President's Message - November 2009

Thoughts on Lifelong Learning

BEVERLY FARAHANI

bamfarahani@gmail.com

I have been thinking about the various professional learning opportunities I have had over the years. They have included OAME mini conferences, leadership conferences, annual conferences, Texas Instruments institutes, Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science institutes, and the Park City Mathematics Institutes to name just a few. I am sure that all of you try to fit in as much professional learning as you can. You may not always remember the speaker or location of all the events you participate in, but all have contributed in some way to the teaching professional you are today.

I always try to take away one thing or another from each of the events. Sometimes, it is something that you least expected to learn! I was at a session where teachers from all four divisions - primary, junior, intermediate and senior attended. We had been asked to sit by division so that each group could work on activities that involved link cubes that were appropriate for their students. After some play time and thinking, we were asked to share our solutions with the entire group. To be honest I don't remember what the actual activities were, but I was struck by the neat and orderly display the primary group had created. In turn, they were appalled at the display the senior group had created. The senior group had used link cubes of various colours and furthermore had not connected them! It had never dawned on me that the colour of the linking cubes might have an impact on whether or not students would understand the mathematical concept you wanted them to learn. Now when a student asks to use linking cubes of the same colour, I let them sort through the box to find the ones they want to use so that colour is not a distraction to the student's understanding.

By participating in professional learning, we are given an opportunity to learn about new technologies, or be exposed to mathematics that we did not study in the university. We can see clearly how it could impact student learning. We get the chance to see new ideas, revisit old ones and meet new people. I guess that we have become the life long learner that we are trying to encourage our students to become.

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