Autism Update

Article 1 - An All Out Assault on Autism by Michael Morella, US News & World Report

In the beginning of the article, Michael talks about a mom who became a full time autism mom.  She practice with her child several hours a day, has weekly planning session with a Nationwide case supervisor and they work with a team of five aides. (They work a total of 35 hours a week) They also meet with a psychologist.  So from age two to three and 3 months he has turned into normal on the charts.

The research is proving that early intervention is a must.  It can improve

• cognitive and communication skills
• language development
• anxiety and aggressiveness

Researchers are wanted to have images of the brains of people with autism along with their siblings to see differences. 

Most people with autism are affected through out their lives.  So at each period of transitions, assistance can be very useful.  Transitions such as elementary school to middle school, middle school to high school, moving, college, etc.

 Their are a few drugs that are going into drugs trials that can help in various areas of autism.

Article 2 - Taking life 'to the Max': Emily Colson talks about the joys and trials of raising an autistic child by Lance Shearer March 15, 2012 Naplesnews.com

Emily Colson wrote a book "Dancing with Max: A Mother and Son Who Broke Free".  Her husband left and she was a single mother  three days after his diagnosis.  She spent the first nine years trying to hide from society and finally had enough.

She wanted to take her child to church but he was disrupting services.  Soon she found a niche - Max liked to help clean up.  Her message is that children living on the spectrum belong in church congregations as well as other disabled people.  The church body should be helping these parents not shunning them.

Max is still unpredictable.  Emily concludes with, "Max isn't cured". and the world needs to deal with him and his brethren.

Back to Business

I have been sharing my tutoring business with others.  Soon I should be up and running.  My goals for the new year.

• Get new business cards printed up - waiting for file from graphic designer
• Go to autism meeting and meet other parents
• Bring flyer to each local school with information about my company
• Get new webpage up and running
• Make a budget and decide what software to use
• Find help for taxes

I also plan to sub.  I will take local jobs any day but only leave Point Loma on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.

My parents moved to FL and my brother Jim, drove their car and dog down.  I am glad they have each other as well as a warmer place to be.  I will join them for a week in February.

Next year I will send Christmas cards out from my company. :)
This month went so fast with my daughter Becca having her second son.  I was able to help from Dec 4 - 11.  I miss them.  I had a dinner party for 10 for my husband's office.  I was able to attend my two bible studies December brunches.  So much fun.

But now it is time to get back to business and work every day for my company.  Please pass the work that I am available to tutor individuals or groups in the Point Loma area.

Autism Articles

Some people might like short details about autism from various articles I read.  I will always explain where the article is from so you can read the original yourself.  My mom sent a few from Indiana.

1.  Zionsville mother creates program for autistic children.  My mom left off a few details like where this was published but it is written my Julie Osborne editorial@youarecurrent.com so I am sure you can contact her to read the original.  This mother of six, Becky Cash has created the Autism Spectrum Disorders Parent Program.  She feels that no family so be without information on resources and where to obtain services for their child.  Wow, four of her six children have medical and special need and three of them have ASD.  She has also written a book called "Healing Autism Naturally".  You can check out more information at www.ASKPerspectives.com.  This might be great help for parents so check it out.

2. Progress in Identifying the Genetic Roots of Autism by Melinda Beck.  Of course this is one of the articles I found but also clipped off where it was published.  I will need to do better.  (Perhaps the Wall Street Journal or New York Times. I am so sorry)  The author states that sciences have found about 20% of cases of autism are related to genetic abnormalities.  Testing can help explain if siblings are like to develop this disorder.  They recommend more testing for Fragile X and other chromosome abnormalities.  Experts think there can be between 400 to 10000 individual genes that can play a part in autism issues.  I think this is an important area to study and that those with autism should be tested so scientists can study this in more detail.  Perhaps we can learn how to overcome some of the behavior by treating the genes.

Business Rantings

Today I have been paying bills and trying to make my desk organized.  There is always something about a job that is not fun.  I know the more I do in advance will make tax time easier.

Yesterday I met a local printer at Peninsula Graphics, right near the post office.  He said no job is too small and to let him quote on what I need printed.  That is good.

Today I took a call at 5:30 to work at a middle school, drove to the job only to be told we cancelled the sub because tonight is parents night from 4 - 6 pm.  Then I had a nice drive across down, through Balboa park because the highways were full of traffic.  It was a lovely and calm drive but back home by 8:30 am and off to do paperwork.

My friend who works on Peace, Love, Swap says she can help me on MailChimp.  I tried to work on it but am overwhelmed.  It is time to ask for help.  I donated 4 one hours of tutoring time at her swap.  I need to work on a marketing plan and a pricing plan.

Should I buy a book on How To Tutor? Maybe I could find one in the library. I need to sub many days to pay my graphic designer.  Friday I was going to sub but now need to sing at a memorial service at church at 10 am.  I need to keep remembering God will Provide.

Now I need to go to my library and start filing and organizing paperwork. :)

November 11

Today is Veteran's Day so the schools are closed.  I worked in two different schools last week.  I taught at a school near Lincoln Park.  Here I worked in two small groups to help them with reading and writing.  Then I was to work with another class but there were at ballet lessons.  They were not graceful, yet.  Then I worked in a second grade class with a boy who can't remember his letters.  He was much better remembering his numbers.

On Thursday I worked at a Middle school for a special education teacher but found myself in regular classrooms.  They wanted me to sub for the regular ed teachers so they could go to a meeting about how to encourage their students to learn.  I had close to 50 students in each PE class.  They had free play so they just hung out, jumped rope, kicked the balls around.  Then I went to a class in social studies.  I was able to get most of the class on task for fourth period but at sixth period I was in shock.  They would not listen; they just talked over me.  I had candy to hand out for completed work but even that was not a motivator.  I wrote the answers so they could just copy but even that was too much effort for them.  This made me aware that if you don't have good classroom management in place, a sub's job is very difficult.

I tutored one student this week.  We watched one Kahn video to go over the distributive property.  It was good but we also had cubes on the table to simulate what the video was saying.  I felt it was helpful.  We also reviewed negative numbers.  We went over the material on the quiz for Friday so I thought she was well prepared.  When I am working with a student I don't notice the time.  Suddenly her parents were back to pick her up.

I am working on the graphic design for Point Loma Tutor.  We have:
 the web page - www.pointlomatutor.com
Email - marty@pointlomatutor.com
Phone number - 619-356-0827

Now I just need to earn money subbing to pay my graphic designer and then work on a marketing plan.

Middle School Math

On Wednesday night, I agreed to sub for a special education teacher, mild moderate at Pershing Middle School.  This school is out east on the 8 and north on the 125.  I get there and sign in and try to become familiar with the sub plans.  The school secretary finds me and asks if I can sub for a math teacher.  I said sure.  On the way to the class, I met the math teacher who had to go home for a sick child.  They were benchmark testing all day.

The class was very well behaved. As she was leaving she said 5th and 6th period are very noisy.  I then had the 6th graders arrive for the test and they were fine.  Third period I needed to go back to the special ed teachers room to control a class for advising.  The vice principal was in there and set a good tone for the class.  The students worked on their homework.  I had 4th period free where I wrote notes to both teachers and alphabetized the tests.  I had lunch in the teachers lounge where they talked about 3 weeks of furlough days.  These teachers had two preps a day.  They have time to work together but the down side is they have 36 students in a class.  There is no room to move around.

My 5th period class arrived (right after lunch) and could not contain themselves in line.  I was quite, I yelled, I walked up and down the line.  They could care less.  They were quite so I brought them in.  The talking, moving, disrespect continued.  After I passed out the test, I said be quite or you can take you test in the office.  They thought that was a great idea.  I sent one after another to the office.  After four left, the test coordinator arrived and just told off the students.  They wasted about 15 minutes of their test time.  She said this test will count on your grade and she will call parents to tell them what their student had been up to.  She had a scowl on her face.  The students complied.  I don't know how to look really mean.

During 6th period the test coordinator and the team teacher came into the room.  They continued to notify the students to be quite and take the test.  The team teacher took 14 students back to her room for the test.  After this the students were very well behaved and worked hard on their benchmark test.
The secretary had asked if I would work for a 6th grade math teacher for all of next week.  I said I already had something on my schedule.  I had to be at work at 7 am.  It was great getting out at 2:20 but I was still too tired to work after returning home.

I am sure being an educational consultant is the right field for me.  I want to visit the school for autistic children in Ocean Beach.  I can't wait to hear from the graphic designer.  I want to start advertising my business.

Found a great Graphic Designer

Today I met with Irene Zabelin who owns Pyxideas.  I found out about her from my landscaper Andrew Draper who owns Nector Spaces.  Here at Point Loma it is all about connections.  Later I was having a meeting with my realtor and she has her daughter in another math tutoring program.  I told her to check out my tutoring center.

I need to determine what my passions are to help streamline my new webpage.  So far I listed working with middle school students, teaching math, being a special education advocate, using technology for learning and making learning fun.  I won the award for creating lessons that teach real-life situations and make school fun.

I want to have a logo created for my company and connect it with my business card, letterhead and statements.  I also want my webpage to look the same.  I bought my site PointLomaTutor.com for about $10 for the year.  Already Irene is helping me.

Tomorrow I need to go to the Apple store and find out why Adobe suite does not work on my laptop anymore.  Irene would like me to use InDesign for my print layouts.  It might be better for me to just have Irene do things and then I would bring them to a printer here in Point Loma.

Irene wants me to develop a business plan so that is next on my agenda.  I bought a new calendar which has openings until 9 pm at night.  I already had to buy new ink for my printer.  I guess I now get to write those things off as a business expense.  Also I need to decide if I need to buy "Quick Books"  or some type of accounting software.  I also asked Irene for the  name of a CPA or tax person.  I know I can do it but it should be better to have an expert.