Elementary Mathematics for Teachers is a textbook for the first semester of a mathematics course for prospective elementary teachers taught by mathematics faculty and TAs.  It is intended for use with classes of 20-35 students which meet 3-5 times a week, and which consist exclusively of education majors.

The text is designed to be used in conjunction with a set of five actual elementary school textbooks --- the exceptionally clear Primary Mathematics books. Roughly half of the homework problems ask the students to read a section in a Primary Mathematics book, do the problems, and think about what skills are developed, how the problems are organized, what the prerequisite knowledge is, what order topics are developed, etc.

In writing this book, we aimed to make the course both valuable for the students and easy for instructors to teach. To that end we have incorporated the following features.

• The material focuses directly and exclusively on mathematics that is relevant to elementary teachers.
• The textbook presents mathematics in terms of the students' future teaching rather than their learning.
• The focus is always on mathematics. This is not a ``teaching methods'' course.
• The book is divided into short sections, each with a homework set, of a size appropriate for a single class session.
• Instructors can download annotated lecture notes. These are especially helpful in the first month of the course to help TA's understand the level and goals of the course.

The Primary Mathematics books serve several purposes. First, they lay out the content of elementary mathematics, clearly organized by grade. Second, students learn directly from the Primary Mathematics books (while all discussions in class and in the textbook are from a teacher's perspective, it is an unspoken fact that doing Primary Mathematics problems are helping to strengthed the students' problem-solving skills). Third, textbook discussions are frequently followed up with homework problems from the Primary Mathematics books; that provides reinforcement and illustrates relevance to teaching. Finally, while few Elementary Education majors genuinely enjoy math, all have a real desire to be good teachers.  Working with actual elementary school books reminds prosective teachers that they will soon be standing in front of a class teaching math. That thought sharpens their wits and their desire to learn this material.  

We emphasize that our textbook is intended to prepare teachers for teaching from any elementary school textbook series --- the Primary Mathematics books serve only as a prototype of such a series. They were chosen because of their clarity, organization, and low cost.

To accompany our textbook, students purchase Primary Mathematics books 3A, 4A, 5A, 6A, and Workbook 5A (book 3A is the text for Grade 3, semester A). These books can be purchased for $7-8 each at www.singaporemath.com. A more complete description of the Primary Mathematics books is given in the section ``About this Textbook'' at the beginning of the textbook.

This textbook is suitable for teaching in its current form. However, we are still making minor revisions and improvements. We would appreciate comments of any kind.

Thomas H. Parker
parker@math.msu.edu

Scott Baldridge
sbaldrid@indiana.edu