I'm trying

I just finished 21 days straight of work. Well, it's not so bad, now I have two weeks off. And most days, except on the weekends I was finished at 2:00 pm.

During the week I supervised a summer learning camp. And, like last year I taught a short (15 minute) yoga session in between classes. This part of the day gave me such energy. Warm fuzzies. It was so rewarding to see the students so relaxed lying on the floor in savasanna (corpse pose) concentrating on their breath. Every student said that this was his/her favorite pose. This gave me so much hope that they will take this practice with them and use it throughout their lives. It makes me want to learn more about teaching yoga to kids. This is where yoga should start. It's not all about having a toned body and wearing the latest trendy yoga gear.

And then on the past three weekends I taught a seminar about teaching English. Most of my students were young adults wanting to travel and teach ESL. But one of them had a doctorate in linguistics and had lectured in universities in India. At first I was a little worried that I would have nothing to offer her in this course. She is highly educated but like so many recent immigrants could not find a job in her field because of government regulations. Anyway, after the first day I could see , though she was an expert in grammar, she did not know the best teaching practices. But that's not the point. Highly educated, and well read in the classics, she taught me a few things too. One day I came in to class and I was extremely sore and tired from my yoga class the day before. She told me that doesn't happen if I practice yoga every day. So I asked her about yoga in India and she said that people learn it at home, at school, from a very young age.

Sometimes I think I can't teach this class anymore. It's so intense and it's on the weekends. But every time I teach it I meet such interesting people and I learn from them as well.

Okay, what to do for my holiday now?

I wasn't looking forward to working in July. With the bad economy we didn't have enough registrations for our summer camp and so I was faced with the prospect of not working, with no pay , or tutoring just like I do during the year. So tutoring it is. I really wasn't looking forward to it, but now I have four brand new students and one old one (who is a miracle)and they have given me new energy. I didn't think they'd be keen on having to come to "school" during the summer either, but I was wrong.

My first student is a little doll. She comes in tired and bleary eyed but by the end of the lesson she is all smiles and skips out of the door. Because she has to start first I always do active things with her. Today I had her juggling three balls while spelling! She's only seven! The grin on her face just melted my heart. I asked her if she wanted to learn handwriting and her eyes widened.

My second student pulls out his hair. He has a lot of it but seriously, there are clumps of it on the table by the end of the lesson. Still, the change in him after four days is amazing. He likes that I just tell him how things are, what the rules are and that I don't talk to him like his not intelligent. So many of my students are so smart but they just can't figure out how to read and write. How frustrating can that be!

Number three came in the first day and hardly said a word. Now she won't be quiet! I will do a meaningful conversation post about her next. Anyway, I do math with her. She's very very low but smart and catches on fast. Today she bounded in....5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100! She was so excited about it she just kept repeating it again and again during the lesson. She is also very competitive and will almost anything to beat me at a game. She's only seven too.

Fourth student has a psychoeducational report that makes Forest Gump seem like a genious. But I discovered this week, he's actually very smart, he just has the most severe speech impediment I've ever heard. I suspect his hearing is not very good either. What a sweet child he is, so polite, so happy. His mom says he loves coming to school!

My last student, I have had for the past 2 years. He's been at our centre for 3 years. He is classically dyslexic in every way. When he first started he was a non-reader and now he reads above grade level. His spelling is really great too. Writing is coming along, but a struggle. He can add, multiply and divide in his head now! The biggest change in him is his attitude. He's happy , he likes school, he reads on his own, he even likes his big sister. And he's proud that he got straight C+ 's on his final report card.

I know I don't make as much as a teacher in the public school system, and I don't get the summers off but it really doesn't matter. I can actually help kids now.

On Tuesday and Thursday I have three of the cutest students, one after another. It's really hard to hold on to my bad mood when each of them comes skipping in wearing some crazy outfit. The first one, Miss C. is such a little diva. When I asked her what she was hoping for for Christmas presents she replied, "Well, what do you think? I'm a fashionista you know!" (She's only seven). Yesterday she was wearing striped leggings, shiny black boots and a short pink and grey dress. As she was reading her sight words she stopped at the word 'some' and began analyzing it. (This is a girl that the experts said had low IQ and severe learning disabilities) "Well, this is an interesting one. No, it really is. Look at this. You see, this word should say , "soam", but it says "sum". That 'e' on the end, it should make that darn vowel say its name. But it doesn't. Weird eh? This word is not respectful of the rules! " I just had to laugh. And then she says, "I'm really very smart you know. No, honestly, I really am."


My next student Miss M. is a pale tiny ghost. Though dressed in the latest designer wear she is so quiet and humble. But not with me! As soon as she skips in and sits down she can't wait to tell me about her weekend. She actually got to watch t.v. with her dad because her mom was away at a conference. "My mom says t.v. is bad for your brain! But sometimes when I watch t.v., I get to see my mom on there! She prefers me to do reading or art. Sometimes I get to go to conferences with my mom. It's really fun, we get to stay in hotels and swim in the pool. My mom, she fixes peoples' brains. My dad, he's a lawyer. " She has a nanny that brings her from school to the learning centre each lesson. Miss M. works so hard, never complaining, her nanny says she loves coming to our centre. This girl has few difficulties though and probably won't need much intervention.


My third cutie is Miss W. She's always wearing some crazy outfit, covered in paint or clay. Her hands are always dirty from some art project. I just adore her little giggling fits. One time she kept putting her head under the table and mewing. I followed her lead, and pretended there was a lost kitten in the centre. She knows that I love cats, so she just thought this was a hoot. Sometimes we play games to help reinforce concepts and sometimes she lets me win! This is very unusual for my students, they hate to lose and some start to cry if they do. Not her.

Then I have lunch, and then prepare for my difficult students come...three in a row. I'll tell you about them some other time.

Very interesting piece on CBC tonight. Watch it here .

After viewing this, I realize many people I have gone to school with, worked with, may have been or are autistic. I've read a lot about autism, and I think the rise in cases is due to a number of factors. One is the testing of these children. What probably in the past would've been thought of as an intellectual disability, and dare I say "mental retardation" is now classified in the autistic spectrum. Some of these kids, are not intellectually low but socially different. Perhaps, those were the kids in school we though of as "weird/different". And I really don't buy the argument that vaccines cause autism. Many parents of austic children say their kids were different before their first shots. If there is a small corellation between vaccines and autism, studies show that it may not be the preservative, thirmesol (which is rarely used anymore) but that possibly vaccines cause an auto immune response, almost an allergic reaction in some individuals. However, if this was really the case, it is believed that autism would be even more common than it is. I don't know , but is autism common in other countries? A genetic component is also very likely. Certainly, it runs in families, that is proven. Another theory is that it is caused by some genetic mutation. Anyway, I think it is dangerous to say that this or that particular factor is the sole cause. And after watching this video, maybe people can realize, like I said before, haven't we all encountered people like this in our lives?

I have a student who is considered autistic. He functions very well on a social level and is very affectionate. Intellectually he is very behind his age level, but he is able to learn. Because he looks so "normal" (what is that?) I'm sure that if had been born 40 years ago he would have been put in a special school and considered "retarded" . (How I hate that word!) Labels. Blech.

Today I lost my patience with a student. He was being increasingly rude, interrupting and deliberately defying me. The program I use to teach dyslexic students to read is very systematic and repetitive in a lot of ways. Kids with learning disabilities need a lot of repetition and overlearning of concepts. We also make sure that each task is learned with all the student's senses. This is called a multisensory approach. Now, though some drills are very repetitive and dare I say, boring, they really work because they force automaticity, so the student doesn't have to always think...hmmm what sound does that letter make? It's something that most of learn on our own. Anyway, though there are a lot of drills there is also a lot of variety and creativity involved. We attempt to teach the "whole" student, addressing all his personal needs. When a student repeatedly makes an error, we correct it immediately, and then have them do certain techniques to help them remember it next time. This student refused to do it, and then he wouldn't say the sounds aloud. Told me, "I'm saying them in my head."

Well, another part of this program is that we believe that dyslexics are extremely intelligent and have their own ways of learning. So, when they want to know why, we tell them why. So, as before I explained to him why we have to do this certain technique. He then turned his whole body away from me, (strong body language!) and threw the card up in the air, as if, what do I care, I'm not listening. LA LA LA.

I lost it. Didn't yell, but I used my FIRM voice. I've used it before with him when he begins to push the boundaries of my patience. I've made him cry a few times. Believe me, I'm not the only one who has made him cry. Sometimes I think, he lets those little tears roll down his face to get me to feel sorry for him. And then I think, well, he has not really learned a better way of coping, or expressing himself. Anyway, he shut down. Buried his head, and sulked for a good ten minutes. I didn't know what to do.

Finally, I started chit chatting. Asked him when his birthday was. It at least broke the ice. I asked him how he was feeling. But he couldn't tell me. He asked for a piece of paper and proceeded to draw for little faces all with different expressions. He then asked me to point to the one I thought he was. The little sad face of course.

I drew my own set of faces and asked him to point to the one I was. The frustrated one of course. Then we had a little talk about how each of us could prevent the other from having these negative faces. He told me that he would try to listen next time but he wasn't promising anything. I did the same.

Later on, I told one of my colleagues what had happened. Because she has a degree in sociology she was able to shed some insight on the incident. She figures his behaviour is cultural. That he doesn't even realize he is being rude because in his family these kinds of actions are acceptable among males. Ok. That I can understand. But is it acceptable? In my mind he needs to know that if he acts that way towards people outside his culture he is going to be faced with negativity. But, can I change him?