The Obvious Fix

3 | Dyslexia Debriefing

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 15:00:00 -0400

Host Adrienne DiMatteo talks with Laura Callahan, a reading specialist and co-founder of I Can Be My Best, a proactive reading intervention program built to catch risk factors before a formal diagnosis.

Laura shares her own story: diagnosed with dyslexia in high school after years of being written off as "spunky," the compensatory strategies she built to get by, and how long it took even after diagnosis to get support that actually worked. She also talks about carrying that experience into her own teaching career, at a time when dyslexia was treated as almost too taboo to name in the classroom.

From there, the conversation turns practical. Laura walks through how to spot early risk factors at home, what a consistent five to fifteen minutes of daily practice can accomplish, why small-group instruction beats whole-class teaching, and what parents should actually do on day one after a child is identified as struggling with reading.

2 | 45 Apps, One Kid: Can We Simplify Edtech Overload for Students?"

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 12:00:00 -0400

In this episode, host Adrienne DiMatteo talks with guest Ashley Knipe Commissiong, a mother of two (a rising senior and incoming freshman), about a problem that quietly overwhelms families every school year: managing the sheer number of platforms students are expected to navigate just to keep up with schoolwork.

Ashley shares her firsthand experience with conflicting notifications, missing assignment dates, and inconsistent information across apps like Canvas, describing how the disconnect between what her daughter actually submitted and what the system reported became a constant source of stress and miscommunication at home. Adrienne notes research suggesting secondary students may engage with as many as 45 different platforms just to get through the school year, a demand far beyond what's expected of most adults in the workforce, and the two discuss how this burden can quietly erode a student's confidence and contribute to feelings of chronic failure or anxiety.

The conversation turns practical: both agree that simple, low-cost fixes, like a unified calendar or a single source of truth for due dates, could dramatically ease the load on students and parents alike, without requiring districts to overhaul expensive existing systems. They also talk candidly about the quiet shame many parents feel struggling with this, and how equity gaps widen for families with less time, technical comfort, or flexibility to manage it all. The episode closes with concrete advice for parents wanting to advocate for change, including how to raise the issue with school boards and district communication channels.

1 | The Two-Minute Fix: Student Engagement Without Screens, Budgets, or Time

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 14:00:00 -0400

The Two-Minute Fix: Student Engagement Without Screens, Budgets, or Time

In this episode, host Adrienne DiMatteo sits down with veteran fourth grade teacher Katherine McClafferty (18 years in the classroom, featured in the New York Times for her work in Fairfax County, Virginia) to tackle a question every educator faces: how do you keep students engaged and motivated when screens feel like the obvious culprit, but taking them away isn't an immediate fix?

Katherine shares practical, low-lift strategies she's built over nearly two decades in the classroom, including quick community-building games like "Make 11s," "Invincible Rock Paper Scissors," and "Zoom Eek," short intentional brain breaks that reset energy without derailing instruction, and a self-care corner that gives kids agency over their own emotional regulation. She also speaks candidly about building trust with students, teaching kids to work through frustration as a life skill, and how to get administrator buy-in for non-traditional classroom moments.

The conversation is grounded in the real, day-to-day capacity constraints teachers face, offering concrete, classroom-tested ideas rather than theory.

Guest: Katherine McClafferty