Teacher's Guides and PD

The teacher materials that accompany each unit of CMP offer help with the same components that are included in a good professional development program. Part of the professional development should be to model how these materials might be used. But these materials should not be considered a replacement for the professional development necessary to get teachers started and for the district's support in keeping teachers enthused and learning after the initial implementation phase. Each unit contains:

• Help with the mathematics-an in-depth look at the mathematical ideas and how these are developed.

• Suggestions for planning effective launches, asking good questions, and leading powerful summaries.

• Suggestions for good assessments and how to manage them.

• Help in working with diverse or special needs populations.

• Connections to prior and future units and assistance in tracking where students should be in their development of key ideas.

If we believe it is a worthy goal to establish a safe and healthy environment in each classroom to enable students to learn together, then it becomes equally important that we acknowledge that teachers need time and opportunities to work with each other. No matter how informative the teacher support materials are, teachers will get more from them if they can plan or reflect with a colleague.