Summary and Synthesis

I actually liked this last unit on fractions. I liked that we were able to work with different manipulatives like the pie pieces and fraction bars. Most of what I know (with Math) is due to rote style learning. I like that this last unit gave us different ways to teach fractions. I agree that teachers need to start showing their students how to develop an understanding of "why" to do things, rather than just doing things without a reason and just off of memorization. I believe that students will have a better chance of understanding and remembering different mathematical rules and operations if they understand why they are doing what they are doing. I liked learning about the CGI program as well and it was nice to watch the video to see the classroom with that learning approach. I think that it is important to give students many options when solving problems and I thought this unit did a great job of showing us future teachers how to achieve that goal in our own classrooms!