I am sitting with my first in-person (versus internet) student of the summer, George, who will be a 6th grader in the fall at Hawthorne Elementary here in Beverly Hills. George is here to work on speeding up his writing pace plus adding more details to whatever he writes. He is one of those boys who prefers math and science to writing and would prefer to get in and out when he has something to put on the page. He is not alone – I have many students, particularly boys, who like this approach – but, unfortunately, this will not serve him well as he proceeds through school. Learning to express oneself eloquently is still the favored position inside of school as well as out, so we are on a mission to help him improve his writing ability.
I am writing this while he writes to me about his favorite pastime – video games. He has already stopped once to see if he needs to explain to me verbally what he knows I won’t know, but I have stopped him and pointed back to the page. “Don’t speak it, write it.” He is now writing away while the timer ticks for ten minutes.
It feels odd to be home. I don’t know if I’ve been away from LA this long in the almost 20 years I’ve lived here. I was thinking that it was a little under 3 weeks, but daughter Liz was quick to point out that it was instead almost a full month. When I looked at the calendar, I saw that she was right. Just a few days shy of a month away from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles. In contrast, there isn’t nearly the same fast pace in Sherman, Texas, or the same level of difficulty moving from point A to point B. I literally can be across town in Sherman in 15 minutes flat – and that’s with the stoplight or two to contend with. Alas, it took 45 minutes to drive from LAX to home, a distance that can be traversed in 20 minutes if there is no traffic.
So, here I am and William the cat is here to greet me, rubbing his body against my leg. I hear there are two new dogs next door, which could prove a challenge once our two canines arrive in the next few days with Ray. Lots of barking, I suspect, until everyone gets used to everyone else. William is enjoying free run of the house minus his two doggie housemates, so he is clearly not going to be happy when they come back, dashing around and scaring him half to death with their enthusiasm. Ah, but that is not a problem for today.
Today, I simply have my few students and then a little bit of turkey meat loaf thawed in the microwave before I head upstairs to bed. I got up this morning at 4:30, which is 2:30 Pacific time so I can guarantee that I’ll be hitting the sack early.
On that note, I’ll say good-bye. The timer is about to sound again since we added five more minutes to the writing time.
Until tomorrow.
Comments