Hello everyone and welcome to What in the World is Dyscalculia, our podcast all
about the math learning disorder. This is your host Dr. Honora Wall and the
podcast is presented by Educalc Learning. And I wanted to talk a little bit today.
I'm recording this during the holiday season and if you've seen our reels
that we've been putting up on TikTok and YouTube and Facebook throughout social
media, you might have seen me mention Ebenezer teachers. So in this holiday
season my educator friends, I want you to think about what kind of educator you are.
Are you an Ebenezer or a Fezziwig? Now whatever holiday you may or may not
celebrate, you are probably familiar with Ebenezer Scrooge, the beloved
curmudgeon Lee Charles Dickens character who needs to find the true
meaning of joy in his heart. Ebenezer doesn't have a lot of joy in his heart
and whenever he's faced with a choice he makes the one that is most miserable
for all the people around him and just makes everyone's life generally very
difficult. Throughout the story when we learn about Ebenezer's past we are
introduced to one of his early bosses, Fezzy Wigg and Fezzy Wigg was pretty much
the opposite of Ebenezer. Fezzy Wigg, if he had a choice, he always made the
choice that just made somebody else's life a little bit brighter, a little bit
easier, a little bit happier. None of these choices took anything away from
either Ebenezer or Fezzy Wigg. It didn't cost them anything to choose in either
direction but certainly had an impact on the people around them and that's a good
lens for us as educators. Our choices have a real impact on the students we
work with and I know that teaching is super difficult. There are a lot of
choices we don't get to make but once we get in our classroom and we close the
door we have a lot of control especially over what kind of accommodations,
interventions and support we're going to offer our students. Whether or not they
have a written 504 or IEP plan whether or not we think they have a learning
disorder or we just think they're lazy and disengaged. I hear that from teachers
even if we think that their diagnosis is not real. I hear that from teachers a lot
too. Whatever we think we can still make a choice to offer support and just see
whether or not it makes a difference for that student and that is what I want to
encourage you to do. If you go to educalclearning.com or theDTRI.org
we're putting lots more new information on our nonprofit website the
Discalculia Training and Research Institute or if you email me there's lots of
information about different accommodations and interventions for
Dyscalculia. Some that you might want to consider trying. Of course these will be
based on your grade level. Are you letting students work with a one to
one hundreds chart? Through first, second, third grade just have it in the room let
them use it as needed. Are you letting them work with a number line? Are you
letting them have some fake coins on the desk when they're dealing with money or a
chart listing the different pictures of coins and how much they're worth that
value and are you letting them use that one to one hundreds chart again is great
for adding and subtracting decimals which is important when you're dealing
with money. You might also be using graph paper for some students especially if
they're comorbid with dysgraphia or you might be helping them to write their
problems vertically. Math problems one on top of the other not side by side and
see whether or not that makes a difference for them. As we get a little
older third fourth fifth grade do you have a multiplication list not the chart?
If you have kids who love the chart then absolutely don't take it away. If you
have students who are struggling with that multiplication chart it might be bad
for them visually, spatially speaking or they might have trouble using it. Give
them an old-fashioned multiplication list and those are really great you can use
them for multiplying dividing least common multiple greatest common factor
creating fractions with like denominators. There's so many uses that the
multiplication list can be used for it's really impressive. If you've got
teachers discount Kulia toolbox you've got one in there and it's laminated you
can let your students share it and and use it or make copies for everybody put
a giant one up on the wall. Immerse your students in these number facts that we
want them to know. Maybe you're letting them use worked examples or guided notes
while they're taking a test or maybe in a perfect world you're also giving them
an oral assessment not just paper and pencil not just computer-based work
you're also talking to them asking them questions if they can answer a math
question describe their steps and processes that can be a legitimate
alternative assessment that goes in your gradebook. It definitely is a way to
mark down strengths and weaknesses and track those over time and you can see the
kind of changes this has on students. These are very easy things to do they're
all free you can do them right now in your classroom tutoring session
interventionist session small group just sprinkle them in there like
sprinkles on top of a sugar cookie. You can make the choice to give these
accommodations and interventions at any point in time to all of your students.
Now let's say you have a student who's struggling and they don't have a
learning disability they don't have dyscalculia but they're sure not doing
very well in the class using all of the things I just talked about will increase
their engagement their performance it lets them see that the mastery they want
is attainable. I think that's something that's missing from a big part of our
conversation you know a lot of the characters in Charles Dickens a Christmas
Carol they are so defeated they're so beaten down by the negativity in their
life experiences that's something that Ebenezer has to grapple with too once
he starts to let a little bit of love into his tiny grand chart he starts to
really feel the impact that a negative depressing overwhelming life is having
on the people around him and he starts to see little ways he can make
differences for those people and make a difference in their life that has a
really big impact and you can do the same you can choose to be a fezzy wig
teacher just try it out even if you think everything I'm saying is nonsense if
you think that students should have to have a diagnosis or some paperwork prove
me wrong spend two or three weeks make this your New Year's resolution using
accommodations interventions increasing the scaffolding and the support just
adding in a little extra benefit to your students and see what happens see what
kind of change it makes if it makes no change at all email me hanora at
education learning dot com I know it will make a difference I've seen it make a
difference for students for two decades now so I know that when you put this into
place your students are going to do better they're going to start to feel more
engaged in school their grades are going to improve they're going to be asking and
answering more questions and everyone's going to be happier including you you're
going to notice over time that some students move away from the accommodations
need less time with an intervention tool and have fewer situations where they're
struggling they probably didn't have a math learning disability but you still
help them get better and you've helped them improve and that's good for everyone
and when you notice over time that their students who are more engaged their
understanding more they're more comfortable in class they're doing better
but they still go back to that accommodation they still use that
intervention tool because they're not really getting to that automaticity the
memorization or the fluency that we were hoping for okay those are really good
indications of discount cool yeah so they more than likely have a math learning
disability whether or not they have a formal diagnosis of one so you can do
things easily for free at any point in time and learn more about your students
and their needs while also increasing their mastery in math I would like you to
try being a feziwig educator and see how it goes I would like you to at least be
honest with yourself if you prefer being an Ebenezer educator and let people know
that's what they're in for so at least they can try to prepare but let a little
love into your heart this holiday season let a little love into your classroom
use some accommodations and interventions and let me know how they go I
think you're gonna be pleasantly surprised and I think it's going to enrich
not only your students lives but yours as well because teachers we feel better
when our students are doing well and they're engaged and people are having a
good time and they're learning that's why we go to work in the morning and it's
nice when it happens so by putting out a little something nice for your students
you're gonna get back a whole lot more nice for yourself it's the gift that
keeps on giving and it will give itself right back to you all right thank you for
being with me in this podcast what in the world is discount cool yeah if you
would like more information if you're looking for training if you want to
read our book it's now available in English and in Spanish teaching students
with discount cool yeah you can get that at your local bookstore or you can get
it on Amazon or our website reach out to us at any time visit
edgacalclearning.com if you're looking for resources from a nonprofit awareness
and distribution center visit the DTRI.org the discount cool yeah training
and research Institute and you can also reach out to me find me on social media
or email me Honora at educalclearning.com that's H-O-N-O-R-A and thank
you for being part of this journey to learn more about how we can support
people with dyscalculia. happy holidays