2 Year Update

So - I became a department head of mathematics at a new school called Bill Hogarth Secondary School.  The amount of work required in opening a new school made me forget about this blog entirely.  Developing leadership skills as part of the leadership team of the school as well as trying to establish vision and setting direction (I'm spouting off Ontario Leadership Framework jargon now) were higher priorities than this blog.

But - now I'm back here as reflecting is quite the final stage of the learning cycle.  I haven't had the time to reflect too much lately and so here I am after 2 years of the new school as well as fresh off a summer school swing at Milliken Mills Secondary School.

I look back at my previous posts and see that I was extremely excited by Peter Liljedahl's work.

Well I have been working at the "thinking classroom" for a couple of years now and have been able to apply it with some moderate success.  I have found that there is a certain subset of students who struggle with this "thinking classroom" philosophy.  Students who believe that mathematics is mostly about rote, repetitive, neatness/note-taking - and have been receiving positive reinforcement of their effort in repetition and rote thinking typically struggle with the "thinking classroom".  Quite often, these are students who put much effort in their schooling and the sudden change in what is valuable in mathematics can be quite jarring for both student and parent.

I'm tired - but I'll update this soon. Lots to reflect as I look towards the past.