An operational understanding of the equal sign can hinder learning its relational meaning. After providing examples that illustrate the folly of expecting students who know the operational meaning of the equal sign to intuit the sign's relational meaning, this article provides teachers with strategies that will help them effectively introduce the relational meaning of the equal sign. This enables teachers to, first, trigger the operational meaning of the equal sign and, second, to validate--or at least not invalidate--students' prior experience with the operational sense of the equal sign.