[blindkid] Math and electronic notetaker

[Debby B]

We, too, fought and fought for Winona to have use of the BrailleNote at home. Finally, in 5th grade, we signed our lives away, but got it. Now it's no big deal (5yrs later). Most often Winona simply emails the assignment to the teacher.

As to math. Whew! A math wizard in her head. 5th grade the new TVI demanded she show all work for all problems using the Braille writer. Math became drudgery and grades plummeted. Now in high school, this TVI has her work the first 2 out completely, then Winona is allowed to do what she can in her head. She's top of her class in Geometry of all things!

MathWindow: fabulous tool. Couldn't get the elementary/middle school TVI to use it, but we did at home! We especially used it with fractions. They made no sense to Winona written horizontally, but once we put it on the MathWindow vertically, the lightbulb came on and Winona got it quickly.

Abacus: another thing I fought and fought for. Finally convinced the 2 other parents to also put in their IEPs. Good thing I'd taken the Hadley course and taught Winona because SHE ended up teaching the others how to use the abacus....and the slate and stylus.
 
Debby
bwbddl at yahoo.com


~"Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can read."~Mark Twain


________________________________
From: Joy Orton <ortonsmom at gmail.com>
To: NFB Blindkid list <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2011 7:38 PM
Subject: [blindkid] Math and electronic notetaker

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
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