Difficulty adding coins to figure out the value

April 15, 2009

While I was working at an elementary school as a para educator, I had a small math group that I was working with first thing in the morning. I had about five second grade students. I copied some money math packets for each of them to work on. I corrected them as they went along and helped them with any they were stuck on. I guess I was having some cognitive issues, more than usual at school, because I started noticing something.

When I corrected their papers without the answer key, I was not correcting it right. These were worksheets that the students needed to add up the different coins and circle or write the correct answer. I thought that I was doing it okay, except when I checked it again, I wasn't right. For some reason, I couldn't add the different coins. This was not so good, since I am a cashier at my second job. I told no one, but kept it to myself. I just quietly kept correcting the papers until they were right. If I couldn't do it, I just used a calculator or the answer key if there was one.

At this time, I am working two jobs, seven days a week, about sixty to sixty-two hours a week. No wonder I can't function that well! I think that the average person, without a memory impairment, could have had difficulty working that many hours. Now just imagine doing that and having a memory impairment.

UPDATE: A few months later, I went to my primary care doctor because I was always tired. He asked me how many hours I was working and I told him about sixty hours a week – seven days a week. He said that I needed to cut back my hours at my second job and that I need at least one day off a week. The next shift that I worked as a cashier, I changed my availability, but it didn't go into effect for a couple of weeks. Once my new hours went into effect, things are much better with my cognition. Thank God for that!