Preface

Welcome to an Adventure!

Welcome to a teaching adventure. By choosing to teach the curriculum developed by the Interactive Mathematics Program (IMP), you are making a commitment to hard work for the sake of young people's mathematics education. Bringing about change will not be easy, but you will have the reward of seeing your students grow as thinkers and communicators as well as mathematicians!

Since 1989, I have been teaching this curriculum and visiting IMP classrooms. My experiences watching colleagues at work have confirmed my belief that all students can learn mathematics. I've had the good fortune to travel throughout the country, from Hawaii to Washington, DC, and many places in between. Along the way, many IMP classroom teachers have shared their practical tips for making this program achieve the maximum benefit, and this handbook includes many of those tips. Since it's impossible for me to trace specific ideas to individual teachers, I will simply say a hearty "Thank you" to all who welcomed me into their classrooms, participated with me at workshops, and shared their insights with me. I have included some anecdotes in the voices of some of the pioneer IMP teachers, and I want to thank them for their contributions to this document.

The IMP curriculum was developed with underlying principles that are evident throughout the curriculum. This handbook presents a brief introduction to these principles, and we hope it will assist you in implementing those principles. Keep in mind, though, that a document such as this cannot replace the valuable ideas and experiences gained through collaboration among teachers within the school setting and at inservice workshops. The Interactive Mathematics Program strongly recommends that schools implementing this curriculum institute a full-scale program of professional development. Only through such a program will teachers have the support they deserve as they do the hard work of learning both new mathematics and new teaching strategies.

Lori Green