New Insights and Their Implications

This last month I have gotten a better understanding of shapes and how they relate to each other. I have had past experiences using Tangrams but haven't really analyzed and classified shapes into groups by their properties. I am not good at identifying shapes by name but the class discussions have helped me understand why shapes fall in the category that they do. The book also talks about using Tangrams and other manipulatives for discovering shapes and their properties.
Usually when it comes to math if I don't understand a problem the first time I see it, I am never going to get it. In my College Algebra class I relied on a friend who is a math minor to explain things to me, so I definitely agree that peer tutoring is a great way for students to learn from each other. In this class it has been fairly easy for me to understand the concepts and even if I don't completely get it right away, after I see a few examples and work it on my own it becomes a lot clearer. I just have to have time to think about it and see why it makes sense.
I was unfamiliar with the van Heile levels but I can definitely see how the concepts that take place in the first two levels are essential for students in the elementary grades. The book also gave some great examples to demonstrate students' learning. Overall, I feel that I am getting a lot out of this class because although I am familiar with the concepts we discuss such as area and problem solving, it is being presented in a new way that really gives meaning to why I use certain strategies when solving problems.