#aussieED

I’ve written before about how scheduled chats are one of the most powerful “features” of Twitter. I write that with quotation marks because they are more a function of social self-organisation than they are of the Twitter system itself. But nonetheless, the inherently real-time nature of Twitter makes this kind of discussion at home on this platform more than any other.

A few days ago I had the joy of co-hosting the Sunday night #aussieED chat with Brett Salakas (#aussieED founder) and Graham Andre (The Mathematics Shed editor). Brett and his team started this chat last year and it has blossomed into one of the most vibrant communities of educators that I’m aware of, both online and off – they really deserve to be commended for their efforts. The reason I got in on the act this time was that the theme was none other than mathematics (something I was very pleased to see on the agenda of a chat that is intentionally cross-KLA and cross-sector). Since I had a hand in composing the questions beforehand, I also took the liberty of preparing some of my responses ahead of the chat itself (so that I could spend the actual hour interacting with others as much as possible). Here are some of the tweets I sent out (including a handful of images I created specifically for the chat):

In answer to the question: “Maths is either right or wrong.” Agree or disagree? Why or why not?

In answer to the question: Can you be creative teaching maths, if so how?

In answer to the question: Share one tech (app, website etc.) maths tool that you couldn’t be without.

In answer to the question: What is your favourite strategy for engaging your students in mathematical thinking?

In answer to the question: How do you teach maths cross curricular?

There’s much more than that, and especially a lot of fantastic ideas shared by others. Check out the Storify of the chat (part 1, part 2) for more good stuff!