In my past and current Mathematics classes, I have experienced a number of different teaching styles and techniques. Some have been successful, others have not. Every teaching technique I have experienced, however, has been influencial for my future students because now I know for myself what techniques will help those I teach. When I was first taught algebra, I was given steps and formulas to follow rather than explainations and applications. Because I was young, i needed that direct form of teaching to grasp the algebraic concepts. I think that is a good way to get young students interested and confident in Mathematics. The next level of understanding comes when those steps and formulas transform into meaningful operations needed to compute story problems or information given in an unexpected format. In order to teach this level of understanding, the educator must give examples of many different types of story problems and then allow students to come up with their own so that they can learn to think outside of exactly what they are told. Once a student can analyze a problem on their own and use concepts already taught and grasped, the teacher can become more of a guide and the student will progress more quickly. I have noticed that some educators prefer to only lecture, rather than allow input and participation from students. This environment prevents some learning because without students asking questions and commenting, the second level of understanding cannot be reached. It is still important, however, for a teacher to give students enough information so the ideas that the students are forming on their own are correct and relavant. To summarize, there must be a balance between the information given directly to the student and the information expected for the student come up with on their own. Each student will be at a different level and so it is important for the instructor to become familiar with and understand their students' level of understanding.