Stop Teaching the Textbook

What if your students begged to keep doing math?

 In this Level 2 session of the Mastery Math Method, Cheri Dotterer and Jonily Zupancic show you how to break free from the textbook and make math feel like a game again.

You’ll see how:

• A simple Locker Problem can teach double-digit multiplication
• Reference tasks connect creativity to fourth-grade standards
• Interleaving and spaced practice help every student retain what they learn
• And why giving yourself permission to ditch the worksheet changes everything

🎓 Join the next Mastery Math Method Masterclass → disabilitylabs.com/calendar

✨ Takeaway: Learning isn’t about control — it’s about connection, curiosity, and courage to make a mess before mastery.

💬 Drop your thoughts and experiences in the comments—start the conversation and build the movement because every student deserves to feel like a mathematician.

🔔 Subscribe for more Tier 1 math interventions, strategies, and training.
 📅 Join the next Masterclass → https://disabilitylabs.com/calendar

💬 COMMENT BELOW: What’s YOUR take on starting with division?

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 Welcome – Level 2 Mastery Math Method

00:40 From Locker Problem to Double-Digit Multiplication

01:35 Why Reference Tasks Change Everything

03:10 Skip-Counting → Multiplying → Connecting Standards

04:20 Interleaving and Spaced Practice in Real Classrooms

06:05 Teacher Reactions – Level Up Mindset

07:10 Students Love Thinking Math

08:15 From Overwhelmed to Empowered

09:00 How to Join the Mastery Math Masterclass

11:00 Closing – For Such a Time as This

🎯 Ready to Change Math Outcomes in 10 Days?

👉 Join our FREE Masterclass for school leaders, teachers, and OTs:
 https://disabilitylabs.com/calendar

🎧 Prefer to Listen On the Go?

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🔗 Stay Connected

🌐 Website: https://disabilitylabs.com/courses/mastery-math-bundle
📧 Disability Labs Community: https://disabilitylabs.com/community/3d-learning-lounge-1

🎙️ Credits:
Host: Cheri Dotterer
Co-Host: Jonily Zupancic
Production: Disability Labs Podcast Network

🧠 Resources Mentioned:

Mastery Math Method Level One (Lifetime Access): https://disabilitylabs.com/courses/mastery-math-bundle
Mastery Math Method Level Two (Annual Subscription): https://disabilitylabs.com/courses/mastery-math-method-group-coaching

⚠️ Disclaimer: The content shared in this video is for educational purposes only and does not replace your district’s policies or individualized education plans. Always consult with your instructional team before implementing new strategies.

🏷️ Hashtags

#MathIsMessy #Tier1Interventions #MasteryMathMethod #BrainBasedLearning #REWIREMethod #OTinSchools #TeacherMindset

Creators and Guests

Host

Cheri Dotterer

Hacking barriers to writing success, dysgraphia No ✏️ Required. 30-sec@time Speaker | Podcast Host | Author | Consultanthttps://t.co/eM1CXSUIoZ

Host

Jonily Zupancic

Middle School Math Instructional Coach

What is Tier 1 Interventions?

Math intervention, writing intervention, neurobiology, and cognitive-based learning - Jonily Zupancic and Cheri Dotterer are sharing how to incorporate them into your classroom. Jonily is a secondary math teacher and instructional coach for math K-12. Cheri is an occupational therapist specializing in neurology-based treatment across the lifespan and a Strategy-based Interventionist. Jonily secretly calls Cheri her Lesson Plan Whisperer because Cheri is always in her head, reminding her of the foundations of development before academics begin.

They met in 2018 and have been talking ever since. Together, they have discovered the Miracle Math Classroom. This classroom embeds all math standards from Kindergarten to twelfth grade, plus neuro-based interventions that improve proficiency and boost student engagement. Both gifted and learning support students thrive using the interventions they share, plus all students in between. Using cognitive enhancing techniques strategically placed in the lesson plan, students learn more and enjoy school more, and fewer students get removed from critical instruction for Tier Three Interventions.

Jonily has discovered how to teach all Kindergarten through algebra math standards using twelve, that’s right, twelve Reference Tasks. They include the Pizza Problem, 120-Chart, Paper Folding, Making Rectangles, Quick Dots, Locker Problem, Jesse and Kay, Geoboard, Candy Problem, Paint Problem, Staircase, and the Function Machine.

Cheri uses Body-Brain Anchors to ignite the flame inside everyone’s brain for learning. Whether a person is five or 90, her strategy-based interventions will ignite that flame. These Brain-Body Anchors include the Handstand Flip, Interlaced Bilateral Integration, and the Body Sentence Alphabet.

Together, they connect the puzzle behind math instruction and instructional delivery alongside these cognitive-enhancing activities to maximize math education for all students.

Join us live on the third Saturday of the month, sans July, for the math behind the Reference Task. Every live event is approximately 2.5 contact hours. The first 30-ish minutes become this podcast. To hear the entire training, join our membership program.

Please note: we will not record on holiday weekends. Join our mailing list for updates on dates.

To join us live, register at Tier1interventions.com. The 2.5-hour sessions include the PowerPoint slides, additional audio files of Jonily teaching the Reference Task, resources from Cheri, and much more. A subscription to these 2.5-hour Workshops is $97/month or $947/year.

Membership includes:
*Approximately 27.5 hours of direct training per year
*Audio files of Jonily's Hear Me Teach segments - complete
*PowerPoint Slides to grab and use in your Magic Math Classroom
*Resources from Jonily and Cheri for you and your students
*A copy of Math DYSconnected when released.

Or, you can listen to the first segment on your favorite podcast app for free; no membership is required. No matter how you listen, you will come away with golden nuggets that will transform your classroom.

Reach out to Jonily: [e-mail]
Reach out to Cheri: [e-mail]

Tier1Interventions.com

Hey everybody, it's Cheri Dotterer
here at Tier One Interventions podcast.

I'm here today with Jonily Zupancic
and we are in class today with a live

group of ladies and gentlemen who are
learning about the Mastery Math method.

So I'm gonna let Jonily talk and if
there's any intervention that I wanna add

to the puzzle, we will do but for now,
I'm signing it all over to Jonily and let

us learn a little bit about mathematics.

Girl.

Y'all, this is Jay-Z.

I'm Jonily Zupancic, I'm your math
specialist, your main Mathineer.

I if you are listening to this podcast or
you're watching this podcast on YouTube I

want to give a disclaimer and a warning.

This is level two.

You're listening in on a level two
version of Mastery Math method.

Let me do a little side hustle.

Okay, let me do a little side hustle
and I'm gonna draw this line because

I wanna make sure that these extra
numbers are not in the locker boxes.

Here's a little side hustle.

I could ask the question.

Okay, what is the 47th Locker?

Watch this, guys.

Watch this.

Listen, what is the 47th locker?

That student 23 touches, what is the
47th locker that student 23 touches?

Why do I ask this question now?

Because this is an answer getting in
solving question and it's okay now.

But I ask this question now because
now I'm using this reference task

to teach my fourth grade standards.

This is directly fourth grade standards,
two digit by two digit multiplication.

So now I'm asking a locker problem
question that is directly going to

relate to my specific standards.

This is the beauty of reference task.

This is what reference task
reference tasks will do to

for us the locker problem.

Now I can start to generate locker
problem questions for every grade

level that are gonna target various
standards at every single grade level.

This question, what's
the 47th blocker student?

23 touches?

If I have third graders, they don't
have to master that standard yet, but

I can have third graders investigating
how to multiply two digit by two digit

number 'cause they could actually skip
count by 20 threes, 47 times and be able

to do this and practice their double
digit and triple digit edition skills.

So I can use the locker problem
reference task to then spring

out and teach my standards.

Now I want, I wanna talk more about that.

We'll do that this year in level two.

A few months from now, when we
come back to locker problem, we're

gonna start with this game board.

We're not doing it next session
'cause we need interleaving,

we need spaced practice.

But maybe at the December
session, we're gonna come back to

lockers, pizzas and rectangles.

Oh my.

Because today we didn't
even get to the pizzas.

Rectangles.

Oh my.

But we're not gonna do it next month.

We're doing something totally
different next month because

I practice interleaving.

So November, December, when we
come back to this one, we'll

start right here with this game
board and then I'll go on from it.

So right now, all I'm gonna do
is I'm gonna save this and this

is what I do in my classroom.

Okay?

This might be like, a day in my classroom
and I might say, oh my gosh guys, for

the next two weeks we need to get,
we need to get back into the book.

I get back into the
textbook, okay we got it.

We gotta just do regular
math for the next two weeks.

Okay?

So we're gonna put this aside.

And they're gonna be like, why
do we ever have to do regular?

Why can't we just always do this math?

And I'm like I don't know.

We should, we can.

Because actually in my
classroom I won't do that.

I'm pressing snooze 'cause my
alarm's going off and I have

to wrap up in nine minutes.

But in my classroom we actually won't
go back into the book for two weeks.

That's just not how I operate.

But that's overwhelming for a lot
of people, especially you type a

control freaks, you need me to give
you permission to just get back into

your textbook alone for two weeks.

So there you go.

Take the permission.

It's not advice because I don't do
that, but I know many of you need it.

So go ahead, do it.

So any who?

I don't even know what my point is
'cause my alarm went off and my brain

is so sleep deprived right now that
I don't even know what's happening.

Oh, okay.

So

this is level two.

This is level two.

This is what we're gonna get in level two.

Thoughts, comments, questions, takeaways?

I think by the time I bring something
like this up, we'll have done the one 20

chart and those like other items that I
am hoping kids get the connection of the

skip counting and circling the numbers.

That is a great point.

That's exactly why that,
that's exactly the purpose.

Beautifully said.

Other takeaways, thoughts?

I am very happy with all the math.

I did so something with Pam
Harris and she's sometimes you

just, I just need a high dose.

You in math, right?

You just need a higher dose and
I needed that higher dose and

we'll need that higher dose so
I can just keep leveling up.

I love the leveling up.

I love the math.

You high dose me.

I'm excited.

Let's do this.

Beautifully said.

Other

thoughts, takeaways.

I'm just loving the idea of level up.

That is been like the
theme of this entire week.

And so Natalie, thank you for putting
the icing on this level up cake.

Those are spirit fingers.

Jazz, hands are different.

Kirk, we'll help you out.

Other takeaways, thoughts?

Beth, are you overwhelmed?

Beth probably got bulldozed.

Beth is I need therapy after this.

But students will love this more.

They will love this more than sit
and get because they're actually

thinking and they really want to think.

Yes, they

do.

They wanna be like everybody else.

Yeah.

So yeah, I'm gonna go back and look
at the level one and see if I can just

integrate all this stuff together.

Thank you Theresa.

Kathy.

Thank you Kathy.

Sorry

Beth.

We're so glad you're here.

And this is overwhelming.

If this is your like first
interaction with this is craziness.

You are a trooper because you
didn't hang up on us either.

You stuck around.

Oh no.

You're awesome.

I love you girl.

I think it's important to say that
we're all on this journey together.

And when I facilitate and teach
level two, these are all the things

that I've always wanted to tell you.

But I always have an
audience of level one.

Actually, I always have a level.

Actually, I, Ty you all are a level two.

So Beth, no offense, but you're here
with all level two people right now.

Okay?

Yes, I get it.

And we welcome you and we love you
and we want you to keep coming.

Don't stop coming.

But in many scenarios
that this group is in.

A lot of times it's a
level negative three.

Okay?

Hey everybody, it's Cheri again.

If you're loving these strategies
and you want to join our Mastery

Math Method Masterclass, we hold
this hour long event once a month

and we'd love to have you join.

What we talk about there is how to
improve your math skills in 10 days.

Can you imagine 10 days, whether you
are a math teacher or an occupational

therapist, you can see exactly how to
shift teaching so that every student,

no matter their starting point, can
master core math concepts and reserve.

So reserve your seat today and go
over to disability labs.com/calendar

to check out the next event.

And that's

not fair to all of you.

That's why we're doing level two of
mastery math method this year, and

that's why you are all here with
us because it's not fair to you to

always have the audience of level.

So Saturday maths, actually Saturday
maths are like, they're level zero one.

They're I think Saturday maths.

I force myself not to present as
a, to like level negative three,

even though some of them are.

But it's important to
know that is our purpose.

That's the purpose Cheri and
I have for doing level two.

Other thoughts, comments,
questions, takeaways?

I like what Natalie says.

Keep coming back.

We also need interactions over time.

None of us got here in
one or two sessions.

I've been working with Jonily
for seven years, I think, and I

still learn and grow each time.

Yes, that's how long it takes, Beth.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Oh boy.

And implementing

what you've learned now.

Okay, so everybody.

Beth came to me at the end of the school
year and said, can I get my dysgraphia

certification before school starts?

I went, there's planning on taking the
summer off, but okay, can we master this?

She did it in six weeks.

That's even faster than Theresa did it

know I did mine in 10 weeks.

She has been so inundated with Cheri
over the last couple of months that

I'm surprised she's still around
and she's coming back for more.

It's become a habit.

It follows what there said, listen, a
habit, you wanna keep biting the lollipop.

Yeah.

It's like a drug.

That's right.

It is.

It's addicting as a matter of fact.

Yeah,

It's Saturday morning.

I texted my curriculum director
this morning and I said,

I can't wait until Monday.

Do we have to have weekends?

My gosh.

That's how addicted, that's how
much I know right now that I am in

the right place at the right time.

Cheri, share your mantra,
Esther, for such a time as this.

I'm living that right now.

This may be the end of our
seven-part series, but it’s not

the end of the conversation.

Stay tuned for what’s next, whether
it’s subtraction reimagined, fraction

fluency, or something completely
new, we promise to keep bringing

you the brain-based strategies you
need to transform math learning.

Until then, remember.

every student deserves the chance to
see themselves as a mathematician.

And as Cheri and Jonily
say, Go Be Awesome!

Go Be Brilliant!

For you were put here
for such a time as this.