In 1984 to 85 I conducted an after school math club for Grade 12 students. From left to right in this picture are Kelly Kellner, Paul Lu, Fareed Ali, Peter Newbury, Ian MacBeath, Herman Lau, and myself. I recall it as mostly a seminar in problem solving, but the writing on the blackboard behind me suggests it was more than that. I seem to have shown them Cantor's diagonal proof that the real numbers are not countable. On the Manitoba Grade 12 Math Contest that year, Ian placed 1st and Fareed 2nd. The others in this picture all received honourable mention by placing in the top 20. If I recall correctly two Grade 11 students -- Siomon Leung and Mila Oh -- often attended these sessions. My book has a chapter called Magic in the Classroom. This was a year when the magic ran strong!

This picture was taken in my downstairs classroom in the old Hamber Wing. That was my room from 1975 to 1988. It was small by modern standards. The side blackboard -- the one in the picture -- was real slate. The sound of chalk making contact with slate is a strong staccato click, not the soft thud with a blackboard made from particle board. I often wondered where it originally came from since slate boards date back to a time long before the wing was built in the early 1950s.