[blindkid] Math and electronic notetaker

[Joy Orton]

Dear Trudy,

Our fourth grader carried her electronic notetaker back and forth to school.
Yes, it is an expensive machine, but why has someone spent the money on it?
To USE. I'm pretty sure a fourth grade student can understand to take good
care of a piece of equipment like that. Keep after that battle. If you have
a blind friend who uses one at work, see if he or she can attend an IEP
meeting and show it.

If you can't print homework at home, can you save it to the flash drive and
put the burden on the school/TVI to print it in the morning? Or even can the
teacher use the flash drive to open a file on his or her computer? We had a
journal writing assignment that happened every day at school--just skipped
the paper step entirely, and let the teacher open it on his computer. You
just have to save it as a .rtf, I think.

You really have to keep pushing for the abacus. It is a great way for blind
kids to do math, but it is DIFFERENT and may not be in the TVI's comfort
zone. Once you get something in the IEP paperwork, then you have to check up
and check up and check up again. But also the students need several ways to
do their math.

I look forward to other parents' and teachers' comments on how to do math
quickly.

Joy