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Hello everyone and welcome to What in the World is Dyscalculia, our podcast all

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about the math learning disorder. This is your host Dr. Honora Wall and the

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podcast is presented by Educalc Learning. And I wanted to talk a little bit today.

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I'm recording this during the holiday season and if you've seen our reels

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that we've been putting up on TikTok and YouTube and Facebook throughout social

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media, you might have seen me mention Ebenezer teachers. So in this holiday

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season my educator friends, I want you to think about what kind of educator you are.

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Are you an Ebenezer or a Fezziwig? Now whatever holiday you may or may not

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celebrate, you are probably familiar with Ebenezer Scrooge, the beloved

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curmudgeon Lee Charles Dickens character who needs to find the true

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meaning of joy in his heart. Ebenezer doesn't have a lot of joy in his heart

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and whenever he's faced with a choice he makes the one that is most miserable

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for all the people around him and just makes everyone's life generally very

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difficult. Throughout the story when we learn about Ebenezer's past we are

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introduced to one of his early bosses, Fezzy Wigg and Fezzy Wigg was pretty much

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the opposite of Ebenezer. Fezzy Wigg, if he had a choice, he always made the

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choice that just made somebody else's life a little bit brighter, a little bit

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easier, a little bit happier. None of these choices took anything away from

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either Ebenezer or Fezzy Wigg. It didn't cost them anything to choose in either

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direction but certainly had an impact on the people around them and that's a good

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lens for us as educators. Our choices have a real impact on the students we

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work with and I know that teaching is super difficult. There are a lot of

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choices we don't get to make but once we get in our classroom and we close the

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door we have a lot of control especially over what kind of accommodations,

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interventions and support we're going to offer our students. Whether or not they

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have a written 504 or IEP plan whether or not we think they have a learning

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disorder or we just think they're lazy and disengaged. I hear that from teachers

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even if we think that their diagnosis is not real. I hear that from teachers a lot

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too. Whatever we think we can still make a choice to offer support and just see

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whether or not it makes a difference for that student and that is what I want to

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encourage you to do. If you go to educalclearning.com or theDTRI.org

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we're putting lots more new information on our nonprofit website the

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Discalculia Training and Research Institute or if you email me there's lots of

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information about different accommodations and interventions for

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Dyscalculia. Some that you might want to consider trying. Of course these will be

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based on your grade level. Are you letting students work with a one to

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one hundreds chart? Through first, second, third grade just have it in the room let

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them use it as needed. Are you letting them work with a number line? Are you

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letting them have some fake coins on the desk when they're dealing with money or a

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chart listing the different pictures of coins and how much they're worth that

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value and are you letting them use that one to one hundreds chart again is great

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for adding and subtracting decimals which is important when you're dealing

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with money. You might also be using graph paper for some students especially if

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they're comorbid with dysgraphia or you might be helping them to write their

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problems vertically. Math problems one on top of the other not side by side and

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see whether or not that makes a difference for them. As we get a little

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older third fourth fifth grade do you have a multiplication list not the chart?

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If you have kids who love the chart then absolutely don't take it away. If you

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have students who are struggling with that multiplication chart it might be bad

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for them visually, spatially speaking or they might have trouble using it. Give

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them an old-fashioned multiplication list and those are really great you can use

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them for multiplying dividing least common multiple greatest common factor

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creating fractions with like denominators. There's so many uses that the

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multiplication list can be used for it's really impressive. If you've got

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teachers discount Kulia toolbox you've got one in there and it's laminated you

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can let your students share it and and use it or make copies for everybody put

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a giant one up on the wall. Immerse your students in these number facts that we

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want them to know. Maybe you're letting them use worked examples or guided notes

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while they're taking a test or maybe in a perfect world you're also giving them

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an oral assessment not just paper and pencil not just computer-based work

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you're also talking to them asking them questions if they can answer a math

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question describe their steps and processes that can be a legitimate

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alternative assessment that goes in your gradebook. It definitely is a way to

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mark down strengths and weaknesses and track those over time and you can see the

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kind of changes this has on students. These are very easy things to do they're

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all free you can do them right now in your classroom tutoring session

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interventionist session small group just sprinkle them in there like

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sprinkles on top of a sugar cookie. You can make the choice to give these

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accommodations and interventions at any point in time to all of your students.

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Now let's say you have a student who's struggling and they don't have a

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learning disability they don't have dyscalculia but they're sure not doing

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very well in the class using all of the things I just talked about will increase

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their engagement their performance it lets them see that the mastery they want

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is attainable. I think that's something that's missing from a big part of our

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conversation you know a lot of the characters in Charles Dickens a Christmas

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Carol they are so defeated they're so beaten down by the negativity in their

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life experiences that's something that Ebenezer has to grapple with too once

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he starts to let a little bit of love into his tiny grand chart he starts to

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really feel the impact that a negative depressing overwhelming life is having

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on the people around him and he starts to see little ways he can make

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differences for those people and make a difference in their life that has a

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really big impact and you can do the same you can choose to be a fezzy wig

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teacher just try it out even if you think everything I'm saying is nonsense if

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you think that students should have to have a diagnosis or some paperwork prove

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me wrong spend two or three weeks make this your New Year's resolution using

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accommodations interventions increasing the scaffolding and the support just

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adding in a little extra benefit to your students and see what happens see what

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kind of change it makes if it makes no change at all email me hanora at

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education learning dot com I know it will make a difference I've seen it make a

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difference for students for two decades now so I know that when you put this into

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place your students are going to do better they're going to start to feel more

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engaged in school their grades are going to improve they're going to be asking and

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answering more questions and everyone's going to be happier including you you're

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going to notice over time that some students move away from the accommodations

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need less time with an intervention tool and have fewer situations where they're

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struggling they probably didn't have a math learning disability but you still

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help them get better and you've helped them improve and that's good for everyone

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and when you notice over time that their students who are more engaged their

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understanding more they're more comfortable in class they're doing better

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but they still go back to that accommodation they still use that

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intervention tool because they're not really getting to that automaticity the

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memorization or the fluency that we were hoping for okay those are really good

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indications of discount cool yeah so they more than likely have a math learning

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disability whether or not they have a formal diagnosis of one so you can do

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things easily for free at any point in time and learn more about your students

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and their needs while also increasing their mastery in math I would like you to

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try being a feziwig educator and see how it goes I would like you to at least be

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honest with yourself if you prefer being an Ebenezer educator and let people know

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that's what they're in for so at least they can try to prepare but let a little

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love into your heart this holiday season let a little love into your classroom

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use some accommodations and interventions and let me know how they go I

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think you're gonna be pleasantly surprised and I think it's going to enrich

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not only your students lives but yours as well because teachers we feel better

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when our students are doing well and they're engaged and people are having a

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good time and they're learning that's why we go to work in the morning and it's

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nice when it happens so by putting out a little something nice for your students

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you're gonna get back a whole lot more nice for yourself it's the gift that

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keeps on giving and it will give itself right back to you all right thank you for

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being with me in this podcast what in the world is discount cool yeah if you

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would like more information if you're looking for training if you want to

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read our book it's now available in English and in Spanish teaching students

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with discount cool yeah you can get that at your local bookstore or you can get

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it on Amazon or our website reach out to us at any time visit

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edgacalclearning.com if you're looking for resources from a nonprofit awareness

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and distribution center visit the DTRI.org the discount cool yeah training

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and research Institute and you can also reach out to me find me on social media

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or email me Honora at educalclearning.com that's H-O-N-O-R-A and thank

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you for being part of this journey to learn more about how we can support

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people with dyscalculia. happy holidays