Ayn's Multiple World

Happy Haloweening! Great Party today :)

Good morning. This is me. We’re at work now and it’s about 8 am. I’ve just taken care of the mail and read up on a few articles. The Flylady was discussed in Fortune 500. That’s pretty cool. I guess she is a millionaire due to her name brand products she sells on her web site. She was discussed as a start-up business. Go Flylady. That’s about it though.

Hmm, washroom trip … that was like a brief intermission. I stopped off to drop a note at Sr. Theresa’s too. That’s my official business of the morning. Hmm, better remind Brandi that our diabetic client was very low again. Hmm, she’s officially switched over to Sue’s group. Ok, got that. I guess they are having a trip today, so I made sure she has asked Sr. what to do with her. Exercise, could louse up her numbers. She probably should stay back, though that is unfortunate to her. I guess she hasn’t come in yet, but we’ve passed messages to Brandi and Sue. Brandi is to make sure that her record keeping stays the same and she sends home notes every week to the family.

On a side note, Brandi passed on a message that Candice is complaining because she has five annuals and she can’t be expected to get them done … and how is she going to do that, etc. I think that it’s interesting that she is passing all that on to DSPs, but not me as the QMRP that is assigned to be helping her. I might ask her later on when she’s calmed down how can I help her. I can get her through it, but she’s still got to want help. I think I would start by listing out by date when they are all coming up. Then I would make sure they are all scheduled. Then I would see that she gets to the DSPs for information and goal checking, and then I would help her with the Qnotes so she has some paperwork for the meetings. I could then do the agenda’s. I think she still has to do the 30 days, but she said that she’d have the first of two done for me on Thursday. I could cover her in any way possible, but first she’s got to ask me for help. Since I am ultimately still responsible for her, it is important that she not be caught under by this.

She is back now, but I will give her til about 9 am to settle in. I should be getting to my annuals again today. I finished one and a half of them yesterday, but still have 1 ½ to go, plus long goals, and goals and objectives. Pshwoo. After that it is a matter of signing paperwork and getting copies to everyone. This is all easily doable, but I won’t have an answer to sister as to why I haven’t started the CARF things yet. That was supposed to happen after the last of the annuals.

Hmm, just got a note from Dr. Marvin. He said that we had an appointment yesterday … We forgot all about it. Instead we were Group 3 all day. He asked if I wanted one tomorrow at 9:30, because he’ll be out tomorrow night, but due to the first aid on Friday, we will have administration meeting tomorrow morning. We also have Halloween this morning interfering. And, then next week, Sr. Theresa is going to be away on retreat, so there will be last moment things going on.

Hmm, I bit the bullet. I asked Candice to let me know if I could help her. I told her I knew she had 5 staffings and two days taken up with something else. I told her I could do Qnotes, agendas and so forth. But again she started fiddling with her desk and said, she thinks she actually has enough time … She said something about a new planner that Sister had for her. *Sigh* I will let Sr. know then that I offered to help and was again turned down. Can’t help someone that doesn’t want to be helped.

Ok, then let’s get going so … oh, I did want to say a few more things. I forgot about yesterday being in the group. All in all we had 10 people. We ended up with the addition of our diabetic client, because she had been unstable earlier. She was a good helper and there is another individual as a helper in the group. They are more advanced and then the others, but still ne

Hmm, just talked to Candice for another few moments, she is a tiny bit calmer. She let me know the dates for her next staffings. There are two next week on Monday and Friday, and then one the following Friday, and one a month later. She couldn’t recall having another one in November, so she may have been exaggerating to Brandi.

That’s good then. This doesn’t look too bad. The biggest trouble will be getting the Monday one done. She hasn’t written the report, but says she can get it to me by tomorrow or Friday. I said it would have to be after the first aid – just wanted to remind her she doesn’t have that time. I think she is going to use a back-up to that plan of emailing it to me over the weekend. I can handle that. There won’t be any Qnotes on the Monday one, but on Wednesday next week, we’ll ask her if we can do the Friday Qnotes, if not completed by that time. I gave her a couple of notes on the one mother as being tearful in meetings.

The one the following Friday is the toughest mother, but we’ll see how that goes.

I’ll be prepared just in case. I think I will talk to Theresa sometime in the next two days to get a full understanding of the Monday client. We want to make sure we can step in if necessary, though we are hoping the best for Candice. I think she’s appreciating her time a little better. We’ll see. We should ask her tomorrow if she’s gotten the ICAP completed for that client too. That’s another chore we could take over. Completing annual reports after the meeting will be another story, but I can’t say anything if I don’t complete mine.

So, lets think about yesterday? The helpers still need help as clients that need time to process their own level into the group’s activities. So that was part of the plan. When I walked into the group there were already 3 people there. All of them were in by 8:30 with the exception of my diabetic client who got there a half hour later. We start the day with magazines and loose chatter to make sure that everyone is ready to jump into the groove by 8:30 … The time between 8 and 8:30 is more structured than it looks, because we are both getting a feel for one another.

There was one client I had to lay down 3 firm rules. No repeating after me, no knocking on the table for attention, and no budding into other peoples business when I was talking to them. That was worked through the day. She showed improvement with the first two, but the third is pretty deeply ingrained. They all add tension to the group. I had then six of them go to the computer including the two helpers, and then I took the lower group and worked on matching identifying letters Like point to the “A” when presented an “A” and a “T”. We went 10 rounds of that and I kept scores. The lowest level client did exceptionally well with this. I didn’t know she had it in her. I gave her though plenty of room for success because she just had to pay attention and copy after someone who would go before her.

Then we broke up in groups and 3 people took a timer to the inside hall to walk 15 minutes, and three more took another timer and walked 10 minutes outdoors. That was easy enough, and then we took the other 4 people and we worked with creating a picture out of small foam shapes. I watched for patterns and took notes. After the groups all completed that … I figured they got enough exercise. So, the next exercise was a food preparation one. We couldn’t make the meal so we got a recipe for Brown bone soup. Eh, any would have done. They had the endurance to go up to 7 ingredients. One of the helpers would write the ingredients one at a time on the board. I would spell out the letters for her. Then we would take turns on each round stating or pointing out the words, such as “point to “peppercorn.” Peppercorn starts with a P. Ok, one lower, on top of that.”

It takes a awhile to get through it, and then the 4 top students were further challenged each round to see if they could remember each of the ingredients. As most things we do things are scored and we take notes.

After that we stretched and then I hard hit them with the next exercise that they could respond to as a group instead of individually. They had stated they wanted to do CIRCLES. I wasn’t prepared for that and this group had gone ahead of the others the week previous, so we reviewed neighbors. We drew little icons and spelled out each of the community business’s they could remember. Then we had them count them.

They had come up with 22 names. So, then I had them work until lunch on drawing pictures of their “neighbors.” They included things like police, McDonalds, library, and clothing stores. Each have their own ability to draw and they could work on their own for a bit which seemed to balance them. They needed some quiet time. After they got done, I had them bring me the buildings. I then cut around them and I had a helper gluing them onto a poster board. I then drew with a black magic marker roads around them. While that was being done, I had them all come to look at the final project. I asked them to identify their pictures in the poster.

They were excited to see their work. It was a pretty good board.

Then was lunch. Pshwoo … Ann in need of a break. After lunch I brought in a box of small colored one inch wooden blocks. I counted out for the eight and had the other two be helpers in setting up the blocks. The eight got 5 blue, 5 red, 5 green, and 5 orange. I wanted them to make four same colored rows of 5. No one in the group could look at the example and do it without one to one assistance. But, that was a good bit of knowledge. It’s important to know their individual strengths and limitations. They were then each given a regular sized yellow sheet of paper. One at a time, we went through instructions on putting block pieces in various spots on the paper. After several rounds, I said, ok, there is going to be a test now. So one at a time we had the individuals come to our end of the table and I tested them on the directions for only four blocks. Most had to be given extra assistance, but they were scored for how good they did. Some didn’t know their colors, but then there were other surprises. In three of the last tests, I found that people had been watching and were ready to do the test – one even with absolutely no instructions. Of course, that was a helper, but she had been sitting on the opposite side of the room, so I didn’t know she had listened that carefully. I was glad I kept the test the same for each.

The last thing we did before they left was to go back to the neighbor theme. I had brought in magazines from the staff room (hey, I bought them heheh). Anyway, everyone was given the direction to find houses our buildings, but only the exterior shot. I didn’t want living room furniture or anything. Some were not able to do anything more than flip through the magazines, but 6-7 were able to do the task, and afterward we glued them all to pages, that were stapled together for a book. The book was a 14 page fantastic expression. It was so cool. I looked at it over and over again. There were some really wild shots, and some serious ones, and a lot of fluffy rich American houses, but enough for a decent variety. They were very proud of their work.

All in all they did great! I’m sure that they and the DSP appreciated a break from one another. And, after you get over the part you “have to do it,” it is actually kind of a nice break for us too. After the group was over we were determined to continue giving the DSP a break. We first filled out the numbers portion of the DSP Chrononote, stating what we were doing by job code for each of the half and whole hours. Then we took the sheets back to the office and worked about 3 more hours on filling in the written portion of the chrononote. I know the DSPs put this chore off, so even though there was a week past, there was a whole empty sheet for me to write notes. I’m sure that’s a very nice break for the DSP not to write anything.

In the meantime, I mean it to be a lesson on how I like to see Written Chrononotes.

I had taken enough notes throughout the door on activities, and in particular individual efforts, so that I could write an entire page on each of the 10 individuals. I think writing written DSP Chrononotes is about the most fun thing we can do. I like reflecting on their work and comparing it to one another. I think of the notes as further training material. Ok, like where each of these fell through, what they did well. How can we encourage more work of the same? And, then of course, we get to thinking of the bigger picture. I don’t know right now how to go about getting that bigger picture, but I’m thinking that we could get there if we kept trying. For teaching it was sort of like that sheet that we’d done on that other staff.

It seems that we just need some kind of framework to follow up … also like the questions on the 30 day that we gave Candice this week, or the outline we gave Dr. Marvin from the surgeon. Just fill this in and then we’ll have a complete report.
I think there is a lot of room past that point then of figuring things out. I think we wrote the other day of that insurance survey … after the survey was complete – the program spit it back in report format. It was smooth. I would like to see more of that with the information that we can glean from the clients. I’ve always wanted that, but the project is undefined as yet, just tiny thoughts trying to sneak out of my brain. I should have probably kept a copy of Maria’s notes … hmm, if it’s important still by tomorrow I will go back. I would like to get all 10 sheets before they are dispersed. There should be a way of putting them on a graft by adding points or positives or such. It goes back to the old thought – that I would like control of all the clients’ learning. Program director, remember? I just gotta be that good.

Ok, now we’re in dreamy space. I think I’ve about gotten through what happened yesterday. Sister hasn’t come back to me on the “Principles of Learning” observation of Theresa, so we better let that go. It usually means that sister is thinking on it. She won’t throw it out until she’s handled it. I think the best simplified idea would be if she came back and said take three from the top and three from the bottom. Which one’s are more important. But, see that is like the notes on the back of the 30-days … they need to be collated in a format that is helpful.

I think that it would be very interesting actually to collate what the teachers are doing, with what the experience is of the clients. I would like to be able to hold that information in my head, but most likely it means that I’m going to need a format to place it in. I could probably score things on the client end like we were doing on that one clients’ wellness chart. Hmm, that’s an interesting thought. We might have to figure on the basics of each lesson … categorize things, but that might be jumping ahead of ourselves. Am I up for a trip? Ok, let’s go check out Maria’s forms.

Hmm, it’s 10:30 am now … we went over the DSP Chrononotes we’d completed for Maria.

She’s already given the helper’s sheet back to her DSP most likely because it wasn’t with the set. It still reads through pretty good, especially since there were 10 long notes completed in one afternoon/night. I am thinking that the DSP could take better notes at a rate of one person a day if there class size was about 10. If they knew they were going to be gone, or needed to make up time, they’d just have to plan, because every 10 days the sheets are given to the secretary for processing, and then distributed to individual Q’s.

I need to think like a program director then … I would try to chart things the DSPs would note, such as:

The individual

• Independently retrieved magazine
• Identified 6/10 (60%) letters w/assistance
• Drew a high quality shape of simple object (ice cream cone)
• Couldn’t stay in the lines when coloring simple object (ice cream cone)
• Completed tracing 3/5 (60%) of objects pictured
• Fair concentration placing small foam shapes in imaginative group puzzle
• Worked at placing objects independently in horizontal line of same shape and color
• Reminded others of turn-taking
• Remembered last 1-2 items on list of food ingredients
• Became confused with directional words (up, down, lower, higher)
• Eager to contribute vocally to group contributing list of neighbors (buildings)
• Drew one shape of building (low end of achievement)
• Need heavy coaching to line up 20 blocks – 4 rows of 5 blocks - same color
• Able to copy others and perform ¾ (75%) test placing 4 blocks on mat
• Couldn’t point to 20 objects after first five (hand-to-hand)
• Appeared perceptive (watching/listening to others)
• Found one magazine building when asked (low end of achievement)

Hmm, that’s interesting … it is fairly easy to list to this degree from the notes I wrote last night. So, after spending a day with this person, I discovered 17 things. Seems then that the next task would be to categorize the list. I’m not sure how to do that yet. This used to be when I would pick up a smoke and study it. YEEKS! Where did that thought come from.

Group III (Ms. Maria)

• Perceptive – appeared to listen, watch others, and learn from them (October 30, 2007)
• Helpful (Turn-taking) – reminded others to move ahead (October 30, 2007)
• Language (Directional words) – confused with up, down, lower & higher, etc (October 30, 2007)
• Writing – identified letters 6/10 (60%) – with assistance (October 30, 2007)
• List (neighbors/buildings) – eager to contribute vocally – group exercise (October 30, 2007)
• List (7 items) – remembered 1-2 each turn – last items on list (October 30, 2007)
• Shapes (Pictured) – traced simple object – high quality (October 30, 2007)
• Shapes (Pictured) – traced 3/5 (60%) – medium quality and effort (October 30, 2007)
• Shapes (Pictured) – colored out of lines – low quality (October 30, 2007)
• Shapes (40 Small colored foam pieces) – concentrated an placed imaginatively – group exercise (October 30, 2007)
• Shapes (Small colored foam pieces) – placed independently in horizontal line of same shape and color (October 30, 2007)
• Shape (Building) – drew one building - low use of effort per time given (October 30, 2007)
• Object (Magazine) – retrieved independently (October 30, 2007)
• Object (Magazine) – found one building picture as asked – low end of effort for time given (October 30, 2007)
• Object (20 blocks; 4 colors [red, green, blue & orange]– 5 each) didn’t line in rows – high level assistance (October 30, 2007)
• Test (Block) – ¾ (75%) success in placing imitation of 4 blocks on mat w/low assistance (October 30, 2007)
• Test (Block) – 5/20 (25%) success pointing to blocks – high level assistance hand to hand (October 30, 2007)

Ok, good. For now we’re satisfied with this list … I put it on a clean sheet of paper. Hmm, now the question is what would I do next. It seems the same could be done of all the clients. And, the list could be added to. Seems that if you knew that a certain individual could outline well, but not color well, then you would teach him to follow the lines. And, you could probably make use of the fact he can be imaginative, and if he can only point hand over hand 5 blocks of 20, that that should be worked with, especially because this individual utters sounds, but does not speak. It was an interesting observation I made when performing the tests.

Only the higher level clients could count from left to right, then right to left.

The lower ended clients would go from left to right each time. And, often what happened on the test, you could see they were trying to follow form in that we put a block in the upper right corner and then a block was placed in the upper left corner, so then when given the direction to place the next block in the middle of the paper, they intuitively followed the circle and put the block on the lower left circle. I believe that is a Gestalt experience.

Hmm, now it’s 1:56 … pretty close to 2 pm and nothing is done. But, we had a good time. We played with the information for a small while – had an image of putting the different pieces in stage IV within a big group conglomerate. I think the only way to do that reasonably would be to put it on Paper Tiger.

AHA – Stage V



You need to click on this image to see it well :)

posted by Ann Marie @ 10/31/2007 04:02:00 PM Comments: 1

Some good work done today

Good morning … this is me and its about 8:30 am. We’ve been in the office for a while now. We got here about an hour ago. There was something strange happening in that we found a cell phone on the ground outside next to a car. We picked it up and have had a couple of phone calls from people looking for the person that dropped it. One was a friend in a hospital, and the other was the person’s mother. I’m fairly sure that she is going to get word to her so that this person picks it up.

It sounds like she lives in the area. Probably, on the block and she dropped it getting out of her car. There are like 27 messages on it so I figure that its been lost for the weekend. I’m sure there are people trying to get ahold of her and are worried, and I would guess she’s tried calling her own number trying to see if anyone’s picked it up.

But, beside that … nothing major happening. Brandi pointed out there was a serious staph infection bug going around, so we printed out an article for her. Otherwise we need to get into the day here.

It’s a Monday, so I’m not particularly inclined to want to jump in… Though - Monday’s have become one of my favorite days, because I don’t have to worry about any groups.

AHA! The person just came by to pick up the phone. Rosa called Brandi for some reason and then Brandi came in for me to return the phone. I think that was nice of her. I’m sure the woman was appreciative. The people that had tried to contact her seemed nice. It’s kind of cool for an instance stepping into someone’s life, but its ok to now step out of it. WooHoo! We did our good deed for the day 

Ok, ok … shhh, let’s keep going on the other stuff ok? I think we did a brief summary of what happened last night this morning. So, I’m not going there. There was something more of the conversation we had with Rich between 11-12 yesterday before the Bears game. We were talking about business related stuff. It took Rich a bit to get into the part of the conversation that I wanted to be in. I wanted to tell him that I was having trouble separating the work and personal, and about this kind of writing I was doing to get into the work portion. He’s still not seeing the writing as essential as I am and he brought up a point, that it doesn’t seem that we do too much reading of the material that we type. That was true, but then we have to ask – what makes this writing so essential?

I have known for a while that we think and talk to the writing to our selves. It’s like a couple of seconds release to go over what we had just said to make sure we understood what the other part was trying to say. There are sometimes that we’ll go over something, but not as often as we could. Usually, there is only enough time to get something down because we are already moving on with the next thing. But, there is some grand feeling of getting it down, because if we don’t it will – hence our life – be forgotten. I want it to have some kind of purpose. I’d like to think that someday it will be read and it will be read by a writer so great it will inspire him or her to do years and years of research. Thinking back to Tiffany and her comment that it could be a life series television show and that she knows a couple of screenwriters that aren’t doing anything. But, I don’t think people working in television spend much time going over thousands of pages of script. They are more likely to be looking for the punch line. Though … I bet we had plenty of material for a long-running sit-com. I think that’s sort of the way Seinfeld got written.

Naw still rather be a textbook case of multiplicity. I don’t see the multiplicity in our everyday writing, but I suppose there are visible changes others see in the writing of our story. Just that I think we’re just seeming to be someone with a lot of difference and quite a few repeats in thought. It seems when we’re writing that we’ve been here a million jillion years and that we wrote everything, but then there are times our thinking is way off like in thinking through suicidal thoughts a couple of weeks ago. That doesn’t seem like something that I would go through directly.

Ok, just heard the song lyric “if ever did I think my work was done.” I think that was some kind of cue to me … need to concentrate and focus more on work. I heard the thought that it seems we’re blending pleasure and work, more and more together.

Getting to the long lost point of what happened in that hour conversation with Rich … He kept getting unfocussed … at least one the things he was trying to help me with. I could tell though that the things he was saying needed to be released from his thoughts. He doesn’t just talk so much, so I think things get bottled up. And, we got stuck on the point that we didn’t want to do secretarial work, when we could do work like this writing which gives us so much gratification.

We also got stuck because he always talks about doing grants just the opposite of what the book had been saying. The book had the more honorable viewpoint, in that just wanting more money isn’t what the grant people are looking for … they really do want novel means to be solving world problems. But, somewhere there is a stop thing we’re doing. Rich picked it up … he said, but your system isn’t working either. I know that he spoke the truth. We tried to explain that we needed help structuring both at home and work … we explained how our free time was being spent, but he didn’t want any part of that. He got confused as to I was asking him to give up his free-time to be doing what he wanted me to be doing. But, he doesn’t see that he schedules in my time for other things such as movie watching and playing in bed.

Well, of course like I’m going to give up that kind of time! Ha! Yah like, right!

But, then he is nailing me for not spending my time doing his grant. I think he means to suggest that I should be working on stuff during the time I’m writing.

BUT, that just isn’t going to happen. I told him we preferred to write in the morning and early afternoon, and that we weren’t going to give up that time, unless it meant being directly with him. So, we got to work on that a bit.

Then we got into things that were more structured. He likes to tell wherever he is with it and he likes to think that his way is the only way. But, I don’t think like that. I want to see how he is doing it, but I would like more talking/discussion than I am getting. He just likes to go off on long stories. And, by the time they are through, I have no idea what the original point was. It gets confusing – though it’s interesting sometimes to be hearing his stories. The frustration comes with the part where I know his time is limited and we are not into the problem that I needed him to work through with me. I do notice that he is more receptive after being given a chance to talk again. And, he doesn’t always like to talk. Sometimes he likes to be just processing some chore or another of his.

Hmm, our diabetic client is here to take her tests. She does it in Rich/Candice’s office around the corner. Oh, that was another thing. Sister was in earlier. She came in “confused.” She didn’t know what she was going to do, which means you are just about going to get involved in volunteer work, or covering for somebody else’s schedule. I know that we are sending Kathy and Maria to a meeting downtown, and apparently Imelda is in the hospital – for unknown reasons. And, Margarita has taken off several days for getting a passport for her and her daughter and Sister doesn’t know if she’ll be in to watch Group IV. So, plan A is that I take group 3 in the morning, and Holly takes it in the afternoon, and Plan B is that I take group 3 all day and Holly takes group IV. Either way it interferes with what I would prefer to be doing, which is for now just writing. It’s 9:30 am now.

I think then that, at least, let me use the washroom, and then we’ll come back to figure that out. K?

Ok, that’s better. Ok, what are our work goals? Rich said something about the last system that we started. We might need to get back into that. I don’t know why it got stopped. Let’s see … we could probably figure that out. Hmm, looking at the last time we printed out … it seems that it was last used 45 days ago. I don’t know what happened to the things that were listed as needing to be done. Most likely they’ve just sat there. Might have to open that back up today and explore it a bit.

Ok, that was done, but we didn’t get as far as opening it. It simply wouldn’t open. I knew there was a fairly new program in there. They called on their own to correct the problem. It was fine as long as it was open, but then after it was closed and we tried to open it again, it wouldn’t. So, we copied the message and sent it into PaperTiger Support. I really need that to be better. But, it probably doesn’t excuse the fact we should look at the last copy printed out.

Hmm, there was one other thing, Gary from CSO is here. He was supposed to have a staffing with Candice, but the parents couldn’t come in and Candice didn’t cancel.

We’ll have to talk to Sr. Theresa about that and the other meeting she was supposed to have. I’ll ask sister if I should intercede and make a date for the staffing.

Since I have to sign off on it – I don’t want it on my record. Hopefully, she’ll become a Q before the state visits, because I don’t want my records ruined by her.

Gary went ahead and is looking at the records. I think the two clients he has of mine are good. So, I’m not worrying about that. Both are fairly caught up with Q notes and annual reports. So, then on to the next thing. Why don’t we read the contents of the Paper Tiger stuff, k? Ok, brb.

Ok, went through that. It wasn’t too bad. Quite a few things can be let go and some need to be added. There are a few like the Techsoup one for the new computer back-up program and the insurance for CARF where we are going to start watching the problem licenses more closely – that one was never completed. And, then there is the ongoing ones. I need to track that. I just got a ticket number back from paper tiger acknowledging that they got our email. I can deal with that. Ok, then next would seem to be the thought that I should finish an annual or two. The first one is for – ok, so and so. Better take out his file. Then figure out what’s next.
Ok, got the file … seems like I put the loose stuff in it from the annual file. The rights an other paperwork like the agenda is here. But, there is no annual and no notes. Thinking now that is the silly meeting we had with Evelyn and the parent/individual where sister wasn’t here and we sat back in the activity room. I think I was winging that because there was no DSP. I wonder did we take any kind of notes prior to the meeting? Hmm, that might have been the last person. I think Brandi was sick for that one. Ok, so we’re going have to wing this one. It might be very short. I might have taken a reference frame from Brandi’s schedule or the scattered notes that she uses generically. Better pull up a blank annual.

Principles of Learning Staff observation

Today’s exercises utilized some great teaching skills, such as Theresa had everyone in the room participating in completing workshop work, cleaning the room, measuring the lines, and then closure of the individuals’ day. The following is a set of general principles of learning that might be considered and applied to teaching/learning experience. These are additional ideas not corrections.

• When measuring use real rulers and actual objects rather than paper rulers and paper lines. It seemed the group had a little trouble distinguishing the smaller paper as a measuring tool, especially because it looked so similar to the paper they were measuring.
• Give the exercise some meaning by connecting it to something personal, such as giving the individuals a reason they might want to learn measuring.
• Break down the steps as a group prior to working with the individuals individually. Try to capture group attention by giving perhaps an example on the board prior to asking them to do the task.
• Give the group an idea when they will use their measuring skills next, which future application
• Add a more vivid dynamic by pulling group together prior and post to the session ending – go team! There weren’t clear directions what to do after the session – collection of materials, no conclusion drawn.
• Explain the ruler experience as a series of steps, i.e. “ We are going to measure jagged lines on paper and we’ll first start, and then second you … ”
• The last 20-30 minutes of the day was left undefined – there could be goals aside the primary task of measuring. Ask if the individuals knew what was expected of them? i.e. Rita leaving later than 2 pm.
• Stick with individual long enough to know that he or she can complete an entire sequence without your assistance, prior to going on to next individual. Plan that it will take time to get to everyone – pull the group back together intermittently so that some group teaching may be attempted, and people relieved from the boredom of waiting for assistance.
• Assert a goal for the session. Is this lesson a part of a master plan – is it related toward an outline or progression of goals? The continuation of counting is valid, but that seemed a secondary or lower concern, unless they were learning to measure bead strings.
• There was some confusion with “close-confusers,” such as washing and drying we’re similar tasks both completed with rags – some people were doing both tasks, and others just one. Rita was confused and frustrated over needing to dry a table she had already dried because another individual washed it a second time. Antonella didn’t understand “wash just this row of tables” because someone else would wash the second row.

Some of the positive aspects gleaned, were:

• During the cleaning exercise, people were assigned up-front tasks, and then people we’re given reinforcement if they did not follow through. The individual tasks were direct and specifically labeled, i.e. wash the table, dry the table.
• There was a progression of learning – match the zero to the first dot you want to measure, keep the ruler under the line so you can see it, and count the inch marks to the second dot. What ruler number does the second dot end on?
• DSP modeled what the cut-out ruler should look like.
• DSP went to each individual and worked well independently with them making it an active learning session.
• With assistance each individual was able to have an “AHA!” moment, which is a positive learning experience.
• After exercise discussion on “what to wear for Halloween” added percolation to the group in that the last people to leave had a means to come together excitedly and giving an end or closure to their day.
• Each individual received coaching, and at least three lines to practice – It would be interesting to see how the exercise will be followed-up.
• DSP stayed with individuals long enough for them to “get-it,” which allows familiarity with the task with gradual release from the teacher-directed instruction.
• Asked individuals good questions that helped lead them to answers through their own thinking.
• There was good opportunity to practice when giving cleaning tasks, because the work was distributed randomly rather than willed to just one individual. And, as one individual completed his or her task, then an opportunity was given to help someone else if necessary. Group finished together.

posted by Ann Marie @ 10/29/2007 05:20:00 PM Comments: 0

I know ... gotta do the work :(

Good morning … This is me on a Monday morning. We only have about a half hour to write, so there won’t be much here. We’ve got Chief here to keep us company. And, Missy has let it be known that she’s a good back-up. And, Sarah Mclaclan. *Sigh* But, it’s a Monday? Shoot, Chief decided to sit up, because I tried to move his tail. Now we have a cat in the middle of our screen. I wonder what he thinks of us just moving that blinking black line across the screen. They must think we waste a lot of time. I’m pretty sure that cats don’t understand writing. I’d like him to know that I’m not the only one that does this. AHA! That’s true … They got Rich now too.

Aha! Speaking of him … It turns out “to shower” is a good thing. We ate a steak dinner out on the balcony and then we watched a good movie … it turned out to be “Reign Over Me.” I didn’t know that Sandler made those kind of movies. It was a serious one. It was about a relationship between two men who had once known each other before college, but then there is a lot of space, and it turns out the one – Sandler, has gone through the loss of his family due to the events of 9-11. I don’t usually like sad movies, especially about 911, but this was very good.

Ok, I think we’re losing our time here in just adjusting to being here. Had problems with the music. Better say here for the record there was more love making last night … Rich is so excellent to us. This is especially true hehehe if we’re sexed all week.

Hmm, more kitty reshuffling.

Hey Baby is up! He just went to washroom. Might have to jump on that. I don’t think he could hear my music … no ear phones today. They were unplugged last night and we’re too lazy to get up – oh no … it was because we had a cat on our wrist.

Hmm, not too much here. We snuggled in with Baby this morning … and then we were through a nice long hot shower and we got dressed. Monday is getting closer all the time. Meanwhile our nerve endings say touch Rich, touch Rich … we’re conflicted.

Work … touch … touch … work. Can you see the automatic discrepancy? *Sigh*

posted by Ann Marie @ 10/29/2007 06:36:00 AM Comments: 0

Hmm to shower or not to shower, this is the question ...

Good morning … me again. It’s about 9 am now … we’ve been up for like an hour and a half … Rich too. He got up at the same time and on his own. We talked a bit over coffee, then we can in the living room … me to mess around on the computer and him on his favorite Sunday TV shows. We watched the clip with Community Service Option. There was a part on the computers and clients using them, but St. Rose didn’t get put in there even though they went over specially to get their picture taken for TV. *Sigh*

I didn’t hear much of what they were saying because I just wanted to see if our guys got filmed. I think they are going to be disappointed.

We just posted yesterday’s stuff and haven’t re-read it yet, but Rich has now got his computer and I think that we need to be moving on. First most important thing that happened yesterday was that we went to Joe’s match and he got knocked out. He was unconscious for a couple of moments, but the doctor there said that she didn’t think he had a concussion. I’m not sure. Joe was pretty stunned by the whole event. His friends are going to help him through the night. It was just the end of the first third, or maybe beginning of second part. I don’t remember. I had been videotaping him and all of a sudden he was down and we kept filming because we didn’t … weren’t registering what to do. His sensei, Alex, and a couple people including a doctor was there. Then finally he sat up. And, then a short time after that he got up and left the ring. There was a chair by me and I pulled it in front of me so he could sit down. Alex and Maury and then later us were putting ice packs he was getting from his Sensei, Steve.

I don’t even know what to think yet. His Sensei said that he can’t kickbox until 3 months so that means that the event on November 17th are going to be cancelled.

Alex is still in it though so this is going to way heavy on his thoughts. Joe was quiet. I gave him a bottle of water and he took it and held it. It didn’t seem as if he knew he were to pull it to his mouth. I got out one of the extra towels I had brought. I said this was to wipe of the sweat on your face. He said I could do it. So, I did. I felt that I was allowed to take care of him a little bit. Mostly we were both listening to Alex, and Maury and Sensei Steve talking. Sensei Steve looked a little nervous, but ok. He was smiling like to say this sort of thing happened all the time.

Joe had been doing ok until he got the hit. Maury said it didn’t turn out so good on camera because of the angle of the camera against the pole. But, after a bit I am thinking that Joe is going to want to look at it anyway. Both Maury and Sensei Steve watched the film again through the video. Maury had told me that I could use the camera. Alex said that Joe was hit on the jaw and that it pushed back and cut off something that had to do with conscientiousness. Joe didn’t have insurance. I had asked Sensei Steve if he should go to the hospital, and he first said it wouldn’t hurt, but then he said no that the doctor had cleared him from the concussion.

Joe didn’t remember what had happened. He didn’t remember getting hit or falling down. He remembered the guy at the end counting up to 10. I don’t know what I thought about the whole thing. I think part of us cut down too. We couldn’t get near the ring because there were tables up against it and the people up there were already a crowd and they were the people that knew what to do. I will call Joe in a little bit to see how he is doing … maybe a little closer to 10 and then I will give Maury a call to see if he knows anything new.

I didn’t want to see Joe hurt, but it didn’t seem I was overly emotional either. I felt like I had stepped in Joe’s shock. I was waiting for someone to say something that I could hear that made sense. Like what is happening. We’d stepped out of the direct experience and finally brought ourselves partly back by helping Alex apply the ice packs and with the towel. Joe got chilled in a bit and asked for his shirt and sweatshirt. I was asking a few questions about the medical aspects, and my eyes were like searching. Does someone know anything? Can we go yet? Joe do you want to stay or go? I was so relieved when someone finally responded that we could go.

They were there to watch one of the hard fights. I remember packing up the stuff and wheeling out of there. It had been decided that Maury and Alex would look over Joe, and they believed me when I said I could drive by myself. I didn’t want to lose contact with Joe, but I knew he was safe with the boys and they were probably more able than me. I didn’t want to see Joe hurt. I asked Sensei and he said Joe wasn’t in shock, but I think he was. I think I was. But, I drove home. I called and left a message with Rich, and he called us back, but that was after we stopped at BK. I thought I deserved a milk shake, but fortunately their machine was broke and we got a diet coke. That was a good thing too because the 3 guys had seen me pull off and while I was at the drive-in thing they were like phoning me … I didn’t respond until I got past the window, but I told Maury that I was dedicating this diet coke to Joe.

Rich called back after not too long too. He let me tell him what had happened or what I could remember. I don’t know how I’d got home, but I was more than sure I was happy with that decision. Rich had been watching the first 20 minutes of the Transformer’s video, so we watched that with him until it was over and he dragged a lost and tired child to bed. She said she wanted double covers and she was too cold to take off her coat. We had taken a pretty big hug when we first saw Rich. He is a good hugerer.

It had been a long time to go before the matches had started. And, then Joe was the 5th one.

I don’t want to think more of the match though. I want to stop that part. There was something else that happened or was heard of last night. On the way to the gym, Joe told me that Sensei Steve made him a business offer on Tuesday and they’d been talking it over pretty seriously since then. I guess Joe is getting help from his father and there is a contract being drawn up, but Sensei Steve has asked Joe to be a 50-50 partner in the dojo in Villa Park. So, in one fall swoop – Joe would own half a business. For a kid that’s only 23 years old that I think is pretty good.

Joe has been going to Sensei Steve’s for 10 years now. I think he sees something in Joe that is different than most people. Of course, we know that about Joe already.

I can’t say enough though how much sensei Steve has done and meant in Joe’s life. I think he is actually calmer than Sensei Steve – that is my note after seeing what happened last night … I think Sensei Steve is a bit fidgety. Like he’s living on high doses of energy. There will be many more stories to come I think on Sensei Steve. I don’t think he would do anything to hurt Joe … he’s not that kind of guy, but I’m hoping anyway that Joe’s dad brings the contract to a lawyer to look over.

Joe would be buying into the business for about $8,000. I don’t think that’s much for buying into a well-established business. I would like to see them expand the size of their facility, because its pretty small, but that’s a business consideration they would make later down the line.

I think Joe would be responsible for aspects that are business such as rent, utilities and such. He has also asked and been given an extra hour off on Tuesday and Thursday nights so he can go back to teaching the 7 pm and 7:45 classes. I’m not sure which classes he is teaching, but I think he was good at what he was doing. I’m not sure why Sensei Steve has made that decision. But, I know there was another business partner, who didn’t end up being much of a business partner. He wasn’t active. Joe will most likely get money from his grandmother, in that she has an account for each of the boys that they were each to receive upon a certain age.
I think Joe is getting $6000 from that and somehow $2000 from Thom.

I also asked about how the living arrangement had been going between the boys. He’s getting along fine with Thom, but they are thinking that either Bob their step-brother has to get rid of the girl, or get a place with her, because they don’t like her over at the apartment so much. Joe says that he and Thom would consider getting a place that is not as expensive, but maybe closer to Joe’s primary job. But, then that might make the trip longer to the dojo. Joe says that it doesn’t matter so much to Thom as long as he is on a train line. I don’t think Joe knows a lot about the areas between him and there. They have to wait out the contract and by then he would have to see.

I don’t think I see that Joe is going to make a lot of money with Sensei Steve, but it is more like an opportunity of the heart. Joe said that he could see spending more and more time down the line into the business and that at some point, he would like to make it full-time job. I think that being a Master Sensei is a reasonable occupation, because I see it as helping people become a better people. I think that makes a lot more sense than what he is doing now, though for the time being that job that is paying the bills. It will be interesting to see what Joe is going to be up to learning from Sensei Steve. Joe is a good learner, but he’s also a good teacher. I’m excited that he will be learning business aspects. I’m not sure what he will be adding that will be most important to Sensei Steve, with the exception that Joe is such a good person that that kind of influence is good for Sensei Steve. It earns him respect with the students. Joe wouldn’t ever say anything negative about his teacher. He has so much respect for him. That is just the kind of person he is.

I am a little more concerned as to what happened last night, but not enough to turn against Sensei Steve. I talked to Maury about 45 minutes ago. His point was that Sensei Steve wasn’t good enough, but we were trying to explain to him that it was a process. I would hope that Joe learns exponentially from being placed against bigger challenges. I would like to set up more opportunities to be with Joe to learn about the things going on, so that I might help, but I think he’s pretty much into his own life and trying to figure out his place in it. I’m terribly excited for him.

I’m also very happy that it puts him in a better position to be learning higher and higher levels of karate. I don’t know why karate is so good. I mean it is good protection, but it’s not all that. There’s a big part of the character building that is very admirable. I remember the relationship that I had with Rosey. There was not enough good I could have said about him at the time that we were in that student/coach relationship. I had spent extra time with him as a captain of the team helping him put away equipment at the end of the day, and we would give him the time to talk about the things that were important to him. I see that same kind of excitement for Sensei Steve. He is very enthusiastic. Maybe a little goofy, but goofy in a good way that I could appreciate. Joe says that he’s got like 5 kids.

There’s something admirable about that. Having kids and being devoted to them is a good thing.

I think there is one other aspect that is important. Sensei Steve has a deep commitment to God like Joe. And, I don’t think you can go wrong with that. It’s an area yet to be developed. I think that the most important part is that Sensei Steve is probably a little younger than us, but he’s going to develop, I hope, a relationship with Joe in that his career will be carried on past himself. There are real pedigree lines with whom you work with. I think the whole think is just so gosh darn cool and magical. It’s just like WOW!

Joe talked about one other thing … he said that played a dungeons and dragons game on a weekend out at some woods/campground. That was a pretty good deal for him. He says that Alex was there too. There were about 40 people. And, about half were monster and story characters, and then there were the other half that were playing the game. He said that he had a lot of fun. I think this is being very committed to the game. He says there are weapons, but I don’t remember a lot about the game, or maybe there isn’t much said. I remember first being introduced to the game with my ex’s little brother Brian. He loved it and played often with his brothers. Joe spends quite a bit of time dedicated to weekend play with his friends from college.

I think if there were one thing that wasn’t complete in Joe’s life is that he would like to be in a relationship with a girl. Someone who is devoted to only him. I see that that is an extremely important thing … I think being in love is one of the most important aspects of your life. But, I hope that the school takes his mind off that directly. I think being connected to all these Sensei’s through karate is Joe’s best bet for meeting someone very special. I am going to hope for that … that one day he finds his love and she’s as into karate as him. Then maybe she can contribute to the business too.

Hmm, we’ve had a break. It’s now 12:07

Whoops now its 5:24 pm.

There isn’t going to be much time today for writing. There’s a lot to do when you are a couple. Rich hung around all day except now he is gone because he had to return a movie. Last night we saw transformers. I loved how they put together the robots. The fight scene was too much for me though, I couldn’t understand who was fighting other. They kept changing scenes too quickly … very confusing. I’m not sure which one, but he has a Adam Sandler movie that we are going to see today.

We had a very romantic steak dinner out on the balcony, but after the sun started to set it got chilly. We keep a couple candles out there, but they weren’t very warming. I think we need to ask our landlord for a fire place, but first we gotta figure out a way to get the washer and dryer. It is too expensive right now because Rich has to put down a couple of thousand dollars for the bathroom. His wife’s and son’s. *Sigh*

Ok, other than that we had a very good time being with Rich watching the bears even though its not really fun to watch your team lose because they can’t throw and catch, or play defense. That’s my grand summary of the whole event. Ptooey! But, we had popcorn and caramel apples. That was very nice and we huggled closely together and both took turns doing little tiny power naps. Hehehe. He was silly for a while. He was cold so he put his arms under the shirt and then he played a game where his forefinger was coming out all over to spy on me! Shoot. He got us so giggly, we couldn’t stop laughing. I think he really did sort of relax today.

That makes it a good day in my book. I figure that the movie might take me almost up to my bedtime with maybe an hour left to finish writing. I just didn’t think that I got enough of it in this weekend.

Oh yeah there was one more thing as to the day. Well, actually two. I did talk to the two boys for about 45 seconds. They were in a rush to be doing whatever they do, but at least I got the sense that Joe was doing ok. He has a lot to think through. Both think its Sensei Steve’s fault because he had not trained Joe enough. That might be part of the problem, but with attribution theory, Joe should realize that he is part at fault, then he is more likely to change the situation, because it will fall in his power. You can change yourself, but not the other. I think a lot of people try to cheat here.

I think sometimes Rich wants me to become like his helpful shadow, in that he makes most of the decisions between us. He usually makes good decisions, but like this afternoon, after the Bears, he went and turned off the TV. He said, “I think we’ve seen enough of this.” But, he didn’t ask me – he assumed I was like him. Because I see it – I think that is a good thing, but I haven’t decided what I should do about it. Often I really don’t care which way things go. Like concerning the next game sure, ok. Though if he wasn’t here, I would have left the game on. Or before dinner he suggested that I go take a shower, and then he would. Now, I think if a person wants to take a shower with you … that would be different. True, I hadn’t caught one in the morning and it was a good idea. It relaxed me and we stayed in the hot water a long time luxuriating. Wow! Luxuriating is a real word! It didn’t even strike out with the word spelling thing. Ok, well the point is … I felt relaxed and that’s a good idea BEFORE dinner. That way you can appreciate the meal better, but it was him telling me to do something rather than saying sexily would you like to freshen yourself before dinner?

We’ll give a little ten minute lecture on this probably, and he’ll be cautious for a bit, and then he’ll forget and return back to the 50’s type person he sometimes is.

Mostly, I think he belongs in this generation, but that was the second thing. We asked to talk to him for the hour before the game about things relating to where I was in work, especially with my wanting to work or not and with the grant work.

It’s sort of a matter am I going to do what would help you in your career – even though some might seem like terrible, terrible mailings, or would I like to do something that interests me terribly like my writing. He’s like if there is no point to it like you are going to sell a book by the end of the year. And, well if you can imagine that I wasn’t going for that idea. Basically, changing my working hours from MY writing to his putting stamps on envelopes and printing out labels.

Don’t know … we want him to be productive, because he shares with me, but I don’t want to live that kind of life where I have to do meaningless work. I am worth more than that to myself.

So, as you can imagine that’s going to become a bigger problem, but we’ll get through it … right now he is home again and we agreed to watch a movie … and that means more snuggling time, but it is frustrating. For now though … we’ll be back soon.

posted by Ann Marie @ 10/29/2007 05:27:00 AM Comments: 0

Not too much for a Saturday

Good Morning. This is me and we’re finally starting the writing. We’ve been out of bed for a couple of hours. We fooled around for a while and then we read some stuff from yesterday, and then for a little while, we crawled into Rich until I thought we were going to snore him to pieces. I think he had to get up and use the bathroom once too. Then we had to get snuggly with him all over again. I think this love business is like a magnet that allows you to believe always how sexy your guy or girl is.

*Sigh*

I know, we’re back there already. So much for our morning concentration. We had a pretty good night last night after work. We left about 4:15 pm and got home about 5 pm. Maury decided that he had too much on his plate to come over and Rich felt in the mood to go out. He suggested Tony’s, which is pretty good. I wish they could do something with their atmosphere, but right now they don’t have room for anything, but booths and tables. They have another half, but they seem to pile everyone into the one side. I don’t know what is up with that. 98% of the people in the room were seniors. I’m not opposed to that, but it gives me the sense of eating in a nursing home. I was most likely the oldest patron in the room. It’s kind of weird. I like though to get the egg omelet, hash browns and pancakes. Rich seems to be reverting more and more often back to the pork, dumplings and sauerkraut. I’m learning to like that, but its still not my favorite food. This last week or two though, we found that we could do the sauerkraut. It’s got kinda a sweet pickled taste. I was introduced to it at a wrong time in my life and I associated it with Germans, which I was and hated.

Sooo that’s enough about that. We came home and took medicine/talked and all that, and then we had to decide which direction we were going. We had been crabby entering the restaurant. That lasted pretty much throughout. Rich was like just eating and not talking much. He had thrown open a wide reaching future changing idea for basically a new business to be added onto his hectic schedule. The big center Abraham Lincoln that had been out to visit St. Rose Center the other day called him back and wanted to ask Rich if he would consider a position of running their program – both on the side and in the workshop.

I wasn’t in a good mood to considerate it. Mostly after I left the writing, I was looking through the fitness thing, and checking into Blue Cross Blue Shield’s position on weight management. They give some kind of discount at Curves and Jenny Craig, but the one is just for women and the other is food management. I did find though on the insurance site a program that asked survey questions and then fed them back to you in a form of a health report. It was a nice devise, though some of it seemed obvious. I knew that if I responded that I don’t wear seatbelts, that later on it was going to reprimand me for that habit, and it did. But, it strung certain facts to point out certain things that were most likely right conclusions. I think it is actually a series of surveys, and quite a bit of “common sense” health things. There is no way that I can think of weight as less eating and more exercise as being the right thing to do. But there wasn’t a lot on the psychology of it … how do you do what you want to commit to, but seem to mess up. I guess that’s where we get back into the stuff on self-regulation. I’ve seen others, including Rich who says … it’ll be done in an hour, because that’s all the time I have for this project, but I seem to have real problems with it. Like my blog writing, I tend to go on and on and probably do a lot of repeating of similar thoughts and threads and behaviors. I lack that which is commonly called discipline.

I think we’ve had this argument before though. I can do things like writing and eating with great consistency, but other things no. It will be my downfall.

Ok, whatever this direction is let’s stop it, ok? Let’s talk about something I can grip onto better. Ahh the fitness thing … I remember … after that, or somewhere in between we got a couple of calls. One was from the financial aid people and the other was the physical trainer person … The trainer – Tiffany wanted to know if I were goin to do it like that … She was referring to me just stopping and leaving. I told her how put out I was … and that I had only like 2 sessions and that they would just say – you are fixed, ask me to ring the bell, when all that was happening was that they’d taken all my money and was done with me. Tiffany said we’d only used like 11 apointments of 25 or so that we had a long way to go. I couldn’t argue against that, because I know how valid the therapy work had been. She said that they would need a new script, so she was going to talk to my doctor and call me back.

I think when we talk to her, we are going to tell her also what a huge turn-off she’s been in that she’s always off on her own just playing around with her peers.

And, I didn’t feel very professionally cared for. It’s like it was back in the gas station days. There was a lot of titillation with some of the guys I worked with, but there were other times, when we had to be serious and just be getting work done. Sometimes I feel like they are just a bunch of kids playing around. And, I’d felt hurt that Tiffany showed so little interest in me as a patient or connection.

I feel like I can’t trust her or that I’m anything more interesting than a cog. I
just don’t want to be insulted. I know though that for the health part I have to get over my own big head … I need the therapy. It has been something that is good for me. That is part of my effort in looking for the right gym. I think we wrote yesterday of the circumstances.

Hmm, it’s a while later now. I think wherever we were we jumped off because we figured it was time to go snooze with lover lips. Well, actually he got up, but we enjoyed an extra 45 minutes being zonked out. We’ve done several things since. The big deal one was that we investigated Bally’s Fitness Club. We have an appointment to go see it tomorrow at 10 am. We were finally at the point of saying ok, Rich … this is what we’re doing. You can come with us and make sure we don’t get fleeced or you can stay behind. But, whether or not your going to join with us, we’re going to do something here … I don’t know what to expect of Bally’s. I figure there must be some reduction of services because the cost is about half as much as some of the other clubs we were looking at. I know they have a swimming pool, but I don’t know how big or what the condition of it is. I finally got the screen that showed their classes … they don’t have as many and they aren’t as fancy as some of the other places. But, most classes I wouldn’t be able to do anyway. They seem to have only one swim class for example and it is at a time of the morning that is inconvenient to me.

To be fair I should check out the other gym in Burr Ridge, but I don’t want to get into the fancy if I can’t afford it. Bally’s doesn’t have racquetball court where the other one did. But, Bally’s is not charging for the extra classes. He said that their busiest times are on Mon and Tues between 5 and 8 pm. I believe they are open until 11 pm, so I suppose the thing to do was to go at 5:30 in the morning when they opened or about 8-9 pm. I think that is pushing my bedtime though. Best to stay with the earlier hours. Or, about anytime on Saturday and Sunday. I also found their personal exercise scheduler, which is pretty basic, but inclusive of a lot of things. I don’t know if they just have less machines, but it seemed like a good proportion were being done with bars and free weights. I hope this isn’t the case, but we’ll just have to see when we get there. The other alternative is to just drive over to the Burr Ridge, if it is too disappointing. 10 am is a good time on a Sunday to go, because it will be a good gauge of what I should be expecting.

The big deal is that it’s about $33. The difference is in how much you put down … it can be $5 and up … one way or another they are looking to get $800 for a 2 year plan. I believe you can pay month to month though, but its probably for a higher price. I think they have something too that if you sign up and stay for 2 years, then the price goes down to $17 a month. I don’t think that’s as scary as some of the other plans at $79 or more. I liked the guy that I was talking too and he told me the way to break the other contract was to give them a doctor’s note saying that I needed to be excused. It would seem then the cost of one relieves the cost of the other. And, I’m not sure if I wrote it yesterday, but I forwarded it onto Rich that I can save probably about $200 every 3 months by getting the 3 month prescription through the service Prime mail, which is hooked up to Walgreen’s. Just have to get $400 lined up in advance. Rich sounded like he was going to help me figure that out. We didn’t get into with him the calls about having put my Nelnet school loan on deferment yesterday until January. I am talking to a consolidation person. I want to get my school loans my like $68,000 worth of loans and put all of them together and pay just one low fee. I think if we paid for it over the next 20 years … it would still be about $280 a month.

I think that I’m going to need to work harder, so the basics would be that the $200 from saved pharmacy will help pay most of the school loan and the money that I got going to Woman’s workout world would pay for bally. I’m not getting ahead here, but I’m not getting behind. AND, we’re spending the money more wisely. We need to get a grip on the health conditions and somehow set ourselves to the gigantic responsibility of making ourselves healthy again. I’m saying this knowing that I ate another candy bar about 20 minutes ago.

Hmm, it’s now a while after … Rich is resting on the couch and there is a skate show on the TV, but my back is turned and I have my music. I just asked Rich before he zones out when I should wake him up. He says that I should do that in 20 minutes.

So, that’s where we’re going with that. In the meantime, we’ve talked to Maury a couple of times. He left the address on my computer FINALLY. I like to plan in advance and he’s like oh about that time we’ll think about it. HMPF! Anyway. It’s 3:30 now and Alex and Maury will pick up Joe at 4:30 pm, and they will stop here about a half an hour after that. And, from there its about 21 miles or a half hour of driving. That is going to put us there about an hour before the door opens. I don’t know, but I’m thinking that they are going to try and get in there before the program starts. General Admission starts at 6:30 pm. I have to make sure to take my medicine on time.

We also took our shower and ate a late lunch. Don’t like it but we’re going to eat an early dinner on top of that. I’d rather not, but we don’t want to be hungry out there. We need to ask Rich for $20 too for the cost of admission. Joe might have extra tickets, I thought he said he has 3. That means that Alex might have them too. But, best to have some money. I think I might have $3-4 in my car too. It’s good to get there early so I make sure that I have a place to park the car that’s not so far, although Joe could park it again … this time turning out the lights.

*sigh* We’ll get the hang of this thing. Someone will just then call me or write, give me the address and time and I’ll be ready. Isn’t that really the simple version. When you go as a group, then everyone is into group plan. Ok, ok … calm down … we ARE going with our boys to see Joe working hard and that is a good mom thing. Right?

Hehehe Rich is doing little snore things he says he doesn’t do. Uh huh, right!

He’s so gosh darn cute. We were helping him look up hotels for his fishing trip.

Well, at least I was sitting next to him … but, it was somewhat frustrating. Just because I’m used to being on the Internet working at my own speed.

Whoops left off here more tomorrow.

posted by Ann Marie @ 10/28/2007 09:03:00 AM Comments: 0

Pretty much a personal day ... lots to go through got lost in it all

Good morning. This is me. We’re at work now. It’s about 8 am. We’re getting settled in, but we haven’t really done too much. We had a candy bar already. We have to try harder at that, but these seem like empty word, because it’s difficult to want to stop when the opportunity is there.

We had a couple of appointments yesterday and that seemed to exhaust us. We went to see the surgeon. And, then we had an appointment with the dietician, and then we had an appointment later with Dr. Marvin. In between, we helped Rich with an important report. I had the easy part, we just typed in numbers. We did help in getting the program downloaded and we helped in some of the editing, but it was nothing like what Rich went through in gathering all the numbers and crunching them down. Yeeks. Sometimes I forget how smart Rich is. He’s so cool.

That was something too. Twice in one week!!! Hehehe we’re at work so we’ll not go into the details there but the guy is so gosh darn hot. Pshwoo!

Annnnnnnyway. *Sigh*

We also had the chance to IM with the boys over the last couple of days. AHA! We are going with the Joe. I just talked to him for a moment on the phone. He is going to send me directions to the place from his work. I think he works like 10-7. It’s been confirmed though that I am going with him. He says he thinks its south, but he doesn’t know enough to say if I should go his way or he should come my way. He wants to get back up directions like we did last time, which is fine with me.

There was also some buzz about the big bout mid-November. I think it is like the 17th. That is the one that the whole family is going to. Not my family, but the boys. I don’t think we mentioned that yet, but there was a lot of back and forth on that. I was feeling as if I’d embarrass the boys, and Maury was like … no, it’s not that, but that he didn’t want to leave me alone, but that he’d really made plans to be with the rest of the family and friends. He said there were about 45-50 people going to be there. We also went through some stuff about videoing. I thought I wanted my camera and Maury thought he wanted my camera. Hmm, no, I didn’t win.

He’s pretty much decided that he would take the better pictures and that I would be flinching too much when Joe got hurt. I was like Joe ISN’T going to get hurt.

Well, anyway … there you go … guy against mom. Ok, enough of that.

Anyway, one thing I wanted to say is that I think that what’s happening here is that we’re all proud of Joe and Alex and we’re glad to see them going for things that are harder and beyond the regular bounds of life. I think that Joe does these things to challenge himself. I wish you could all know him. He is very, very good. *Sigh*
Ok, we’re getting mushmellow again. Let’s just say he’s the best Joe I ever met.

I’m pretty proud of him. Good strong Joe Michael Garvey. OK OK … we’re tripping over ourselves now. I’m so happy that I can make him a priority as to being at the matches that are important to him.

Hmm, ok we should probably go through the medical for a minute before we forget all of it. We don’t yet have it into a format that we can go from start to finish and feel that we did the listening/questioning session justice. Let’s say at first that it was like an intense 20 minute session with the surgeon. Those people are pretty smart. She had my record on the computer right next to her where we were sitting.

And at one point, she had me stand up to check the incisions from the hernia operation. She said that the work the previous surgeon had done was excellent. You could see that she had a look of respect for the work. I guess he’s now at a director position in some major hospital to the East … I forgot which one, but I knew Dr. Ayoo was impressed. She also looked at the surgeon’s notes on the computer. It was to look at her as if she’d read a masterpiece. I think that is good. I hope that her work is too. She talked about doing extra stitches by hand attaching the stomach to the small intestines. I know that sounds pretty gross, but she prided herself on that small handwork rather than just the staples. There will be staples too, but they will be on just the part where the old stomach part gets put off to the side.

No, I don’t have all the right words yet, but hopefully I will get better. The hardest part that I talked to her about was that she said that the chance of death is 1 out of a 100. She says that I have to take the heart test again to see if I’m up to that kind of stress, because the last test was back in 2004. I have to make an appointment with those people. Hmm, so much to do. I’m not sure if I should do that soon, or closer to the date. She said definitely, she would do the surgery.

She gave me plenty of time to ask questions, but suggested strongly at the end that I bring someone in with me to support me and to ask questions as well. I don’t know if Rich is going to be so happy with that. We talked to him about it already. He’s still not happy with this decision, but he’s respecting my space. I’m grateful of that. He very didn’t like the chances of 1 out of 100.

I don’t know what to do about that either. I think that if I don’t lose weight I will die. I’d rather give it a chance to succeed. I would like to be thinner again. That is the bottom line. If I’m going to be around for Rich, the boys, and my grandchildren, something has to happen and it may have to be this drastic. It was scary talking to the Dr., but it was also underlining exciting. She says that if the insurance company is cooperative that it will b about an 8 month process.

That would put the surgery to about … June. That would be good to get going before the July staffing. There is a lot to get done before now and then. It’s all a process and us and Dr. Marvin have to be working on things that are getting in the way now. He said specifically that we are going to need going over what happened with BJ.

Last night … we talked about the first ½ hour about the weight stuff. We tried to tell him everything we could remember about the surgeon. There’s this one part though that we keep forgetting and that is that … wait, let me back into it.

One of the things that happened is she explained very carefully the risks, and she explained the process of the operation. She asked me from the start what kind of surgery did I want … and I said gastric bypass, but not the band one. She said there were many different kinds of bariatric surgery, and as it happened she was the one that knew best the three biggest ones. I felt relief in that. We told her we wanted the one that worked the best and that in talking with Dr. Allbright, she said that this was the best. Specifically, well even Dr. Marvin didn’t know how to pronounce it, but it is … Roux-en-Y-gastric bypass. There is a traditional and a laparoscopic one. She is going to try the laparoscopic one, but she told me if they got in there and it couldn’t be done, they would revert to the other one that would leave a large scar down the front of my stomach. She said that there would be work up on top and work on the bottom. She said usually she could count for us ahead of time the number of incisions. But, in our case because of the hernia surgery, she might have to make more.

I guess that’s what we’re getting to. It’s a bit riskier, because she said that the other surgeon had put in a large mesh to cover the hernia and that she might have to cut into that. We were like, ok, we’re seriously listening, but we’re going to depend on you to tell us what’s what and do what you need to do. So beside the gastric bypass and the lap band, there was one more that would leave kind of a sleeve of the stomach instead of a pouch. She said that was kind of an intermediate surgery. We decided that we really wanted the one that was going to give us the best chances of a happy life meaning – work the best – no cheating. She said she was glad I said that, because that’s the one that she liked – speaking of the gastric bypass – the more intense surgery – it’s more drastic, but more complete. As it turns out she’d just given a lecture on it to a bunch of Dr.’s and our Dr. Dr.
Allbright was there. Dr. Aayoo says that it sounded like she was paying attention.

We said that Dr. Allbright is very conscientious. She took time to listen to us and she was very good at referring out, which helped to be taking care of problems before they got real bad.

Dr. Aayoo talked about needing to go through a life change where we would do a lot of things differently. Because of that and because of insurance requirements, we are going to be required to go through a 6 month regulated set of sessions with a specialist in these kind of surgery’s. We are required to lose also 15-20 pounds.

And, there will be different things that come up such as the 10 days prior doing a
liquid diet. I have to pass a psychological testing set of things too. That is going to be by Dr. Marvin and maybe one other specialist that is in his department.

Mostly, because they are asking for a specific set of tests, that he is unfamiliar
with giving. We told Dr. Marvin that we asked her to send anything important to both Dr. Allbright and to Dr. Marvin. That is part of being the UIC system where everyone can read everyone’s notes. Maybe some people would think that its too invasive. But, you just don’t know how helpful it was that she could just open my file flip to a separate link and know everything about me. In the same way … she could flip to the page where my triglycerides were and say definitely mine are too high. I think that and being low on the good other stuff that these were things I was happy she was seeing. She emphasized that I would probably be on vitamins and minerals for the rest of my life, because my body wouldn’t be able to absorb enough of that from the food I was eating and I thought that was fine. She also said that we would need to check with a pharmacist about which medicines we could take in an elixir form and which ones could be crushed. We’ll talk all that over with either Dr. Allbright, or Dr. Marvin. Also, we know that the diabetic pills will most likely change, because the quantities of food being eaten will of course be less.

There are a lot of things to consider. So, let me see heart test, I have to make that appointment and also we made an appointment with the nutrition and wellness center – that will be like on the 15th of November. Got to remember that we’ve got to go too to the people for getting the sleeve for my knee. Hmm, that’s another thing. I asked Dr. Marvin to read the report from the guy who looked at our knee, the funny Dr. Dr. Marvin stated that I have two things wrong with my knee. Above the knee, I have arthritis and below and to the lower part of my knee I have bursitis. I have to look that up now. I think this is what Rich haves in his arms and shoulders. Sometimes. Sometimes he isn’t feeling pain, but then others, he can’t barely lift his arms.

 AHA! This is the kind of bursitis I have … I remember him saying goose foot! Pes anserine bursitis is inflammation of a bursa that lies at the inner lower part of the knee, between your shinbone (tibia) and three tendons connected to the hamstring muscles on the inside of your leg. This type of knee bursitis, also more common than others, is sometimes called goosefoot bursitis because the three tendons somewhat resemble the shape of a goosefoot.

I guess it’s a complication of the arthritis. Aha … it goes hand in hand with the tight hamstrings too … that’s what the other doctor was having us treated for aside strengthening the muscles to be better dealing with the arthritis. We’re at greater risk too because of the diabetes and are more susceptible to infections.

Hmm, we’ve read enough … we went to one of the common reference sites and then we went to MayoClinic. They usually give pretty good information. Even if those people are good they zapped me once and we have to be cautious of our affiliations there.

Now we’re into some kind of mind wasteland. Everything is affecting everything. I think the wake-up call for the weight loss is because of the knee. Now we know that we have arthritis and bursitis … it’s like ok, uncle, uncle. This is too much, I need help. It’s just the newest of problems we’ve got added to our pedigree. There are like options … they can aspirate the knee and draw fluids out, and from that check infections, and they can give it the cortical treatments, then in a severe case they could surgically remove the bursa. I don’t thing we want to try that, but it seems we’ve been in pain long enough. From what I read the cortical treatments are very quick acting, but then they say that with arthritis it may be a long lasting thing. One thing at a time … maybe we better look at … Ok, ok November 1 at 3 pm. That’s when we’re going in for the knee wrap, or sleeve. We’ll see what happens after that. It is supposed to be weight bearing, Which, I think means its going to help take some of the knee stress off. That be a good thing, but optimally is lessening the weight situation.

Ok, good. I think we got down some main points. Hmm, there is one more … Oh yes the doctor showed us pictures. We liked her confidence and what seemed like excitement going into surgery. It’s hard not to pick up her enthusiasm. We have to concentrate on loosing the required weight now. That’s going to be hard. It’ll be good to back to the nutrition and wellness center, right? I think their receptionists are idiots, and I’ve not found a great doctor through them. Now there is another Dr. Berger. I think she’s a she and at this point we’re going for that, because I think the medical doctors are too pissy. I just need someone who cares even though we might be having a hard time with it.

The nutritionist person I liked … not a lot of personality, but did good through the interview. She was like me just kept typing notes. Although I can see Dr. Berger earlier, this nutritionist Is booked until January. I don’t know about that … she said to make an appointment I thought she meant this year. I suppose I will just wait and see what the Dr. says about it. I know that the meeting yesterday was the marker of having started the 6 month registered weight loss. And, we’ve been warned that we can’t be missing appointments. I think we’re going to need going back to our registered system of having dates available. I think they are now in 3-4 places and they are not complete – we need to be making appointments.

Rich and us talked last night after the appointments. One of the things that came up was to be making the entire back room into a weight room. He said he was looking for chairs on the Internet and there were places that sold old equipment for a lesser price. I don’t think he realizes how important it is to get into the swimming pool though. I can’t do it right now on my own unless I cut the medical.

He said there is another place he was looking at too that was closer with a swimming pool. Hmm, the Dr. said something to about a fitness center at Loyola Hospital.

Let me call them.

Ok, got the info there. They are a fitness center that charges $300 for enrollment, and $61 per month after. They have some classes that are free and others aren’t … they sound competitive. They have the swimming pool and are open 6 am to 10 pm weekdays, and on weekends are open 7 am to 5 pm. Those are reasonable hours, but doesn’t take into consideration Riches real late hours, but then on those nights, he is not going to want to go out. I like the idea that it is associated with the hospital. Also, one of them said that sometimes the insurance company included it

posted by Ann Marie @ 10/26/2007 04:06:00 PM Comments: 0

Ok, just one more ... this is "Mr. Tanner" :) Happy feet

posted by Ann Marie @ 10/25/2007 04:44:00 AM Comments: 0

Harry ... sigh

posted by Ann Marie @ 10/25/2007 04:19:00 AM Comments: 0

Long Day made some progress ... going up a tall hill

This is me. We are now in a waiting mode. There is about a half an hour before my last staffing for the year. Everything is ready. There was one loop when the DSP for the staffing started to tell me before we sat down was that she wouldn’t be at the staffing because she was needed elsewhere. That’s like “Oh FUDGE!” moments. To make matters worse, she had a cotton pad in her mouth due to having a tooth pulled the day before … I wasn’t sure if she was going to be able to speak at all.

Fortunately, that worked out. We both got settled and then she came in to answer some questions. There isn’t a lot of real valuable information, but there is something. Because there will be a translator its not all a bad thing that there isn’t a whole lot of info. I have just a sentence or two about each of the program areas. All the copies are made and things are set aside to pick up when we get the message that people have arrived.

I can’t tell you how happy I am that I’m so close to the end of this annual ordeal.

I still have a few Qnotes to complete and I will after today have 3 annuals to be writing out. They aren’t too late. The other two were from last week. We’re getting there, it’s just a process right?

Snuggle bunny is not at work today … he has time off to go with his older son to visit his grandmother. That’s going to be a nice day for him. I think he is going to be home late, so we might be here later if we can get in the groove. I’d like to get a few things done, like we need to plan tomorrow’s staff training meeting, and we should do some advance work on the Thinking group, not to mention, we don’t have an official plan for the CIRCLES group. It would take some stress off to complete those tasks today. We can get by with the CIRCLES because we can read out of the book, But, I want to keep on track with the other two groups. I can’t believe all the time these groups are taking. It’s going to be ok, right?

I am a little jittery. I might have to stop in the washroom before going to the meeting.

Ok, I’m back … it’s now about 1:30 pm. I’ve finished the staffing and I’ve finished the CIRCLES meeting for the day. I’m feeling very out of it. Kind of shaky … I’ve had lunch already, so I know it isn’t that. I’m having trouble clearing my mind.

There was a lot of pressure from inside us to finish the meetings. I thought Sister was going to be angry at me, because the first parent had to be called after the meeting’s start date to remind them to be here. Fortunately, sister was in a good mood, came in and chatted with us and the CSO person. She just made one simple comment about calling parents before. I’m so glad that’s over.

Now, we’ll just have to complete those three annual reports, goals and objectives sheet and the long goals. We can do it, we can do it.

The new Q is frustrated with us. I’m not sure what sister told her before I got there, but she was very defensive concerning the things Sister had called her for.

She kept repeating that she hadn’t been told to do the 30 Day report before the meeting. To me that meant that she assumed she knew and didn’t ask questions.

She’s the one that wanted to do things on her own. After that point was made clear and she got her client load, I backed up … whenever I’ve asked if she needs help, she says no thanks I can figure it out. *Sigh* We can only offer help where it is accepted. Let’s move on. Eventually she’ll talk to me. Sr. steered the meeting as if I were her higher up. Sister emphasized don’t ask Holly ask Ann, but I doubt that is not going to happen anytime soon.

There … I made a separate document for ALL the questions Candice asks. She thinks she asks, but she doesn’t. She sure didn’t like being disciplined. But, then neither do I. I stood up for her where I could. But, I won’t support her just making statements that I don’t believe. Next time Sister gets a statement, she never asks me questions, I will be prepared. I know though that I asked her about the 30 Day and as always the response is no thank you … I can figure it out. Ok, ok beating a dead horse on that one. Better let it go. I’m the trainer and as much as I am allowed to train I will, but I won’t chase after anyone. You need to want to learn to make the teaching effort worthwhile. I’m not a great teacher, but I have useful information.

Ok, what’s next of the day. It’s now 1:45 … I’m still a little out of it, but I should get something done. Where’s that list. Pretty simple list

Complete annual for 3 people

Complete goals and objectives for 3 people

Complete long-goals for 3 people

Ok, we’re repeating. What’s so hard about this, besides we’re not the part that usually does such things? Ok … let’s look around. What do we have to do? Hmm, start with the first one? Ok, that seems to make sense. So and so’s annual. What do I need? Probably a good idea to clear the desks … let me do that first. Ok, that’s done … had to then take care of some doctor things, and then run a slip up to sister concerning those dates needing to be off. We got our pop for the day while we were there. Now it’s about 2:30. How long should we stay tonight? Are we going to leave at 4 pm, or stay later?

I’m kind of sick of work today and Rich is going to be gone til late. He’s with his son … hmm, think I said that at the start and now we’re still on page 2 … Not making very good progress writing, but maybe that’s good, because we are doing work.

Work ? Oh that’s right. Ok, need … hmm, doctor’s office must have been reading our
mind. They called to confirm the appointment. I think I’m ready. I put the necessary paperwork in my bag. Now … don’t slip here. We have to get back to work. We need to put something on our desk to do dear? I know, but it’s nice and neat and there is only 1 pen. Hold on … I can fix that. We had one last pen hiding just in case. Ok, dear pens all balanced. Next? Need work out remember? Hmm?

Ok, let’s take this slow. We need to get so and so’s client file and we need to get his annual file. When you get the annual file … look in it to see if there is anything that needs to go to the regular file. Then look for the papers … Hmm, which papers? We’re going to need the agenda and the last annual from the Word program, then we have to start editing it for this year. We’ll need the meeting papers if there are any to write that set of notes. Maybe? Let’s go look, k? Shhh be brave! Yes maam.

Hmm, we’re back. It’s 4:30 pm. We’re going to stay for another half hour, I think. I am after hours, so it doesn’t bother me so much. I finally have a quiet space and I’m going to revel in it. We took care of a lot of desk work. We started putting away papers from the client’s file – the annual file is a temporary, until everything is ready to go to the other file. While, we were putting away, we reached into that bad spot that was collecting papers, and we filed and processed them. It meant a couple of trips up front, but I can have a really clear conscious now. I think though that we are going to place calls to those parents who don’t have records in. Hmm? I wonder if I should do that now? Seems like a good idea, Hmm?

Ok, we’re good … it’s 5 pm now … it took about 22 minutes. We had 5 families to call. That wasn’t too bad. I didn’t get a hold of everyone, but I left messages.

I will call a few back. There are 7 documents outstanding, but 3 are covered by appointments already made, and 4 of the 7 are for dental, which the state doesn’t really require, but it is a St. Rose rule, so it is just as important. Lots of the people here have bad teeth problems. The parents owe it to the kids to get them in once a year. We’ve had a few that needed extensive dental work done after they went the first time. It’s like a public service. At least that’s what I tell myself to get through the calls. You have to be tough, but nice at the same time.

Because people like to say, ok … whenever … and then a month later on follow-up they are saying oh yeah, ok, I’ll make that appointment right now. I’m good on it this time, I had sent out letters a month ago, one month later is good follow up. I will sit on them until they are in. The ones who haven’t contacted me by mid November will get another call. I’m determined to get through this … I want all my records ON-TIME.

I know, I know then we’ll have to get through those three annual reports. See, we avoid too. Just it would be embarrassing at this stage of the game to get called out for not having work done. Specially because the State is on schedule to come visit client files anytime between November and December. They don’t have to announce they are coming and they can look at any file. They only take a handful, but you never know which one’s they are getting. I’d relax a lot more knowing they are ready. Ok, girls calm down.

Holly came back to check when I’m leaving … we had said 5 pm, but one of the mothers is supposed to be back by 6 pm. I said, we’d call back. That’s 45 minutes from now. I’ve been given thorough directions on how to lock-up because I’m the only one in the building now, but it boils down to locking the secretaries door and check the main door on the way out. Holly was out of sorts because SHE was supposed to lock up. Eh … can’t do that kind of stuff. At least we’re trying.

I’m not sure when Rich is supposed to be getting back, that might be worth a check.

Hmm, he didn’t answer. He said late, but that he would call sometime. I have to suppose he’s still with son and wouldn’t pick up my call when with him. Well, that also tells me I don’t have to rush home. I feel good because everything is pretty much in order, but I should do the staff training before the 1 pm meeting. That might take about the same amount of time as I got now, why don’t we look at that, Hmm??

Ok, what do we gotta do? Hmm, got a copy of Staff Training from Week 3. I wasn’t here last week so this stuff is like spreading out forever. Need to figure out where we’re at. One of the other little things we got done was to get something in for the next newsletter. I submitted something long, but it is on “Bullying.” I think first people think of school yard bullying, but that’s not it. Some of our clients bully each other without knowing it. I was bullying the families almost into getting their forms in. The difference is that I’m not trying to hurt anyone or ask for anything that’s not within my job description. This is the paper we turned in.

Bullies:
• Need to control or dominate
• Could be prejudiced
• Have low social skills
• They may be jealous
• Have a poor sense of humor
• They may have suffered from bullying in their past too.
• They may want to avoid heavy punishment by staying “under the wire.”
• They may be quick to anger
• Addicted to aggressive behavior
• Mistake others as hostile
• Have a poor self-image
• And may have rigid or obsessive behavior.
Things the victim should know:
• Most everyone gets teased some of the time.
• If you feel good about yourself and have a sense of humor, it’s easier to let remarks roll off your back.
• Bill Cosby suggests try repeating the word, “So” as in “what about it?” after receiving a barb.
• People who tease can be scared, confused, or unhappy. Try seeing their point of view
• Keep your cool.
• Write down all the things that have been dumped on you and then either by yourself or with others come up with ways to respond to each.
• Practice having the power of not being bent out of shape by someone else.
• If you start to get mad, take a few breaths and walk away.
For the person in charge, they may:
• Try to listen
• Investigate the situation and decide if there should be an intervention
• Follow-up in communication with the victim an all instances of aggression
• Monitor the behavior of the bully and the safety of the victim
• Make adults aware of the situation and involve them
• Make it clear that bullying is never acceptable
• Increase adult supervision where necessary
• Emphasize caring, respect and safety
• Emphasize consequences of hurting others
• Enforce consistent and immediate consequences for aggressive behaviors
• Teach cooperative learning activities
• Help bullies with anger control and development of empathy
• Encourage positive peer relations
• Offer a variety of extracurricular activities which appeal to a range of interests

I don’t know if it will be too long. It could fairly take up a page by itself, but it is also 1 ½ spaced I think. Yep, took it down to single space … it’s a long ¾ of a page. It might be ok. I like it because I think that around the holidays when this paper is due, people – regular adults start bullying each other adding pressure and stress to the family. If they read it, they might recognize themselves. The statements are neat because they add three perspectives of bully, victim, and helper. I think we each do some of all these things, but I always believe that given conscious effort, we can stop. I never know who is reading these things, but the newsletter goes out to 800-1000 families. Maybe it will influence just one person for the better and that would be enough. There’s just so much abuse and neglect out there. You just never know who you might touch … better get something out there for safety’s sake. Hmm, we’re imagining someone’s younger sister picking it up and coming into enlightenment why maybe her big brother is picking on her.

That be cool.

Ok, ok … that’s enough of that. What’s next. Hmm, not really up to doing teacher stuff … we’re kind of tired. Maybe though we could at least come up with some ideas for it? Hmm?

Hmm, we could do something with health activities … I’d like to do something for the hands on part … do we still have our DSP book?

Pshwoo … done with that part. I’ve gone as far as I want to with teaching skills.

We didn’t find the safety book with goals, but there was something better that happened. We found ourselves in front of a book we had loved before called, “The Skillful Teacher.” We flipped a couple of pages and found ourselves at one 5 page chapter on “Routines.” This seemed like a beauty place to go, because they and we all have routines. And, we are coming off a rough situation of teaching this afternoon with the CIRCLES group. The problem was there were a couple of people pushing for command of the group and the others wanted attention, but they couldn’t get past the two majors. There were only six people #1N, #2A, #3M, #4J, #5C, and #6K. #2 and #6 were the two who needed attention. #2 and #6 both took considerably long turns at speaking and speaking over their peers. #2 played a game of feigning sleep and #6 wanted to invasively help others. #4 is usually a trouble-maker too, but he’s into a new routine where he sticks close to me, such as when I go to the front of the room to insert a tape, he follows me. That seems to be because he gets bullied by #2. Today #4 seemed more tired. Hmm, funny the major characters are all even numbers. That should help somewhere along the line.

Well the basic of the group is that there were so many attention and attention deficit needs – the odd numbers struggling to relate to something that we didn’t get very far with the goals on my agenda, which was talking about neighbors and how they were in the yellow circle where people didn’t hug, talk intimately, or overly trust each others. This is not a global statement, but in comparison of family or close friends. It was important to say that neighbors are within a distance of polite handshakes, but that’s it.

Anyway … where we are going to go with the teachers is to establish a small exercise – I can have them distribute the materials used at the CIRCLES group, do a small exercise, and then clean up. Then we can talk about how they completed the task and compare it to routines of the group. Then we could talk about establishing routines. How would you teach people to put the scissors in head first, or collect extra figures, or get the coloring done, or getting it taped on proper? Hmm, better work on this … if we then looked or checked my original goals against the list of 7 items to see if I were consistent. We could then check to see which standards were embedded into the routine. That would be like a report card. Hmm, I sorta accept the third section, but I don’t think we’ve hit the mark yet.

It seems that each day I go in and over and over again we repeat the routine of coloring the next circle and cutting out the pictures. Each of the four groups do this. I could compare that to what? Better do some more reading, but now its 6:15 … let’s make that call and get out of here, k? Woo HOO!

posted by Ann Marie @ 10/24/2007 06:13:00 PM Comments: 0