Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Hi, I'm Maggie.
[00:00:02] Speaker B: Hi, I'm Nicole. Welcome to the DAC Dyslexia and Coffee Podcast. We are so happy you could join us. We are both moms and dyslexia interventionists who want to talk about our students and children. What dyslexia is, how it affects our kids, strategies to help and topics related to other learning disabilities will also be covered in this podcast. Parents are not alone and we want to give a voice to the concerns and struggles we are all having. This is a safe place to learn more about how to help our children grow and succeed in school and the world. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy the conversation.
[00:00:38] Speaker A: Hi everybody. It is time for the concept of the week. So concept of the week is our opportunity to pull back the curtain and allow you kind of in to one of our intervention sessions. So it allows us to show what is it? What is it that you say you do here?
So every time we do something new, we always review.
That's for all my students out there.
We have covered digraphs in the past. So digraph as a reminder is when we have two letters that make one sound. For example, sh says sh.
Now our new concept of the week is a trigraph. A trigraph is when we use three letters to make one sound. So some examples from the English language are tch, which says, and also D, G, E, which says.
We only use those trigraphs at the end of a word right after a short vowel like watch or dodge.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: Awesome. So today's topic is being grateful.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: Yay.
We thought we'd lighten it up for everybody in honor of Thanksgiving, which is my favorite holiday.
Yay.
[00:02:20] Speaker B: So this episode is all about how grateful we are for our students and our families.
We work with many different families in our center. We unfortunately hear a lot of sad and frustrating stories when they first come to us. So we thought we'd show our gratitude for when our families bring us some good updates.
[00:02:40] Speaker A: Yay.
That's my favorite.
First on my list is when we graduate a student from the program.
This can be really emotional because often we spend multiple years with our students. I recently actually as we record this, this was literally last night.
So I recently graduated a student who I had been working with for almost five years.
This young lady started working with me when she was in first grade. She didn't even have all of her letters.
She did not have any of her vowel sounds, including any short vowels.
Now she is a 6th grader reading and writing at grade level.
[00:03:34] Speaker B: Good job.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: She worked so hard and it's Emotional, because I'm very proud. And also, I will miss her.
You get to know them so deeply.
[00:03:50] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: And they just. They're so vulnerable for. With you, you know, it takes.
Takes hard work.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: It does.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: And I'm gonna cry. That's it for me. I'm out.
[00:04:02] Speaker B: Oh, boy. I'm on my own.
[00:04:03] Speaker A: That's not a good thing.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: Oh.
One of my favorite things is when we get phone calls from families about one of our interventionists and how much the family appreciates what they are doing for them. So they call and tell me when a student has moved up a grave level at school in their reading. They call me when the interventionist has changed their life and their family's life.
I love when they talk, tell me that the student has picked out their first book from the library because they want to read the book. And that's a very special moment for us because we know at that point that the student gets it.
That's so awesome.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: All the feels today.
This was supposed to be a light episode.
Oh. Another one for me is being able to connect with other professionals who all share the same passion for what we do. I know that feeling when I'm talking to maybe a family member. Right. And their kind of eyes go in the back of their head like, okay, that's very nice, honey, but I just. I truly. I get to learn something new every single, single day at my job. And it makes me a better practitioner, a stronger person, a better interventionist. I mean, I've been doing some observing lately, and I just love learning. Love it.
[00:05:41] Speaker B: Love it. Yes. Me too. And I think we learn something from each other every day.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: Every day. Yeah.
[00:05:50] Speaker B: I also. Another one for me is when we get invited to be on the school team and help the student be more successful in the school environment.
Sometimes there are many ways we become part of that team. Sometimes we help with the accommodations or the modifications that will help the student get through the whole entire school day. Sometimes it's helping with spelling list or helping just kind of working with the reading intervention at this. At the school, and being at the same page with them because it can get really confusing if we're on one thing and they're on another thing, and the student's like, wait a minute, I'm supposed to be learning this. So when we work together, it's better for everybody.
[00:06:37] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. For sure.
Another one for me is, gosh, how funny our students are. They say the funniest things.
I know when I'm gonna come to work, I'm going to have an opportunity to laugh.
I think some good and some good examples of just hilarious things our students say. One time in an assessment, the task is three words, and you have to tell me two that go together and then two others that go together. And the three words were bat, owl, eagle. And this young lady just took her time. Took her time, was trying to think about it, and she just says, well, they all have rabies.
I was like, well, maybe.
[00:07:38] Speaker B: Maybe they could. They could just.
[00:07:41] Speaker A: That my brain would never go there. And I just. I love the exposure to a different brain than mine. I had another student one time, we were talking about morphology. So pieces of words that mean something.
One of the prefix I always teach is the prefix dis, D, I s, dis, which means a part or not.
It was a drill. And I showed him the card, and he sat and he sat and he goes, I don't know. Dis sucks.
[00:08:19] Speaker B: And it just.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: I just. I can't. I can't say enough.
Funny. I could. This could be an entire episode. But, man, I love their brains so much.
[00:08:35] Speaker B: I also love sometimes when the student is trying to avoid doing something that they don't like.
[00:08:40] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:08:41] Speaker B: And they come up with the funniest ways to do it.
Your student this morning did that.
[00:08:46] Speaker A: Oh, she sure did.
[00:08:47] Speaker B: Oh, she sure did. Yeah. Yeah, that was. That's a great example of this, actually.
So, like, sometimes they argue with us how much they need to write. Like, when I have a student that I'll say, okay, we're going to do four sentences today. She goes, I'll do one word that is not even comparable.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: Sometimes they're so good at negotiation, though. Like, okay. Yeah, okay. All right. And then you just have to give, like, all right, you got me.
[00:09:25] Speaker B: Yeah, you got it. I. I mean, you use that in the correct way. I'm very proud of you.
Yep.
I also had a student say, well, I don't need to know about contractions. I'm at school and I only do formal writing because we were talking about how contractions are informal writing.
And so she's like, well, but I'm in school, and we always do formal writing. And I'm like, well, but you might read a book that has informal writing in it. She's like, oh, but that was a big argument for us that day. Oh, yeah, Yeah.
[00:10:03] Speaker A: I don't have this in my time on our outline here. But also just the tangents.
[00:10:11] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:10:12] Speaker A: The amount of silly stories that I know about our. About my students that really have nothing to do with reading at all, but are just they're just so gosh darn funny. And I think kind of, they feel like they can be funny in here. And that, I think, is the really part that brings me the most joy.
[00:10:40] Speaker B: It means that they're comfortable with us.
[00:10:42] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:10:42] Speaker B: And they know that we accept them for who they are.
[00:10:49] Speaker A: That's right. I mean, when a kid could make a mistake reading and then laugh about it, I don't know that I always appreciate how hard that is for a kid. Yeah.
You know, to be able to make a mistake and then it. For it to be okay means that we've done the hard work of building all that trust.
Because that's often not their experience in school.
[00:11:19] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:11:20] Speaker A: They get the opportunity to let it loose a little in here. Maybe sometimes too loose, but then we bring it back. Gotta bring it back a little bit sometimes. Yes, yes, yes.
[00:11:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: I had a young man I've been working with for a while who is very guarded.
That was just yesterday. He made a mistake reading. And it was a close distractor word. Right. So it wasn't quite the right word. It started the same, though, and he just busted out laughing. And I know darn well that six months ago that would have been tears.
[00:11:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: So we've come a long way. Yeah.
[00:12:01] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:12:02] Speaker A: A huge one, too. For me, it is a real honor and a privilege that we get to form relationships with whole families that last multiple years.
I have formed relationships with families that might have two or more kids that come through our program.
I just. I feel like I get to be along for the ride with them, celebrate their wins, listen to them when they're struggling.
Like we said, what we do requires a lot of trust.
We have to build that trust not only with our students, but also their families. And these students have been burned before if they're coming to our office, and so have those families.
Sometimes we even get to meet and know their grandparents, aunts, uncles.
I've even gotten to meet. I have a family that I see. It's two siblings, and they had a nanny from England.
[00:13:07] Speaker B: Oh, that's cool.
[00:13:07] Speaker A: That came back for a visit, and she observed a session because she is a reading interventionist in England.
[00:13:17] Speaker B: Oh, interesting.
[00:13:18] Speaker A: So that was, like, the coolest. Yeah, it was the coolest day. It was so fun to see some of the differences between, of course, British English and American English. And she's like, oh, wow. Yeah, we do exactly that. Except for, you know, we don't spell color that way. You know, things like that. It was just. I don't what an honor and a privilege that is.
[00:13:41] Speaker B: Right?
[00:13:42] Speaker A: I mean, gosh, what kind of job do you get that you get to do stuff like that, man, Right?
[00:13:51] Speaker B: So now we're gonna flip it Funny things we've done. So for the intervention, I've done this multiple times. And our. Our students, let me just tell you, are the smartest kids ever.
[00:14:08] Speaker A: A thousand percent. Yes.
[00:14:10] Speaker B: They will take advantage of anything that you mess up.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: Oh, yes, yes.
[00:14:15] Speaker B: So a few times I have not covered up the answers when I'm sitting across from a student, when I'm asking them to spell something especially.
And, man, they'll look anywhere in the room and use whatever they can to get the answers. And, man, I thought my student was the learn to read overnight.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: You really get to cure. I did.
[00:14:39] Speaker B: And then I look down, and she's looking at my paper, and I'm like, oh.
Because I travel to different areas, so sometimes my desk is not as far away as other desks at different locations that I go to. And so I forget that I have to be a little bit more sneaky in some places. Yeah.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't even travel. I really literally only teach out of one office. And my just general level of, man, I have cards everywhere. I have spelling cards everywhere. I mean, I see I have students who come in and count the number of binders that I have on my desk, and they're like, man, you see a lot of kids, and of course, they're all different places. So I have just stuff everywhere, which is kind of its own that causes so much, I don't know, general mayhem.
I'll be drilling cards that they're like, we don't have that card yet. And sometimes they do it to mess with me. Like, no, we don't have that sound. And it's like, no. Yes, we do.
So silly for me.
I don't know. It doesn't matter. I've been doing this job a long time, guys, and I still. There are teachers that I mad respect. They can write upside down.
I do not have this skill. It is not good. I don't know why I keep trying to write upside down. And then I had the face is like, I have no idea what are.
[00:16:20] Speaker B: You trying to write? Because that doesn't even look right.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: Yeah, like, that's not it.
[00:16:25] Speaker B: Not it.
Another thing for me is the cards. We have cards that have all the graphenes, which is the symbols for the sounds that we have in the English language. Right.
Mine sometimes get upside down in reverse. Sometimes they see the back of the card. So they see the answers.
I'm like, what happened to my cards? They're just everywhere today. I don't understand.
[00:16:51] Speaker A: Students try to, like, take them and look at the.
[00:16:53] Speaker B: Yes, they do.
[00:16:55] Speaker A: Oh, it's just.
Yep, this is the good stuff.
[00:17:00] Speaker B: And I like the negotiators.
[00:17:02] Speaker A: Oh, gosh.
[00:17:03] Speaker B: Aren't they fun?
[00:17:04] Speaker A: Oh, gosh. Do I get a price for that?
[00:17:08] Speaker B: Not for every single thing we do.
[00:17:11] Speaker A: Can I have a snack? Can I have another snack?
I have students kind of work that to their favor. I am a person, and full admit, fully admit, I could be a Snickers commercial. And so I'm the one that's like, okay, yes, you do need a snack. Because we just can't learn when we're hungry. Okay. We are not ourselves when we're hungry. That is true. And I'll have some students that'll be like, but you said I can't learn if I'm hungry. And I'm still really hungry.
I once snacked, and it got it. And I'm like, I'm gonna have to answer to your mother.
I know. Your mother does not want you having more than one snack.
[00:17:55] Speaker B: Yeah. I love when they use your logic back at you. That is awesome.
[00:17:58] Speaker A: Yes. Yes.
[00:18:00] Speaker B: And you're like, well, at least you're listening to me.
[00:18:04] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:18:05] Speaker B: How about when you have a student that spells or says something incorrectly and you can't react?
[00:18:11] Speaker A: Oh, yes. Yes. Especially when that word is maybe.
[00:18:16] Speaker B: Not appropriate.
[00:18:17] Speaker A: Not appropriate. A word that we would get in trouble for if we said it on this podcast. We have a clean podcast, so you kind of have to read between the lines here.
I've had this happen to me too. In, like, a blending drill.
[00:18:32] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:18:33] Speaker A: So where we'd have kind of a series of cards, and the kid would have to isolate each sound and then blend them together. And, oh, boy, there are just some.
[00:18:43] Speaker B: That shouldn't go together.
[00:18:45] Speaker A: Shouldn't go together. But, man, can they read those.
Let me tell you. They can. Yeah, they can. They can.
Yeah. I think another one for me, I think to kind of bring it back, like, all those. All those silly things again. I know I said this already, but again, for me, that means the student really trusts me, and I think I need to remind myself how much that is.
That's an honor that they.
A lot of these students. I think the students I have had the honor of working with over the years, most of the time, by the time they get to us. Right. Nicole and I are interventionists that don't work for school.
We work as an outside Agency.
And most of the time that means the students that come to us who land in our office have been through it and their families have been through it, and they have kind of learned the bad habits. Right. So it's like, it's a real honor and a real privilege when you get through to a kid like that that, let's face it, sometimes they come to us with a lot of baggage and they do not want to be here for crying in the soup here. Who would sign up for coming to see me an hour or two hours a week, sometimes even three hours a week. I have seen students three times a week and work on something one on one where there is no out and something that's incredibly hard for you and you felt like you're a failure at. Who's going to sign up for that willingly? Not many people, not many adults. I know, that's for sure.
But we do expect this of this, of these kids.
And so when they. When that hard shell just kind of cracks. Yeah, boy, there's nothing like that. And that's not something I did. You know, I just, I think that's.
I think that's. That's the juice. Right. Like, that's. I didn't, I didn't do that. They did that. They trusted themselves. They worked through the hard thing, and I just. Mad respect and I mean, I think about the things I complain about and I don't want to do that.
And then I think, you know, I ask routinely children to do the hard thing, so.
Yeah, I can do the hard thing, too.
[00:21:50] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm really grateful, too, when you see their confidence increase. Yeah.
Like, because we can see that the kid that comes in and won't even. Like they're in a whisper and they're not.
You can tell that they just don't want to do it. And then they come running in like maybe a year later. Yes, they have their book and they're ready to go. And they're just a go in and talking and there's sometimes a little bit oversharing, but that's okay.
[00:22:26] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I've been doing this long enough that I occasionally will run into former students of mine back when I was a high school teacher.
And they have kids now, which is jarring.
But I'll run into them in the community and they'll just be.
I mean, most of them anyway, are happy to see me.
And I mean, I've gotten to meet former students. Kids, come on. It's amazing. Like, it is. It's just amazing.
I. There's there's nothing better. I think what's kind of funny is last night I was having a little emotional time, as I mentioned. Right. I dismissed a student that I've been seeing a long time.
And it does hit me. It does hit me. I care a lot about these guys and I care a lot about what's happening to them. And you know, my husband was like, wow, I'm really, I'm really sad to see you. So sad. And I said, I, yes, I'm sad. I'm really also happy. It's all, it's all of the emotions. But at the end of the day, I feel extremely grateful that I absolutely signed up for this job, this field, this teaching experience.
I consider myself a very lucky person because from a young age I knew what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to teach.
I knew it had to be literacy related.
I've done different things along the way, but at the end of the day, I'm one of the rare people that as a little kid says, I want to be a teacher. And then I grow up and guess what? Like, that's really truly what I do.
Not everybody gets to live that life and I do and I don't take it for granted.
It's a big deal. And now I'm gonna cry again.
[00:24:35] Speaker B: You're gonna make me cry again.
[00:24:36] Speaker A: This was supposed to be a light hearted episode. We were like, it's Thanksgiving. It's going to come out on Thanksgiving week. Let's be grateful.
[00:24:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
And we're going to start crying and why not? Yeah.
[00:24:50] Speaker A: I have students to see.
[00:24:58] Speaker B: I guess another thing we really want to make everybody aware is we're really grateful for our listeners. We are enjoying being able to connect with you in such a deep way, in deep topics.
Building this community is a real honor for us and we are really glad that you are all along for our ride because this is definitely not a one and done. It's definitely a long term.
[00:25:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:27] Speaker B: Ride to go on with us.
[00:25:28] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm thankful for Nicole for letting me do this with her.
Yeah. This was something I wanted to do for a long time and I'm grateful to have a boss who says, okay, let's do it.
[00:25:46] Speaker B: And I'm grateful that Maggie felt comfortable enough to ask because that's something that I really want from my team and I'm really glad that they can do it.
[00:25:59] Speaker A: Ah, all the fails. Okay. We gotta get to life outside of dyslexia.
[00:26:03] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:26:04] Speaker A: Okay. I'm gonna end on a pet peeve.
[00:26:08] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:26:08] Speaker A: Here's a hard Pivot. Okay. Life outside of dyslexia as this airs. We're deep in November, but as we record this, we're not quite there yet. And I have a gripe.
[00:26:22] Speaker B: A gripe.
[00:26:22] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:26:23] Speaker B: What kind of gripe?
[00:26:25] Speaker A: This is the gripe. The gripe is, as we record this, it's Halloween, okay? Which means all the sugar, all the parties, all the things.
Then we have regular school day, and then on Sunday, it is daylight savings time. No, thank you. No, thank you. We have just sugared up these kids. Got them all crazy.
No, no. And now daylight savings time on top of it. No, no, thank you.
[00:26:50] Speaker B: Next week will be fun.
[00:26:52] Speaker A: No, thank you. There. That is fun. I'm ending with a pet peeve.
[00:26:57] Speaker B: I'm actually ending up with being very grateful, personal wise. So as a parent with two children with dyslexia, I'm very grateful for the dyslexia interventionists that work with them.
My son has made such significant progress. He's almost to grade level and will read independently now without anybody even next to him, which he wasn't doing last year, so.
[00:27:30] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh.
[00:27:31] Speaker B: I wanted to end with how awesome that is.
[00:27:34] Speaker A: That is amazing. That's way better than ending with a pet peeve.
Oh, well, we are very, very thankful.
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[00:28:06] Speaker B: Thank you.
