[nabs-l] how did you learn visual concepts in school

[Kelsey Nicolay]

Hello,
I know many of my posts have been more serious o nature, but this 
one is a little more interesting.  I started working on an 
aarticle for the Braille Monitor about teaching math and science 
to visually impaired students, but I haven't worked on it lately.  
Therefore, I would like you to think back to when you were in 
school.  What were some visual concepts you had trouble 
understanding and what physical gestures did your teachers give 
you to help you visualize better? This could be either the 
regular classroom teacher or your teacher of the visually 
impaired told you.  For me, some of the ones that I was told 
were: In geometry class, we were learning about different kinds 
of angles such as vertical, suplemental, alternate interior, 
alternate exterior, etc.  The way vertical angles were explained 
to me was: Cross your fingers on both hands and then touch your 
hands together.  The ppaaces where your fingers meet are what 
vertical angles are like.  Another was in physics class when we 
were learning about positive and negative attraction in terms of 
magnetism.  I was a little confused about the concept, so the 
teacher asked me to hold both hands out in front of me so they 
are close together bn touching and then move them toward each 
other to symbolize magnets being attracted and apart to 
illustrate polarity.  Having her do that helped a lot.  I must 
say that at times I felt pretty silly in that class lol 
considering all the physical gesturing I had to do in order to 
understand the concept.  What about you? What physical gestures 
did your teachers come up with to help illustrate an otherwise 
difficult concept to understand? What class was it and what were 
you learning about at the time?
Thanks,
Kelsey Nicolay