Algebra Tiles...what else don't I know about?

This week in class I was completely amazed by the Algebra tiles. I had never seen them before, and I can only speculate as to how my experience with Algebra in the past might have been influenced it they had been offered to me as an option. I remember loving math up until Algebra 2, which is when it all became a struggle and completely frustrating to me. Unfortunately, I had a series of teachers over the course of that year, none of which went out of their way to explain things in different ways. They all took the “memorize the formula or rule, just do it and don’t ask why” approach to teaching math. This made it nearly impossible for me to come up to speed when I hit Calculus. If even one of them had tried to explain it in a different way, such as using the Algebra tiles, might it have made that little bit of difference that I needed? If those teachers had had the training and experience to use these other manipulatives, would they have understood the math better themselves, allowing them to in turn better explain it to me?


I know I will never teach upper level Algebra, but this line of thinking helps me to realize that I will need to be constantly looking for different ways to think about the math that I am teaching. I need to listen to my students and how they are thinking and remember what works for some may not always work for everyone. And I would like to think that unlike those “old school” math teachers that I had, I will do my best to try and figure out what I can do to help that kid who is lost “get it”. Because I believe that all students can understand, it just may not take place at the same rate or in the same way as everyone else. By giving the students multiple opportunities in different formats, and allowing them to explain their thinking to their classmates and in turn listen to how others think, they will have so many more opportunities to solidify their mathematical understanding.