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

[minh ha]

Kelsey,

This really is an interesting subject. I don't really recall many
situations where my teachers had to use physical gestures to
demonstrate a point, except in middle school when we were studying the
different planets and revolutions and rotations. For some reason, it
was the only part of the curriculum that baffled me and I could not
grasp it no matter how hard. So what my science teacher did was have
different students be the planets and they would stand apart from each
other relative to how the planets are to each other in space. Then one
of my friends would walk with me from planet to planet to give me a
better sense of the distance between each planet. It was a really fun
exercise, not just for me but for everyone in the class. My teacher
also helped me understand the earth's revolutions and rotations by
having me be the earth and spin in circles while he also spun in
circles around me. It definitely made us stand out but it got the
point across. :)

Minh

On 2/16/14, Kelsey Nicolay <piano.girl0299 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
>
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"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty
recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity:
but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on
their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible." T. E. Lawrence