I have been able to attend a 3-day professional development at GRREC that focuses on using the Van de Walle book. I've attended one day so far and loved it! This book focuses on using hands-on learning and letting students experience "productive struggle"- giving them a problem to solve that is really difficult, but they can solve if they try out some strategies, think about it, and not give up. This is such a great resource because it focuses on the conceptual understanding of math skills and not just the procedure of how to solve a problem. We discussed this process this morning and I turned students loose on a problem- it was great! It's discussions like this that reminds me how much I love my job!
