Ms. Hlavnicka is an amazing math teacher who will be retiring following this semester. She has been a teacher for over 28 years and currently teaches Advanced Functions and Calculus, where her love for math can be seen on full display.
When asked why she started teaching, she said her love for it started during engineering school where she would tutor her peers. Since she was tutoring a lot of people, she decided she would become a teacher and do it as a full-time job.
Originally, she taught at Central Peel Secondary School, but she switched to teaching here because it was closer to her home. She said she loves interacting with students and helping them, and that it was much easier to do so when they are closer to her.
Outside of teaching, Ms. Hlavnicka loves to ski, because of which she suffered an unfortunate injury to her knee last year. She also loves to watch sports and is a huge fan of automotives and cars. She has also designed bridges, thanks to her expertise in engineering.
Ms. Hlavnicka says the thing that she will miss the most about teaching is student connections, something that’s her favourite part of teaching. She says that she will not quit education as a whole, and might still tutor or work at a private school but is uncertain. She also said she would love to work in helping make AI better at math. She says she is interested in training and improving AI and feels it is inadequate as of right now.
Ms. Hlavnicka is known to express that she believes that education is becoming worse than it was before. She talked many times about things she disagrees with, such as combining Calculus and Vectors into the same course, and how she misses Grade 13. When asked how she feels she can improve the state of education, she responded by saying how she wishes tests were removed and taken in separate testing centers– like how it is done in university. She hopes major education reforms happen soon.
Overall, Ms Hlavnicka is an excellent teacher and the math department will have an unfillable hole after her absence. She is a teacher who tries her best to prepare kids for university and actively participates in discussions with her students. We wish her well and know that she’ll have a bright future after she leaves our school
THE NORTH STAR 