Phoenix Park

After reading chapter 5 describing how Phoenix Park presented mathematics and the general nature of mathematics that the school (both teachers and especially students) held, I was struck by awe, as well as, concern and questions.

First of all, I am intrigued by the nature of mathematics that is held by Phoenix Park; the notion that math is about thinking, probing and problem solving, not the unfortunate side effect of traditional math classrooms that inevitably portray mathematics as a set of rules and regulations to following, and that any problem can be solved in a short amount of time, without thinking! This is the notion of mathematics that I would like to present to my students, and I am sure that I am not! Too often I find students who rush to get the math completed, who do not think about the problem they are faced with and end up with an solution that is completely non-sensible. This I feel is a major concern with the mathematics that is being taught in our school systems, students are not aware of whether or not their answers make sense, mostly because they do not think about the mathematics, they simply apply some rule that they think is appropriate and assume they are done.

Some of the concerns and questions that I had about the Phoenix Park approach to presenting mathematics, include:
- I wonder what the classroom in Phoenix Park looks like. What resources (textbooks, manipulatives, Internet/web resources) do the students have at their finger tips? I tend to think that if I were to implement this form of "teaching" in my classroom, right now, me class would not be physically arranged to accompany the students needs.

- secondly, I personally would have serious issues with the notion/idea that students who do not want to engage and do work, can simply avoid the math. The major issue that I have with this is that I feel that students who do not want to engage would be a major disruption to students who do want to engage. Also, I have a fear that most of my students would choose not to do anything......and class would be a waste. I guess that the reason of this is that I feel my students (most of them anyways) are not responsible enough to handle the responsibility that accompanies such a type of learning and teaching style.

- Finally, Jo Boaler say in chapter 5, "All three teachers seemed concerned to help and support students and, consequently,spent almost all of their time helping students who wanted help, leaving the others to their own devices." This approach seems to be in complete contradiction to the method that my school presents. I feel that I send almost all of my time in class is spent on "helping" students who are unmotivated and seem to not want my help. So I feel that this approach would not fly in my school. Having said that, I personally would rather spend my time helping those who want my help, engaging, pushing and challenging them!