There is a company I admire and I have used their games in my classroom for many years. The company is called ThinkFun. I have come to know the CEO of this company, Bill Ritchie (the one I visited Martin with), over the past two years. Bill is also a Board Member of SNAP Math Fairs and I have also worked with him on projects for IPP.
Bill has asked me to come work for his company. I am thrilled! I am coming on board as a senior executive and my title is Director of Education Programs. ThinkFun is based out of Alexandria, Virginia, however, I will continue to live in Nottawa and work from home.
ThinkFun has for many years been producing the best mind-challenging games on the market. This is the reason why I have used them in my classroom for years. Now, ThinkFun is heading into the education market. A very intelligent move. I have been asked to head this launch.
Our program is called ThinkFun Game Club. Over the summer, I have been assisting in writing Teachers Guides for this program, field testing it in schools, overseeing the products, and positioning materials to inform the education community of its coming. It is very exciting and the people at ThinkFun are incredible. In particular, it has been an absolute thrill to work alongside Bill. He is a true visionary and someone I respect very much.
As an educator, it is thrilling to have been involved in this program's development. I believe its going to be embraced by the education community. It is a very powerful program. It teaches problem solving strategies through play. That's right. For so many years, educators have been told to teach problem solving better. But no program has been developed that does this successfully and most importantly, that has been fun for students. ThinkFun Game Club does all this. Strategies are focused on and through the play experience, the kids come to understand ... they internalize what the strategies really mean and feel like. They develop the language of problem solving and internalize what the language means. And if you've ever played a ThinkFun game, you know why this program will be a big hit. Because the games are so fun!
And what is also incredible, is that we're seeing kids transferring these strategies not only to the math class, but also to English, science, life at home and even social relations in the playground!
So we've been developing this program and its at a point now that we're very proud of. We will continue to watch it grow and develop. It will be launching on the website within the next month, so make sure you check it out!
http://www.thinkfun.com/
So wish me luck on my new adventure! It is very exciting (and yes scary) and tomorrow will be a very different day for me! (Not going into a classroom on the first day of school I mean) I feel like I am a very blessed and lucky person for all that life has provided me so far! This adventure takes three of my passions; mathematics, education, and puzzles, and rolls it all into one career! I have been working extremely hard over the summer for ThinkFun (and I officially came on board last week) but it is work I really enjoy and feel passionate about. Bill has been incredible to me and he is more connected in this wonderful puzzle world than I could ever dream to be. I have a lot to learn from him and we share the same vision for ThinkFun. And on even a bigger scale, I feel that what we are developing will change and benefit education, and will help our next generation become better critical thinkers!
At IPP, I met an extremely intelligent person, Jurg. He is a top Human Resource officer with IBM in the USA. We discussed many interesting things and he really described some important things to be considered. He feels that one of the weaknesses in our education system is that we are not properly preparing our students to enter the working world of today. This is why. Did you know that one issue of the NY Times has more information in it today than an adult in the early 1900's would learn in their lifetime? People of this generation and most certainly the next, are presented with an incredible amount of information in their lives. And the jobs that teachers are preparing the students of today for, have not even been invented yet! So how do educators prepare children for this world that we cannot even envision? We cannot simply teach them a finite set of skills that will allow them to be successful. What we have to do instead, is to teach our children HOW TO THINK. It is imperative that they are good critical thinkers and problem solvers! And I believe Game Club will help to do this and at a very young age!
So I believe we, ThinkFun, will change the world! Or at the very least, how educators prepare our children to better survive in this ever-changing world! I really believe we can make a difference!
Take Care and say a prayer for me!
Tanya
1 comment:
Congratulations on your new career! I know you will suceed in all you do. I am sooo proud of you. I agree with your philosophy of teaching children HOW TO THINK.
Way to go!!
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