What if your students could see math differently—literally?
In this powerful chunk of our Tier 1 Interventions Geoboard Workshop, we dive deep into the concept of diagonals—how a simple shift from horizontal and vertical lines to diagonal ones transforms not only math instruction but also students' experiences of precision, measurement, and curiosity.
Join Cheri Dotterer, Jonily Zupancic, and guests as they explore:
The surprising complexity behind diagonal lines- How diagonals connect to every grade level from K to 8th
- Why geoboards and dot paper are essential for understanding slope, decimals, and irrational numbers
- And how a salt lick for horses might be your next best teaching strategy!
Perfect for math teachers, occupational therapists, and interventionists who want students to feel the “aha” moments.
👉 Subscribe and share this with a fellow educator who needs a boost of inspiration!
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BOOKS
Both books are also available in paperback and hardcover versions. All versions are available wherever books are sold.
Math DYSconnected - To be released in 2024.
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TIME CODES
03:00 – Transforming the 10-frame with dot paper
05:00 – The power of diagonals: why they matter in grade 4 and beyond
09:00 – Prepping for Pythagorean Theorem (without the formula)
12:30 – 🎯
Instructional salt licks: How to spark curiosity
16:00 – Accuracy vs. Precision: What the math (and writing) reveals
18:00 – Diagonals as the hypotenuse: Squaring the diagonal
22:00 – Tilted squares and irrational numbers
26:00 – How a diagonal can teach decimal multiplication
31:00 – Cheri on writing fluency, posture, and diagonal development
34:00 – What pencil grip really means—and what it doesn’t
37:00 – Practical OT strategies with Geoboards (and latex-free tips!)
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SUBSCRIBE and LISTEN to the Audio version of the podcast here on YouTube or your favorite podcast app.
This podcast is created from excerpts from the Tier 1 Interventions Workshop. To hear the full math intervention, subscribe to watch the event live monthly on the 3rd Saturday during the school year.
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MISSION
Minds on Math, LLC: To provide engaging, high-quality professional development and instructional coaching for teachers to improve student achievement and understanding of mathematics.
Dotterer Educational Consulting, a Therapy Services, LLC company: To provide professional development to improve writing skills through efficient lesson planning for regular education classrooms.
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FREE RESOURCES
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Other ways to connect with Jonily and Cheri
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QUESTION
What is your biggest struggle in your classroom right now? Include grade level and your role. Share in the comments or email us at:
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HASHTAGS
#jonily #cheri #Tier1Interventions #GeoboardMath #MathStrategies #OTinSchools #MathIntervention #Dyscalculia #NeuroscienceInEducation
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: jonily@mindsonmath.com
Reach out to Cheri: info@cheridotterer.com
Tier1Interventions.com