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I'd like to recommend my latest summer read to any math teachers out there.  I first spotted it on my newest favorite math blog, The Elementary Math Maniac.  (She does some wonderfully amazing things in math.  You should check out her blog.)  The book looked like something I needed to read, and I was right.  I suppose one of the reasons why I enjoyed it so much is because it validated some math shifts I've made in the past few years, specifically with problem solving.  

In a nutshell, kids solve problems in their own ways, a handful of them are asked to display their strategies for all to see, then each of them explains their work to the rest of the class.  Click on the picture below of one child's work to see the post where I described the process in more detail.

The book explains this process and the reasons why it works so well.  The author also gave me several tips for how to improve what I'm already doing.  I'm excited to make some changes when the little problem solvers arrive in August.  

Here are a few foundational ideas from the book.  Believe me, it's full of plenty more!