Summer institutes focus on a different mathematical topic each year. Training sessions during the academic year focus on reform implementation in the classroom while offering teachers the opportunity to discuss their progress as it's happening. Participants from the program advance to mentoring other teachers in their school districts. The Math Mentor Project provides continued support and resources for these teacher leaders. In summer programs, teachers learn how to analyze student work and ask questions to determine what mathematical ideas are being formed by the students.
Teachers also design activities that motivate students to become active learners.
The program supports teachers as they examine their beliefs about mathematics and how children develop mathematical ideas. A basic premise of the program is that before teachers can create active learning classroom environments for their students, they need to have experience learning this way themselves. SummerMath workshops for teachers use an interdisciplinary approach that considers writing and computer technology valuable tools in mathematics instruction. Click here to read more information about the SummerMath program or to view stories about teacher change from SummerMath participants. Project is the development of an interdisciplinary secondary mathematics and science curriculum.