Anyone that knows me will know how much of a “twitter” advocate I am in terms of the benefits to my teaching. I use it professionally and rarely use it for personal stuff (that’s what Facebook is all about for me but I don’t really “do Facebook anymore”) – ultimately it’s nice to know that there is a complete support network who just “get it” and generally anyone that goes to the effort of interacting with others (it’s a two-street!) will do so, in the main to offer advice, support and sometimes even just an ear to listen. Over time it’s been amazing for me to develop “proper” friendships (just like the real world) – after all, I will talk to some of you more often than I do some people in real-life. One of the things I noted when meeting people in real-life was that there was none of that awkwardness of meeting someone for the first time as you “talk” all the time and it just seems normal to be talking to them in person.

I think it has “shrunk” the teaching community but often need to remind myself that whilst the maths teaching community has really embraced the medium, there are still more people not on twitter than are regular users. If you’re someone that is tempted I wrote an idiots guide a while ago here IDIOTS GUIDE TO TWITTER :

Whilst I’m talking of “idiots” (Rob: I mean that in the sense of your shenanigans this week!). If you haven’t yet followed Rob Smith … do it: @RJS2212 He is one of the nicest, most genuine tweeters you will find. WARNING: He is absolutely barmy! This week he is doing something this week that I would class as idiotic … he is doing a 48 hour (think his maths is out a tad here as his itinerary is longer than 48 hours) twitter tour of the UK … just for fun! What a way to spend a couple of days of your holiday?!? His plan is to:

  • Drive from Leicester and be in Southend on Sea at around 11am Monday then
  • Onto Brighton for 6pm Monday
  • Work his way north on Tuesday; aiming to be in London around 2pm, in the Midlands with me about 4:30pm and then back to Leicestershire for 6pm.
  • Get to Kilmarnock (yes Scotland!) by 6pm on Wednesday via Manchester
  • Travel down through the North East and Grimsby for fish and chips by 5pm on Thursday.
  • Along the way see as many maths tweeters as possible taking diversions where he needs to!

If you haven’t yet got onto his list  (the above is not a definitive itinerary) for a visit … do it! Tweet him and follow his journey this week .. it should be hysterical because he is also a very funny guy (shh!! Don’t tell him I said that!)