Tuesday, April 9, 2024

 Tuesday, April 9, 2024

  I finally got around to trimming the shrubs that had gotten out of hand along the driveway. I reached many of the branches in the front with ease. Since I was cutting a nine-foot shrub down to six feet,  branches at the top and back were hard to reach, even with a three-step ladder. I thought I would have to ask someone to help me, but I figured out a way. I feared using the step ladder on the uneven ground by the fence. Then I calculated that I would be safe between the stability of the six-foot wire fence and the dense shrub. I was.

  I filled one  5-gallon Home Depot orange bucket with the shrub cuttings. Darby carried it home after we walked together in the evening. I will fill it up again when she returns it until the driveway is clear. Then, I’ll start on the next shrub.

   I didn’t weed the mulch patch where the Ficus trees had been removed. I was waiting for my short-handled pick axe to arrive on the 15th because this rocky ground is hard to dig in.

     I went to Ulu Wini today instead of Thursday. Sears was scheduled for the third attempt to fix my ice dispenser. So far, all the parts delivered were the wrong ones.

     I started with 3rd grade SE. Ipo called him several times to work with me, but he refused to come. I finally walked across the yard and ordered him to work with me. I can appreciate his reluctance. The last time I worked with him, it was nothing but frustration and failure. Today, I started with the first 50 words on the Fry Sight Word List. I don’t know if I had already showed him how to draw on automatic recall. If I did, he hadn’t remembered it. Today, he got it. He went through the first 25. He was surprised every time his mind produced the correct response. I tell the kids to say what their mind says, even if it’s the wrong answer. All the mind’s responses give me information on how their mind works. Then, I can diagnose the problem.

   SE did better the first time he read through the first 25 words than the second time. I asked him if there was movement in his brain. He first told me no. Then he told me there was, but it was in a different place than last time. I guided him through a spin release. Where last time, the spin increased in speed before it stopped; today, it decreased in speed before it stopped. He also told me the ugly brown mass at the top of his head was gone. Looks like we’re moving in the right direction.

     Fifth-grade RC asked to work with me. Before, I read the text from Hatch and asked comprehension questions. RC asked if she could read it herself. Her word recognition is weaker than her comprehension. I stopped the work on comprehension and concentrated on decoding multisyllabic words. Fifth-grade MA heard what we were working on and asked to join. They both caught on to the six-step procedure for decoding multisyllabic words I teach. I gave them paper, pencils, and my Kindle and told them to work on their own. Now they saw this as a game, nothing could stop them.

    In my second session this week with first-grade BZ. Yesterday, we worked on her discomfort when things don’t go her way. Her mom confirmed this was a problem in all aspects of her life. Today, I continued working on related problems besides her need to have everything her way; she needs everything to be easy, too. She doesn’t feel good putting in effort. She reported that her reading was better, although she was still in a group of underperformers. I assured her she was way ahead of her grade level in other ways and she would be fine, better than fine. Her memory of a story and comprehension are off the charts.

   Today, something unexpected came out. She was scared of a shooter attacking her school. Wow! These poor kids are sitting trapped in the classroom with that specter hanging over their heads. They do regular sniper attack drills. When I was in elementary school in the late forties, we dove under our desks in anticipation of a nuclear attack from Russia. Really!!?? Did anyone think being under our desks would protect us?

   Back to BZ. I taught her statistical likelihood. I drew two rectangles. For the first, I asked her if her mom had given her dinner the night before and whether she would give her dinner again tonight. She said yes. For the 100%, I filled in one of the rectangles. When I asked how much of the rectangle I should fill in for the chance of a shooter attacking her school, she also said the whole thing. I drew a comparison between her mom giving her dinner and the likelihood of a shooter hitting her school. Did one come yesterday? Does she think there is a good chance one would come tomorrow? No, on both counts. I colored in a small portion of the second rectangle. She said it relieved her fears.