When I was still working at school I taught a class called SOS. It was an acronym for 'Self Advocacy, Organization, & Social Skills' These three qualities are sorely needed by all students but for the most part are not taught in the classroom. Rather , they are not taught as part of the curriculum. Most teachers do try to instill organization skills, and are constantly reiterating the acceptable social behavior of society. In our school the students are graded for their internalization of these skills.
Organization was a challenge for some more than others. I spent many hours of my life helping my students organize. We worked on orgaanizing note books, desks, lockers, back packs, math problems, all written work, homework, you name it ,we organized it! We would even assign them to organize their bedroom at home and have an organized place to study, have supplies at hand, and plenty of time to complete homework.
There was one person in the whole scheme of things that definitely did not internalize the concept of life being easier when you are organized. That person would be me! I spend so much of my life trying to find things. I am always searching for some item that I've lost. Doc used to 'preach' to me that old saw, " A place for everything and everything in its place." Ha! Part of the time I was searching for things, the things being sought were his. He was fond of saying that I didn't have to worry about my purse being stolen because even I could not find it, so the thief would not be up to the chalenge either.
I gave up sewing because I could sit at the sewing machine for hours and never leave the chair but I would lose my scissors, thread, a piece of the pattern, etc. etc. One time though, a few years ago I had the sewing machine set up down in the downstairs bedroom and also had the ironing board set up too. We were working on a quilt for Kathy, I had a stitch remover on the table among the items that I needed, I finally had a need for the stitch remover and I searched
all over the table, on the floor, under the bed, on the dresser top, I exhaused every flat surface and area that I was near, but no stitch remover. I spent a good portion of an hour looking before I gave up and decided that a being from some other realm had spirited it away. The next day I did find it fused to the iron. How did it get there? One of life's little mysteries.
I have lost or misplaced every possession that I own and some that I do not own. All searches are time consumming. Think of what I could do if I did not have to spend hours of my life looking for things. I could probably have had time to learn to play the violin, use a hoola-hoop, designed floral gardens in my back yard, learned to speak French, or Spanish, taken Karate lessons, learned to swim, learned to cut and paste, and the list goes on! A vast amount of time that could have been used for furthering my knowledge went to waste.
Just the week before last I lost my car keys. I drove the car to church and home again and when I went to use the car again, I had no keys. Fortunately, I have an extra set so I used those but continued to search and to engage St. Anthony in the quest. He has been my constant source of ideas for where to look and always seems to find things in the absolute last place that I look! I looked in places that didn't even make sense...closet shelf, under the beds, beside the dryer, in all of the dresser drawers, clothes hamper, all pants pockets, I even looked in my jean's jacket pocket , despite the fact that it has been 90 degrees plus for the past 11 days. On Wednesday Andrea and Kadon came and I offered a reward to Kadon if he could find the keys. He looked under the seats of the car, slid his hand down behind the back seat and covered as much territory as he could looking for them, to no avail. Three days! I was ready to give up and call off the search.
Kadon got in the car when it was time for them to go and Andrea came around to get in her side of the car and suddenly I saw her jumping up and down and cheering! She dangled the keys from her hands and shouted, I found them, I found them! What a relief. They were all wet with dew and if they had been there much longer the Dixie Clipper would have whomped them. My car was in the carport and I had never even walked in the grass by the driveway so how did they get there? Doc used to chide me when I was looking for my keys(it happened often) by saying, " You might as well throw the keys out in the back yard when you get out of the car! Your chances of finding them would be just as good as they are when you put them in your purse or where ever!"
I think we all know how my keys got there!!! Nooo-neee-noo-noo. Ciao.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Reading Maketh the Man
I have shared with you before my experience with learning to read. My Uncle John and his wife Mayme were living with us temporarily during the early days of the Great Depression. We lived in Cincinnati, O. They had no children and Uncle John was very fond of my brothers, sister and me. He introduced me to reading. I intuitively learned to read so his task was to supply materials that would increase my skills. So basically I had learned to read before going to school at the age of five. As I mentioned before I was quite small, so small that I had to have a cigar box under my desk because my feet would not reach the floor so I had my own little foot rest. The nun was pretty sure that someone as small as I, could not possibly have any skills. I was placed in the 2nd reading group.
We had a large sand box in the back of the room that had legs on it so that we could stand by it and do multi-sensory tasks to reinforce our letter-sound connection. Muscle memory, we traced the letter in the sand and said the sound the letter made as we traced. This was a practice that was first used by the ancient Greeks. While the first reading group sat on small chairs and read from the primer, I and the others in my group did our vowels and consonant sounds in the sand.
Every day when I arrived home, my dad would ask if I was still in the 'slow ' group and every day I would have to admit that I was still there. Christmas was coming and he said if I didn't get into the fast group Santa might not visit me. My Uncle John was doubly concerned because he knew that I was progressing at a rapid rate! OK, the chips were down! After hearing this threat a few more times and Christmas was drawing near, I took matters into my own hands!
One day when Sister Mary Albert called the first group up to the chairs to read, I casually joined them. She said, "Elizabeth, you do not belong in this group." I said,,,,,,,,"Yes, I do." The die was cast! She relented and said, "We'll try you out and see if you do." I read perfectly!!
When I got home that day and Dad came forth with his question, I could say, yes! He insisted on the details and when I gave them to him, he, Uncle John, Aunt Mayme and my mother got quite a laugh out of it. You gotta' do what you gotta do!
I have been a reader ever since. When you read, you can be anything you want to be, and go any place you want to go. You can store up knowledge on thousands of subjects and be aware of other's ideas and ideals. You can refer to your memory bank to make more intelligent choices and more informed decisions.
I devoted about 40 years to teaching reading to others that have a difficult time learning to read. It does not come naturally to all people. Those of us that learned to read intuitively are truly blessed. A large percentage of children that start school do not have the innate ability to read. They have to be taught to decode, they have to be taught to distinguish sounds, they have to be taught the rules of spelling and decoding. I spent many years teaching Linguistics to the reading impaired. I loved every minute of it ! It is such a rewarding thing to hear a student say, with awe, "I can read that!"
When I first went to MDS, the class was told that I was to be their Linguistics Teacher, one girl went home and told her parents, "We got a new teacher today, she is going to teach us about Linguine."
I not only taught children to read, I also taught adult learners. The rewards are overwhelming. Just a few years ago I had the opportunity to be in the same group as a former adult learner. We had a hug and greet event and someone asked him how he knew me. He said, "She taught me to read and get through college!" How wonderful to be given the credit for that.
Everyone needs to be aware of the fact that there are so many among us that cannot read, through no fault of their own. Do all that you can do to help them get help. Almost without exception they are above average in intelligence and can be great contributers to society, if only someone will give them this gift.
Help a non reader! Ciao
We had a large sand box in the back of the room that had legs on it so that we could stand by it and do multi-sensory tasks to reinforce our letter-sound connection. Muscle memory, we traced the letter in the sand and said the sound the letter made as we traced. This was a practice that was first used by the ancient Greeks. While the first reading group sat on small chairs and read from the primer, I and the others in my group did our vowels and consonant sounds in the sand.
Every day when I arrived home, my dad would ask if I was still in the 'slow ' group and every day I would have to admit that I was still there. Christmas was coming and he said if I didn't get into the fast group Santa might not visit me. My Uncle John was doubly concerned because he knew that I was progressing at a rapid rate! OK, the chips were down! After hearing this threat a few more times and Christmas was drawing near, I took matters into my own hands!
One day when Sister Mary Albert called the first group up to the chairs to read, I casually joined them. She said, "Elizabeth, you do not belong in this group." I said,,,,,,,,"Yes, I do." The die was cast! She relented and said, "We'll try you out and see if you do." I read perfectly!!
When I got home that day and Dad came forth with his question, I could say, yes! He insisted on the details and when I gave them to him, he, Uncle John, Aunt Mayme and my mother got quite a laugh out of it. You gotta' do what you gotta do!
I have been a reader ever since. When you read, you can be anything you want to be, and go any place you want to go. You can store up knowledge on thousands of subjects and be aware of other's ideas and ideals. You can refer to your memory bank to make more intelligent choices and more informed decisions.
I devoted about 40 years to teaching reading to others that have a difficult time learning to read. It does not come naturally to all people. Those of us that learned to read intuitively are truly blessed. A large percentage of children that start school do not have the innate ability to read. They have to be taught to decode, they have to be taught to distinguish sounds, they have to be taught the rules of spelling and decoding. I spent many years teaching Linguistics to the reading impaired. I loved every minute of it ! It is such a rewarding thing to hear a student say, with awe, "I can read that!"
When I first went to MDS, the class was told that I was to be their Linguistics Teacher, one girl went home and told her parents, "We got a new teacher today, she is going to teach us about Linguine."
I not only taught children to read, I also taught adult learners. The rewards are overwhelming. Just a few years ago I had the opportunity to be in the same group as a former adult learner. We had a hug and greet event and someone asked him how he knew me. He said, "She taught me to read and get through college!" How wonderful to be given the credit for that.
Everyone needs to be aware of the fact that there are so many among us that cannot read, through no fault of their own. Do all that you can do to help them get help. Almost without exception they are above average in intelligence and can be great contributers to society, if only someone will give them this gift.
Help a non reader! Ciao
Friday, June 4, 2010
Heroes in Action!
For a number of years we were a little short of heroes in the sports field. We found for the most part that too many of them had feet of clay. Not in just one sport but in a many, pro basketball, pro football, pro golf, and pro baseball. It's almost epidemic. In collegiate sports we found many of the coaches with questionable ethics and sordid personal lives and underhanded tactics for having winning teams. Hard for the youth of today to do any hero worshiping or find a figure to look up to. Do they have baseball cards today? I'm serious, I really do not know. If they do, do they list how many performance inhancing drugs that the 'hero' player took? Do they list the amount of denials, even under oath, that the 'hero' made? Do they list how many sleazy affairs the 'hero' has had? It staggers the immagination to think of it.
So, it is so refreshing and breath taking to see the heroic tableau played out on the baseball field the other night. Two men that will go down in my book as heroes. An umpire, named Jim Joyce, that broke into tears when he saw the replay of the play that he called that cost the pitcher, Armando Galarraga to miss getting credit for pitching a perfect game. We depend on the umpire's eyes, he was just two or three feet from the base, to call the plays. But modern day technology with cameras rolling and instant re-plays being available, he was proven wrong.
There by bringing tough love into play. The ump is always right even when he's wrong! We heard it, he called it and we have to abide by it. I know everyone of us have attended games or watched them on television when we know full well that the ref or ump is dead wrong, we have to bite the bullet and let it go. In this case the wrong decision denied a young pitcher his fifteen minutes of fame! The call, if called right, would have been the final out in a perfect game. "We was robbed!"
The young pitcher and the umpire embraced and the ump appoligized and cried over his egregious error. Galarraga consoled him and smiled while his team mates showed their outrage. Bud Selig the baseball commissioner remained steadfast in his decision that the call stands. He cited untold problems that would spring to the front if he were to reverse the ump's call.
Jim Joyce, openly admitted that he 'blew it' and did not appoloigize for his tears. He explained that he is Irish and shows his emotions and he wept over his error. That's the courage that we all want from our heroes, how can we not forgive him and love his valor?
Armando Galarraga was so gratious and forgiving and went to the ump and embraced him to reassure him that he could live with the error. He smiled but brushed off praise for that by saying he frequently smiles when he is emotional. What a pair!!
Both participants in that tableu will long be remembered in baseball. I hope every dad or mom points to those heroes as examples for their young sons and daughters. Galarraga said he is sad but he knows he pitched a perfect game. The first 28 out perfect game. He lauded Jim Joyce for saying he was sorry and admitting he made a mistake. He voiced his respect for Joyce. I'm voicing my respect for both of these men.
Galarraga was presented with a new Corvette to help him ease some of the pain.
Tigers -3 Cleveland -0 Ciao.
So, it is so refreshing and breath taking to see the heroic tableau played out on the baseball field the other night. Two men that will go down in my book as heroes. An umpire, named Jim Joyce, that broke into tears when he saw the replay of the play that he called that cost the pitcher, Armando Galarraga to miss getting credit for pitching a perfect game. We depend on the umpire's eyes, he was just two or three feet from the base, to call the plays. But modern day technology with cameras rolling and instant re-plays being available, he was proven wrong.
There by bringing tough love into play. The ump is always right even when he's wrong! We heard it, he called it and we have to abide by it. I know everyone of us have attended games or watched them on television when we know full well that the ref or ump is dead wrong, we have to bite the bullet and let it go. In this case the wrong decision denied a young pitcher his fifteen minutes of fame! The call, if called right, would have been the final out in a perfect game. "We was robbed!"
The young pitcher and the umpire embraced and the ump appoligized and cried over his egregious error. Galarraga consoled him and smiled while his team mates showed their outrage. Bud Selig the baseball commissioner remained steadfast in his decision that the call stands. He cited untold problems that would spring to the front if he were to reverse the ump's call.
Jim Joyce, openly admitted that he 'blew it' and did not appoloigize for his tears. He explained that he is Irish and shows his emotions and he wept over his error. That's the courage that we all want from our heroes, how can we not forgive him and love his valor?
Armando Galarraga was so gratious and forgiving and went to the ump and embraced him to reassure him that he could live with the error. He smiled but brushed off praise for that by saying he frequently smiles when he is emotional. What a pair!!
Both participants in that tableu will long be remembered in baseball. I hope every dad or mom points to those heroes as examples for their young sons and daughters. Galarraga said he is sad but he knows he pitched a perfect game. The first 28 out perfect game. He lauded Jim Joyce for saying he was sorry and admitting he made a mistake. He voiced his respect for Joyce. I'm voicing my respect for both of these men.
Galarraga was presented with a new Corvette to help him ease some of the pain.
Tigers -3 Cleveland -0 Ciao.
Stature
In kindergarten and in lower grades of school, one of the tasks of honor, is being the "Line Leader". The line leader sets the standard for all of the rest of the line participants! It is a note worthy chore that gives great pride to the one assigned to the duty. "Mom, I get to be the line leader this week!' Oh, joy! There are various ways of lining up in schools, "Class, line up alphabetically," or "Class, boys on this side , girls on that side, " Class, as I call your name line up" etc. etc.
Wgeb U ebtere Whoops, I just looked up and it seems I have my fingers on the wrong keys, sorry about that! Anyway, when I entered first grade at age five, I automatically became the line leader because I was the shortest one in the class. No variations, line up smallest to tallest. That set the pattern for every line that I was involved in for the next twelve years. Today, it would be considered a discriminatory practice, but people were not as sensitive in those days. In my case it was wonderful because it made me feel important, so to speak, I was the LEADER! I never
thought to analyze just why I was always number one, I just knew that I was and felt that it was my place in the scheme of things.
Think about it! I never had anyone in front of me so in my perspective, I was tall! Therefore, I acted tall. My point being that your size doesn't matter as much as your actions. Act tall! Ciao.
Wgeb U ebtere Whoops, I just looked up and it seems I have my fingers on the wrong keys, sorry about that! Anyway, when I entered first grade at age five, I automatically became the line leader because I was the shortest one in the class. No variations, line up smallest to tallest. That set the pattern for every line that I was involved in for the next twelve years. Today, it would be considered a discriminatory practice, but people were not as sensitive in those days. In my case it was wonderful because it made me feel important, so to speak, I was the LEADER! I never
thought to analyze just why I was always number one, I just knew that I was and felt that it was my place in the scheme of things.
Think about it! I never had anyone in front of me so in my perspective, I was tall! Therefore, I acted tall. My point being that your size doesn't matter as much as your actions. Act tall! Ciao.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
The Livin' is Easy!
When I was young, really young, like 10 years old or so, we used to chant a little rhyme: "I wear my silk pajamas in the summer when it's hot, I wear my flannel nightie in the winter when it's not, and sometimes in the spring-time and sometimes in the fall, I jump right in between the sheets with nothing on at all!" I think that was followed by "Glory, glory, hallelujah " repeated two or three times and ended with, "nothing on at all'. The way the weather has been in the last year or so I keep all the possibilities at hand at all times. What ever is called for, that's what I wear or don't wear as the case may be.
My grandpa Morrissey had a picture on the wall in his hall ,of a man, standing in a driving rain storm with an inside out umbrella and the title was,"Weather is weather, whether or not." Frankly, I never got it! Incidentally, he had another picture of an old man walking toward his farm house in deep snow. The man had a jug in his hand that was leaving a trail of ,what I took to be syrup, that was leaking out onto the snowy ground. It was titled, "Ignorance is bliss". Philosophy 101.
We went to see the Louisville Bats play the other night. It was a pleasantly warm summer night, and the Bats were having a good night, they played as if they knew what they were doing. The crowd was laid back and seemed to be enjoying the game. Brian and Larry had made arrangements to meet the local member of the Zamboli (sic) fire works team to join him on the bridge to see him ignite the fire works display that was taking place immediately after the game. Larry and Brian left at the seventh inning stretch and walked to the Kennedy bridge to meet him. Linda and I stayed behind to watch the last two innings of the game. Bats won! I ran to the rest room so that I could get back in time to see the display of fireworks. When I came back, it had started to rain, rather heavily. Soon followed by horrendous lightning and thunder, the fireworks paled in comparison to the heavenly fireworks display. Linda and I were protected by the second tier of seats overhead. It was like standing behind a falls. Fireworks accompanied by crashing thunder and flashing lightning. Wowzer!
As soon as the fireworks finished, I'm sure it was an abbreaviated display, Larry called and gave Linda directions to come over and pick him and Brian up. Linda was a little unsure so she drove through the teeming rain and departing fans with one hand on the wheel and the other holding the phone with Larry navigating. They were under a vioduct that is over River Road. They were quite wet and very glad to see us arrive. They looked like a couple of drowned homeless guys lurking under the vioduct. We cranked up the heat in the car and drove Brian over to the Bats' parking lot to his car. Where as, we agreed to meet again next Friday night for a repeat. Seems the pyrotechnic dude asked the boys to give it a try next week again. Lord willin' and if the creek don't rise" I love adventures!!
The good ole' summer time is in full force right now. Late May and early June and we're having a lot of days in the 90's. I've put my winter nighties on hold so I can be ready for what July and August brings. Or wait a minute, maybe I can jump between... oh, well. Ciao.
My grandpa Morrissey had a picture on the wall in his hall ,of a man, standing in a driving rain storm with an inside out umbrella and the title was,"Weather is weather, whether or not." Frankly, I never got it! Incidentally, he had another picture of an old man walking toward his farm house in deep snow. The man had a jug in his hand that was leaving a trail of ,what I took to be syrup, that was leaking out onto the snowy ground. It was titled, "Ignorance is bliss". Philosophy 101.
We went to see the Louisville Bats play the other night. It was a pleasantly warm summer night, and the Bats were having a good night, they played as if they knew what they were doing. The crowd was laid back and seemed to be enjoying the game. Brian and Larry had made arrangements to meet the local member of the Zamboli (sic) fire works team to join him on the bridge to see him ignite the fire works display that was taking place immediately after the game. Larry and Brian left at the seventh inning stretch and walked to the Kennedy bridge to meet him. Linda and I stayed behind to watch the last two innings of the game. Bats won! I ran to the rest room so that I could get back in time to see the display of fireworks. When I came back, it had started to rain, rather heavily. Soon followed by horrendous lightning and thunder, the fireworks paled in comparison to the heavenly fireworks display. Linda and I were protected by the second tier of seats overhead. It was like standing behind a falls. Fireworks accompanied by crashing thunder and flashing lightning. Wowzer!
As soon as the fireworks finished, I'm sure it was an abbreaviated display, Larry called and gave Linda directions to come over and pick him and Brian up. Linda was a little unsure so she drove through the teeming rain and departing fans with one hand on the wheel and the other holding the phone with Larry navigating. They were under a vioduct that is over River Road. They were quite wet and very glad to see us arrive. They looked like a couple of drowned homeless guys lurking under the vioduct. We cranked up the heat in the car and drove Brian over to the Bats' parking lot to his car. Where as, we agreed to meet again next Friday night for a repeat. Seems the pyrotechnic dude asked the boys to give it a try next week again. Lord willin' and if the creek don't rise" I love adventures!!
The good ole' summer time is in full force right now. Late May and early June and we're having a lot of days in the 90's. I've put my winter nighties on hold so I can be ready for what July and August brings. Or wait a minute, maybe I can jump between... oh, well. Ciao.
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