Tuesday, February 4, 2025

 Tuesday, February 4, 2025

  Yesterday, I tried to load the Bismarck fronds into the trash barrel and wheel them down to Darby's. They're heavy. Their weight made lifting them into the barrel hard, and the strong breeze worked against me.  I gave up on using the barrel and dragged two of them down the street behind me and dropped them on their lawn. This morning, I walked a third down there.  Darby called to say my timing was perfect. Patrick had just moved two of them to the bottom of the property. When he came up, he found the third. He first thought Darby played a trick on him.

It was a Ulu Wini Day. When I arrived, Shauntel handed me a list of six students.   Second-grade SL was first. She still struggled with the first twenty-five sight words. I started with the basic BrainManagementSkills protocol again. It had limited effect. Then I asked if she could recall her older sister's name. She did that with ease.  I asked her if she could remember 'the name of the word.' That did it. It made an enormous difference. She could use the same neuropathway for both.  She zoomed through the first 25 words and started on the second list.

Next was second-grade NV.  She did very well on the first ten words and then had to work for the second half of the words.  This is what she's been doing for the last four sessions. There had been no movement. She got stuck on the word have over and over. I had her form the word in the slime, applying a multi-sensory approach.  When I returned to the word after working on something else, she didn't recall it again. Maddening.

Then I had NV write the word have. She wrote vh. Oh, boy. I have asked her repeatedly if the letters shifted in her mind. She always said no.  Then I asked what side of her brain she used when reading or spelling. She pointed to the right side of her head.  I told her it wasn't designed for reading words.  Use the left side. When she did that, it immediately made a huge difference.  Getting the kids to change is like changing any habit. You have to do it with intention.  Well, most people have to do it with intention.  I have had children who slip into the new neurological pathway with ease.

I had third-grade PL next.  She dragged on the first 25 words. I used the trick I had used with  second-grade SL; I asked her the names of her siblings and then 'the  name of the word." Asking the first question primes the neurological pathway. She quickly named the first 50 words on the list. Then, I started on the third list. She made it through there and then asked to stop.  She is very immature.  Sometimes, I push her. She had done so well today; I thought to let her enjoy her victory.

The next name on the list was the sister of NV's first-grade PY. She said she didn't want to work with me. She had been avoiding sessions with me for a while. I asked her if she was scared. She said no. Okay,  I let her go.

Second-grade KJ worked on comprehension.  Her word recognition skills are pretty good, except that she makes careless errors. I reviewed the Snow Day story and asked her to tell me what happened.  She said the kids in the story went 'snowing." Her English is poor. Her oldest sister's English is pretty good. RM is in 6th grade now.  I suppose KJ's English will clear up. I also had her reread Bill at Camp and reviewed the story's details. She lacked the basic vocabulary of any English-speaking child. The story talked about Bill taking a walk in the woods. She had no idea what 'the woods' referred to.  Since I had already covered the story, her responses were good. We need to work on a new story next time and see what she does with that. 

I worked with first-grade AM on math. She wanted to work on subtraction. AM is academically adequate, unlike most of the kids I work with at Ulu Wini.  I don't assume they're stupid, simply academically naïve.  If I gave her a two-digit subtraction problem. She had no idea what to do with it. She made marks for the sum of 56, laying out 9 groups of 6 with two added on to the last group. She then started crossing off 24 of them to figure out the answer. Wow!  She had a good understanding of the process.  It wound up her teacher was teaching the basic facts and always presenting the equations in the horizontal form, 6-3=.  She had never seen subtraction in the vertical form.  I laid out an eight-digit subtraction problem without regrouping. And showed her how to do it.  I wasn't expecting her to master it. It was just a sample for her to think about.

I also discussed the plus/minus 1 concept with AM. It took her a few minutes to understand, but she did.

Last, I had first-grade TR.  She remembered how to identify the syllables from hearing the spoken word.  She didn't use the chin bounce method. She could figure it out in her head.  I could see a glimmer of intelligence as she worked.  TR has no recall of words. I wasn't sure what to do with her.  I was moaning -quietly- in frustration.  I thought of working with the Sassy the Cat story. It is at a basic level; I use it with non-readers.  I wrote out the words one phoneme at a time. She had to identify the words by blending the phonemes.  She did pretty well.  I was delighted to find something I could do with her.

 I went home for my Zoom session with seventh-grade RH.  We reviewed her visual distortion problems. I asked if she ever had her eyes checked for this problem.  Words and whole lines will move about the page, rendering the text meaningless.  I'm stuck on how to help sixth-grade RH.  I can work endlessly with the kids at Ulu Wini, but this child wears on me. She doesn't commit to doing the work.  I told her outright that I could do nothing to help her if she didn't. She makes no effort to apply what I teach. It feels like she hates the work.  On a rate of 1-10, she rates the work a 4.  I thanked her for her honesty.  I told her I would quit if she wanted me to. Her mom might object to her quitting, but she couldn't object to me quitting. I would do what she wanted.

My words had a sobering effect. RH isn't openly defiant; she's passive-aggressive.  She just drags. I spent a lot of time sitting in silence. RH made little contribution to the conversation. I could feel her pain. It was intense. I may not be the one to help her.  Usually, she's anxious to end the session. We ran over today. I told her I would sit with her until it was time for me to eat dinner. No, I wouldn't charge her mom more. I don't know what she's going to do. I suspect she will choose to quit. This was the best session for me because she was fully present. I don't know much about her background. There's something wrong.  

  During the day, I was alone with my mom or at school.  My dad walked in the door every night at 6 pm. I associated his homecoming with an orchestral rendition of Tea for Two as it announced an evening broadcast on WQXR.