Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Wednesday, December 20, 2023

 

    Wednesday is my day for weeding on the other side of the fence in my neighbor's yard. 

   They have weed-suppressing cloth over most of their yard but not along the edge of the fence. The trailing coral runs amok there, encroaching on my yard. They allow me in the yard to do the weeding. They're Chinese immigrants. I suspect no American familiar with our legal system would consent to having an eighty-three-year-old woman weed their yard. The roots of the trailing coral come up easily because of all the midday rain showers we've had since the big windstorm. I love the hard work of pulling the woody roots out. It's good for what ails me.

     I worked with an immigrant family in Princeton. Their son was a forty-year-old autistic schizophrenic. The father, a professor at Princeton, was a world-class mathematician and a professor at Princeton University. They asked me if I could find work for their son. In Russia, he had a job folding cardboard boxes. I asked around. Everyone said no because of possible legal problems. I explained the issue to the mom. She said she would write a note. I told her it wouldn't stand up in court. She said she understood; in Russia, they worried about being arrested; here, we worried about being sued.

   I went to Ulu Wini for my session with the kids. Ipo ordered a boy to work with me. It was her son. Third-grade L's word recognition was choppy with some inaccuracies, but his comprehension was on grade level. He should be an easy fix. I need to work on improving his word recognition. He needs to work on comprehension at the 4th-grade level. I'll use Stuart little with him as I am with fourth grade K and 2nd grade M.

   Then, the man who was monitoring the program ordered a child to work with me. It wound up being his first-grade son. It makes me feel great that the adults who observe my work want me to work with their children. L had severe memory problems. He tried to decode the. I taught him how to use his short-term visual memory. He had a response I rarely see. He could feel his mind processing the information and changing. "Does it feel like water running in your head?" Yes. I told him to focus on the feeling. It lasted for a good while. Then, I worked on his auditory working memory. He did the same thing. Afterward, I had him go through the first twenty-five Fry words. He got everyone. He had seen the words often enough. He had encoded the words; he just needed to know how to retrieve them. When I see quick changes like that, I wonder if I got it wrong in the first place. Maybe his dad can tell me.

    As I left, Ipo asked me to list the kids who needed help to give to the school. If there is anyone who doesn't know the kids she listed aren't in desperate need of help, they are deaf, dumb, and blind. Besides that, there is nothing they can do about it. Besides the general teacher shortage, the special ed teacher shortage is even worse. The sad truth is someone can make more money serving in a restaurant than teaching. Teachers have to moonlight to make a living.  

    Special education teachers are not taught how to teach. Their courses involve learning the parents' legal rights, the school's legal obligations, and how to fill out Individual Educational Plans. Most of what they do is figure out the child's performance level and provide material at the level. The good teachers go about taking courses on teaching on their own. Only some are qualified to help the children other than provide extra time and emotional support. From what the kids tell me, they are put in front of computers that read stories to them.

    I drove down to Kia after I finished tutoring. I had an appointment for Friday at 1:30. I called to ask if I could bring the car in earlier. I had made arrangements with Yvette to pick me up after work. She would be through at four-thirty. I figured she would be there around five. I left after four, not anticipating the late afternoon traffic. I got a message from Yvette asking where to meet me. I had to walk up to Long's Drugs to pick up something. Yvette said she was in the parking lot wafting. Walking the half mile up the hill took me a few minutes. I dropped my bags with Yvette and ran into the store. I found what I was looking for easily, but the check-out line was long. I had a great time riding home with Yvette. We had to stop at Paws University to pick up Masha. The dog loves being at Paws for the day.