Throughout my teaching career I will be required to teach children mathematical skills and concepts to help them progress to the next grade. To help them master the required standards, I have to use different strategies, manipulative devices, models and technologies. Academic articles and studies will also be useful in helping me develop ways to teach my students. In the following article I will discuss how to introduce five different mathematical concepts to my students. My first concept is to compare the relative size of decimals. Students can easily confuse decimal amounts because there are so many numbers involved. Students initially learn that more digits equal a larger amount. For example, they might think that 0.2398476 is greater than 0.72 because it has more digits. To prevent students from being confused and misunderstanding actual amounts, I would teach a strategy called a leading figure (Cathcart, Pothier, Vance, & Bezuk, 2011, p. 278). Using the leading digit strategy eliminates unnecessary numbers making it easier for students to compare the two fractions. The student will keep the first non-zero number and leave out the rest of the numbers or replace them with zeros. In our example above, 0.2398476 would become 0.2 and 0.72 would become 0.7. Students would be able to compare 0.2 and 0.7 much more easily. Students would use base ten blocks to demonstrate that 0.7 is greater than 0.2 (Cathcart et al., 2011, p. 271). By placing rods and a cube on the base ten block to match the problem we are solving, students could visually see which was larger and which was smaller. For additional practice, students can work on the following website: http://www.ezschool.com/Games/CompareDecimals.html. This website provides a game with... half of the paper... agogic content knowledge." As long as I prepare, I know I can teach effectively. References: (Cathcart, W.G., Pothier, Y.M., Vance, J.H. & Bezuk , S. B. (2011). Learning Mathematics in Elementary and Middle Schools. (5th ed.: Merrill/Prentice Hall. Myers, P. (May 2007 Why? Future Teachers Discover the Depth of Mathematics, 88, 9. Retrieved February 11), 2012, from General OneFile via Gale:http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.lib.uwf.edu/gtx/start.do?userGroupName=pens49866 &prodId=ITOFPiccolo , D. (February 2008). Pedagogical knowledge for teaching mathematics, 108, 2. p.46(3) Retrieved February 11, 2012 from General OneFile via Gale: http://find .galegroup.com.ezproxy.lib.uwf.edu/gtx/start.do?userGroupName=pens49866 &prodId=ITOF