As an academic student, I rarely ever used manipulatives - especially not in high school math. When we explored the different maniuplatives in class yesterday, I found myself resorting to the abstract math concepts that I learned in school and found it quicker and easier to solve the problems that way. However, I am aware that not all students learn this way. I had to challenge myself to change my thinking and to put myself in the shoes of my future students. I had to fiddle around in unfamiliar territory and figure out how some of the manipulatives worked. I had never even seen some of the tools prior to yesterday. For instance, I had never seen algebra tiles before and it took me a little while to figure out how to use them! Whenever I see an algebraic expression, I'm instantly foiling the expression and collecting like terms in my head. But with the tiles in front of me, I was forced to use them and was surprised at how well they worked! Algebra Tiles After exploring the...