Algebra Tiles App

The other day, I found an app called Algebra Tiles.  I tried it myself and just could not get it to work correctly so I put it on the back shelf.  Today, I had a student who got bored and wanted to just throw paper wads at the garbage can so I had him check it out and see if he could figure it out.  I showed him the factoring trinomials one and figured out how to do it.  So he tried to figure out the solving part of it.  He got it and I was able to use the app in my last period class (Algebra 1).  The students spent most of the period working on the app and I think it has clarified solving one and two step equations for many of my struggling students.  I think I will have my algebra II class try it tomorrow for a few minutes just to try factoring quadratics.  There are two other parts are substitute and expand.  I hope to get those understood so I can use the substitution with my Algebra I class for solving linear equations using substitution.  Now that I understand how to use it, I will be able to use it in several classes.