Tools of the Trade

Well if you didn’t like the concept of having students listen to their stories and lessons on tape the you’re really not going to like this idea (I’m talking about any other readers, I know my group mates are open minded!) I think students with math disabilities absolutely must master the use of a calculator with as many helpful functions as possible. Disagree with me? That’s okay, one of my coworkers tends to disagree with me there as well. But hear me out: Math isn’t like reading. Students CAN compensate for math disabilities far more easily than they can a reading disability. If a student can complete a problem using a calculator but struggle with out one then for goodness sake, let them use the calculator. How many adults do you know (teachers excluded) that do long division with paper and pencil? If you find one let me know so I can ask them why they don’t have better things to do. Calculators are simple, relatively inexpensive pieces of technology that were made to be used and in the field of assistive technology, there are calculators and then there are CALCULATORS. Some of these do just about everything you can think of. This website run by the University of Texas http://www.edb.utexas.edu/ATLab/Labinventory/Classroom/classroom-ld-math.php offers some interesting products including software but what intrigued me the most were the calculators. All the way at the bottom of the page is a calculator that looks essentially normal except that it speaks to help those students with visual impairments. Then, towards the top of the page is something called Big Calc which can be programmed to meet the needs of the individual student plus it is appealing to young children because it is colorful and friendly looking. Finally there are the two that I like the most. One is called the Coin-u-lator (which I’ve seen at teacher stores) and then the Money Calc which I’ve never seen before. Both incorporate coins and bills to help students add and subtract money. The Money Calc also does regular calculator functions. I’ve seen students who are terrific readers and reasonably decent math students look at a pile of coins with a look of such confusion you have to stop and double check to make sure you remembered to use American currency. So they may not like carrying around the big yellow Coin-u-lator but at least it would get the job done. I worry about kids who have issues counting money the most because I feel like they are targets for dishonest cashiers. I’d rather see them carrying around this calculator than be swindled. The last calculator I want to mention isn’t found on this site. It’s something the middle school math teacher at my school discovered and for the sake of continuity I want to list it here. This calculator—http://www.amazon.com/Casio-Fraction-Calculator/dp/B00154GSM4/ref=sr_1_24?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1208217469&sr=8-24 does just about everything a student would need to carry them through 8th grade math at the least and probably further. It does order of operations and most importantly it does fractions which I’ve seen stump student after student and tie them up for months as they try to battle through the fraction chapter. Many students at my school are already using this device which is far cheaper and far less intimidating than a graphing calculator. You can find calculators out there that do just about everything and websites that help with the rest. For example, this website helps with converting fractions to decimals http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fractions/FractionsCalc.html . The possibilities are endless. All a student with math disabilities needs is a teacher who will help them use these tools with confidence and not try to convince them that they are somehow cheating the system but using a calculator.