Challenging Brookswood Students with Thinking Thursday
At Brookswood Secondary, educators are encouraging students to think differently about numeracy – and beyond – through a new endeavour called Thinking Thursday.
Designed to support the school’s action plan goals, the program involves the school’s entire Grade 8 population. For 40 minutes each Thursday, students split into groups and, with a teacher and other staff members, work on collaboratively solving numeracy-based problems, puzzles and more. The program is designed as a way to get students thinking critically about mathematics in creative, low-pressure ways, where taking risks is encouraged.
“They don’t see it as just a math class, where they’re coming in and scared of it,” said Brookswood math teacher Chris Krahn. “They know that they can fail and try and succeed and be praised for all of those, not just their success.”
Rather than focusing solely on getting the correct answers, Thinking Thursday emphasizes the process of thinking and collaborating, helping students build confidence and other skills that will serve them well not just in math, but in other facets of school and life, as well.
“The idea is to take that concept of taking risks and move it forward into their everyday life and into their classes,” Krahn said.
Staff play a key role by facilitating rich conversations, prompting critical thinking, and creating an inclusive environment where all students feel comfortable sharing ideas. This approach not only strengthens numeracy skills but also fosters important competencies such as communication and collaboration.
“One of the ways that our teachers and district works to help reach our numeracy goals is to provide unique, varied and rich numeracy instruction and methods that allow students to find success, and also realize that there are many ways to approach math and numerical concepts and understanding,” said George Kozlovic, the District’s director of instruction.
“Brookswood Secondary's new Thinking Thursday Numeracy Program is just one of many ways Langley teachers are helping students reach proficiency in math across the District.”