[Blindmath] I'm Dying Here

Fri May 23 01:05:30 UTC 2014

Hey, Mike.
I thought about doing this next semester.  Like a ding-dong, I thought about
doing this almost at the end of the semester (smile).  But, I am glad you
said this and, next semester, I am going to add this to my study sessions.
Thank you for the suggestion.  Elise

-----Original Message-----
From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Mike
Jolls via Blindmath
Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2014 5:43 PM
To: blindmath at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] I'm Dying Here

This is in response to "I'm Dying" because of what the teacher is doing ...
or not.  I'll try to keep my response short.

Basically when I went back to college and had to take a lot of math
(Algebra, Trig, Calculus) I combatted the problem of not being able to see
the board by reading ahead in the class and studying the material ahead of
time ... before the class began.  That puts a lot of responsibility on you
the student to know what the teacher is going to talk about before class,
but it sure works wonders.  This is of course assuming the instructor is
going to go by the book and follow it, and assuming you can get your hands
on the book in the accessible format you need.

When I did that, not only did I read the book ahead, but I worked as many
problems ahead as I could.  That way, I had a very good idea of what I
didn't understand, and I didn't have to take notes off the board.  I didn't
have to struggle trying to read the book, or deal with a teacher that
couldn't explain things well.  I had already done the studying and could
just sit back and listen ... for the most part.  I should also say that I
had a hand-held telescope that I used to read the board when I needed to, so
this would be different for a totally blind person.  But reading the book
before class meant I had to do a lot less work in the class.  I'll just
mention that people noticed that I didn't take notes very often and they
noticed that I got straight A's.  That was due in major part to the fact
that I was prepared.  I didn't need the teacher nearly as much as if I went
into the classes cold with no knowledge.  Being prepared ahead really helped
a lot.

As I say, when you read ahead, you don't have to sink or swim depending on
the board.  And if you have a bad teacher, this is a great defense against
that as well.  You already know what you don't know and for the rest, you
can just listen.  It's a unique approach that a lot of kids don't do, but it
sure worked for me.  Maybe it could help you.

Anybody else take a lot of math and take this approach?  Did it work for
you?

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