Innovative and meaningful professional development is needed for successful implementation of any curriculum. As strands of the Math Out of the Box® curriculum are developed, correlating professional development experiences are also developed, field-tested, and revised. During professional development, procedures and processes of effective teaching are modeled for teachers including effective questioning, writing strategies, representation as a key to successful problem-solving, and reflective practices.
During Professional Development sessions, teachers reflect in writing about the essential components of the Math Out of the Box curriculum.
- Development of a community of learners.
- Explicit connections that make mathematics meaningful.
- A model for verbal and written communication.
- Balanced assessment practices.
- A variety of problem solving experiences.
- A learning cycle that provides a structure for inquiry.
- A diversity of materials, manipulatives, and models.
Train the Trainer Institutes
- Reflections [PDF] from the July 2008 Developing Measurement Benchmarks Train the Trainer Institute Madren Conference Center, Clemson University.