Hi. I'm Gary Musser and this is my co-author Blake Peterson.

About thirty years ago, Bill Burger and I were incharge of teaching mathematics for elementary teachers in Oregon State University.

No existing text books seemed right to us.

So, we wrote in class text of our own.

We wanted a book that would parallel the development in mathematics in the elementary curriculum at an appropriate level

Moreover, since Bill had just finished the big research project on the teaching of geometry, we wanted that book to be reflect in his important findings.

No book did that.

Bill worked with me on the first two editions of this book until he passed away.

We were fortunate at oregon state to recruit Blake to replace Bill and to my delight Blake joined me as a co-author beginning with the fifth edition.

Gary and I, both have Phd.'s in mathematics.

So as we worked on the book, we've been careful to make sure that its mathematically sound.

Both of us also had the oppurtunity to teach in public schools.

As a result, we have a focus on children's thinking.

We strived to have a balance between mathematics that is accessible and related to student's mathematical thinking.

And yeah it is mathematically precise

When you look at the book, the mathematical strength would be quite clear.

The focus on elementary student thinking is apparent order of the chapters.

Its also seen in our discussion on developmental stages of learning geometry called Van Hiele levels, which we talk about in chapter twelve.

Other assets of the book of the pedegogicalites in particular in 10th edition we have incorporated mathematical tasks in every section in a book.

These tasks can be used by instuctors to help the students be actively engaged in the learning process during instruction.

Most of these tasks were developed by me based on my experience teaching the class.

We are especially exited about this 10th edition.

To support the learning process we have integrated QR symbols that connect to videos produced by Blake.

These QR's can be read on most smart phones and tablets.

We use QR's in 3 different ways.

First, we have a video of our first page in note to our students, where we help students learn how to maximize the use of the book.

Second, to the start of this chapter, Blake provides a walk through of the chapter to write students with a preview and a road map.

Finally Blake will describes his ground breaking student videos contain throughout the book.

I had conversations with many children about my mathematical concepts similar to those we talk about in the book.

It was intriguing to see how they thought mathematically as I visited with them.

We feel that these videos would be a great asset to students who use our book as they better understand the learning of mathematics by elemenatary children.

The great thing about these videos is how easier you all can access.

Simply scan in a QR code like you did for this video and the video was there.

We thank you and hope you enjoy learning from our book as much as we enjoyed writing it.