Summary and Synthesis

Looking at the different magazines with all of the manipulatives really showed me how important it is to be well informed on what is needed in the classroom. There are SO MANY options to choose from that I imagine it can be quite overwhelming. Additionally, before class I would have thought that having the labels on each model would have been helpful. However, now I see that the models can be more versatile when they do not have specific labels on them. Furthermore, it has been brought to my attention that students need to be slowly introduced to certain concepts. Simply showing them the full blow concept of fractions, for example, will prevent them from actually learning about fractions. Teaching a concept slowly over a large period of time is significantly different than what I grew up with and what I had previously thought. Overall, I feel that the steps that we have learned and continue to learn about regarding developing concepts will help me to better understand how students learn and how to approach teaching a wide range of concepts.