I had my last day at TSS on Friday. It’s hard to believe that five weeks have passed since I started there. They flew by – even more than my five weeks at KRSS. I think I hit my stride somewhere in these past several weeks – both in my professional work and in my routines and personal/family life.

On Thursday at TSS, I facilitated a professional development session with most of the math department, some other teachers and one vice principal. As part of the Fulbright program, we were encouraged to proposed various PD we could offer to teachers at our school attachments. Of course, I offered workshops on using Desmos, which we did last week. I also offered a kind of book club on the book “Mathematical Mindsets” by Jo Boaler. My fabulous colleagues in the math department at Northside are reading the book a few chapters at a time and then discussing those chapters as part of PLC’s we have regularly. I thought we could do a similar thing with Singaporean schools.

As it turns out, TSS faculty were reading Carol Dweck’s “Mindset” book, so Thomas, the Math Head of Department, thought that a discussion on some part of Boaler’s book would be appropriate. We didn’t have a book club like NCP and the teachers did not have the book ahead of time to read. Thomas suggested that I focus on the ideas in Chapter 9 of the book and I presented those in the most interactive way that I could. I even slipped in some Desmos into this session…no surprise there.

On my last afternoon I was interviewed by TSS students. They asked about my experiences at TSS and asked about the differences between their school and Northside.  We also discussed more generally schools and students in Singapore versus Chicago. It was a great discussion and I was very impressed with the poise of the students. I’m not quite sure where that video is going to end up, but I’m pretty sure it will be trending on youtube in no time.

I’m pictured with an original art work that was done by an alum of TSS. I was so touched. Also, Thomas hooked me up with complete sets of the math games that his teachers have developed. I’m pretty stoked about my TSS swag!

I start my new school attachment at CCSS tomorrow morning. It’s a new commute, on a new train line, in a different direction in the city. Just like last time, I’m sad that I have to move on when it felt like I was hitting my groove. But, I’m also looking forward to meeting more outstanding educators and learning even more from them.