I combed my hair, I made my bed, I fed the dog, etc. Every action counts to the unconscious mind. Yes, there is such a thing as spending too much time at the office," but there is also such a thing as spending too little time doing work. 

    I had an appointment for 10:30 with the M & W sisters. I texted the parents as a reminder and offered to do it earlier if they chose. Mom texted me back, saying the girls were up by 8. I offered to meet with them at 8:30. I spent part of the morning making sure I had all their files on the tablet. The last time I worked with them, I couldn't find the file I needed when working with M. One Drive drives me nuts. Even when I make sure a document I worked on is in One Drive, I still can't find it when I search for it on the other computer.

    When I asked going-into-second grade M what she wanted to work on, writing a story, Gating Game, or the comprehension activity where we ask many questions, she said she didn't know. I chose. While the girls seem to like the Gating Game, I find it somewhat challenging and frustrating. I must remember the sentence we're working on, which has proven to be much more difficult than I expected. Then I had to think of clues for the words. It was a lot of work. I found it stressful. 

There was no question in my mind that it was beneficial. M would propose words that make no sense. This is an important lesson. Words need to make sense. Going-into-sixth grade W loved the challenge, and the activity was great for my brain.

    The Wordle word for today was agape. Anyone doing Wordle must know that word. Eh, maybe not. My mother-in-law, who loved doing word puzzles, probably wouldn't have.

      My walking was limited. My knee, or hopefully just the muscles around my knee, has been bothering me since Saturday. I couldn't walk Elsa again. Every step hurt. Damn! Hopefully, this was just a transitional phase and not an ongoing problem.

   I had Adolescent D in the afternoon. 

Today he recognized want, went, and won't when the three words were presented to him. I think he used a paper by his side to help cue him. He remembered the order in which they were written. Whatever worked! Aylett Cox taught me a valuable lesson, "Teach, don't test." If a student has memory problems, provide the information; don't make them guess. If they guess wrong, that connects in their brain. If they say the correct answer, even if they need a crib sheet, that also creates connections in the brain. The first embeds the wrong information; the second, the correct information. I had to remember to apply this principle more when working with D.

   I reviewed the short and VCe long vowel syllable pattern with him. He remembered the VCe pattern meant the vowel sound was long, and the long vowel made the sound of its own name. Then he couldn't remember how to say the name of the letter. It would be better to say he couldn't retrieve the information correctly. When he recited the alphabet, he had no problem pronouncing the name of the letter correctly. It happened automatically. As I recall from a previous exercise, he could name letters correctly when he named the letters in words. In this case, he was focusing on two things. He was focusing on the sound of the letter in the word and the sound of the letter's name. One task was interfering with the accomplishment of the other. This kid has terrible problems with his brain. I don't know if anyone could do a better job than I was doing, particularly at my cost. The M & W sisters were seeing an educational psychologist working with computer activities that were supposed to help with their mental functioning. The evaluation alone probably costs over a thousand dollars.

     I saw a spectacular movie last night, a Netflix Hidden Gem, Leave No Trace. If anyone is looking for a great movie, I recommend this one.