The idea of a TeachMeet*/MakerMeet just for Maths teachers was a hot topic of conversation at last April in Thurles – there was so much fun had trying out the Fold and Cut Theorem (inspired by the Katie Steckles YouTube version) at the #ictedu Maker Meet that it was bound to happen.

And so now, thanks to the generous support of the authorities in LIT, Pam O’Brien is adding to her already busy ‘meet’ portfolio by hosting #MathMeetIE, along with Neil Butler agus mise.

MathsMeetIE open to all educators who have maths as a topic or an interest – either come along and get some ideas, or better again, share some of your own! The MathsMeetIE Eventbrite page is where to sign up – entry is free but you need to be registered. And it is an timely way to get kick started into a week beginning with Megadojo in Limerick on Oct 15, Maths Week and CodeWeekEU nationwide from Oct 15-23rd, and ending with Dojocon 2016 in Dun Laoghaire the weekend of Oct 22-24

The program builds as people sign up to present, but we can release one nugget – there will DEFINITELY be a session of BreakoutEDU, in which attendees can take a team code breaking challenge, unlocking some pretty engaging ideas for their classroom in the process. (There are some more details on BreakoutEDU in the previous post). Watch the #MathsMeetIE twitter timeline for updates.

Please pass this message to all your Maths friends, be they reluctant or unashamed nerds – all are welcome!

Here’s a mini MathsMeetIE-flyer to print and display on a noticeboard near you!

*according to the data at the Irish TeachMeets wiki, this will be the 70th Teachmeet in Ireland since it was introduced in Feb 2009!

A chance tweet from Joe Dale in the UK (thanks Joe!) alerted us to the fact that Nebraska teacher, Dr Lynne Herr, proponent of the increasingly popular BreakoutEDU activity, was visiting Ireland at the end of the summer. Lynne  was offering to give up a day of her vacation along our Wild Atlantic Way to introduce Irish educators to the “something different” that is BreakoutEDU. And so a flurry of emails ensued between Lynne, CESI, and champion supporter Avril Ronan of Trend Micro in Cork. And there we ended up on September 3rd – in a spacious room in the River Lee Hotel in Cork, with coffee and food on tap, for our day of immersive learning with Lynne, of fun and teamwork, of time flying while we solved the clues and literally ‘unlocked our learning”. As ever with events in the CESI tribe, we had the enriching mix  of educators from Primary, Secondary, Third Level, voluntary, non-profit and ed-tech support worlds.

Lynn is a gifted teacher – the perfect mix of deep empathy and a light touch – and we were thrilled to have had a day with her in Ireland – lets hope she will return! BreakoutEDU is definitely a very clever and engaging methodology, based on a very simple idea – the answer is locked in a box, if you want to open it you have to learn your way to solving the code that opens the lock. This has huge potential as a straight content-teaching tool, and could be a very powerful cooperative learning method. The simplicity of the idea lends it extreme flexibility and has potential to be used in all levels and sectors of education.

Those curious for more details – or to see the huge bank of resources and ideas already developed and  shared by BreakoutEDU community – can check out the BreakoutEDU website, BreakoutEDU Facebook page, the Twitter timelines @BreakoutEDU, #BreakoutEDU, and @lherr

(Those who are curious to experience a BreakoutEDU should get themselves along to MathsMeetIE in LIT, Moylish, Limerick on Friday October 15th – more details in next post!)