MATHstodon Math Teacher Community
I started teaching in the Fall of 2012, right when math teacher blogs and the math teacher Twitter community were reaching their prime. The phrase MTBoS had been coined, and tons of amazing resources were being shared freely online by math teachers across the country (and world!). I was still struggling to get my feet on the ground during my first year of teaching and had no idea that this thriving online community existed, where math teachers were making names of themselves and being recognized nationwide. Countless blogging challenges and initiatives ensured that the core group of math bloggers were producing quality content almost daily. I did not find or read my first math teacher blog until 2016, and I did not even consider creating my own teacher Twitter, blog, or Instagram until around 2021, well after the MTBoS bloggoing and Twitter worlds had faded and math teacher podcasts had taken the reins instead.
MTBoS does still have what seems to be an active website that includes an excellent search engine that only searches for content on math teacher blogs.
MTBoS had another website that has been inactive since 2017.
TMathC Twitter page has been inactive since 2019.
TMC had a website compilation of all resources from each year’s event, which has been inactive since 2018.
I wish I had known about this math community and taken part, even just passively to find all the incredible resources, or possibly even to attend the Twitter Math Camps (TMC): in-person PD created and designed entirely by teachers and for teachers. TMC seemed to run from 2012 until around 2018, when it ended for reasons that are still unclear to me. Many of the math teacher blogs that used to be active in the mid-2010’s have since fallen silent; for many, this occurred around the time of Covid.
Regardless, I decided to join the math teacher blogging world recently in May 2023, and I continue to find excellent resources every time I begin exploring all of the blogs. I decided to go with a blog rather than a teacher Instagram (I dislike everything about this social media platform) or Twitter page. Around this same time, many formerly active MTBoS math teachers were looking for ways to connect outside of Twitter. I was so excited when I happened to check Julie Reulbach’s blog this month and saw her post, from just a day prior, on a NEW MTBoS initiative happening on Mastodon, or in our case, MATHstodon. Mastodon is a social media alternative to Twitter, and MATHstodon is a subgroup made up on math teachers and others interested in math. The timing could not have been more perfect!
I carefully read her post (which was also posted on Sam Shah’s blog - together, they are working on rebuilding the formerly active community) and created my own Mathstodon profile! It took a couple of days to do it since new users have to have their requests accepted before they can join the math teacher subgroup of Mastodon.
This is what my Mathstodon profile page looks like:
and this is what my home page looks like right now:
It reminds me a lot of the old-style Facebook page and home feeds from around 2007 before all of the interface changes, updates, and non-stop Ads and promotional content. It’s very cool to see a lot of familiar names coming back to join this new platform and begin sharing ideas and resources again!
Julie and Sam have been working to create conversation again between new members and math teachers who have been on MTBoS for many years. They have made five prompts so far for everyone to post about, with hashtags to go with them (#prompt1, #prompt2…). All posts should include hashtags #MTBoS and #ispeakmath to help math teachers find content. Sam has a running list of all of the prompts here on his blog. So far, I’ve done the first three prompts.
Another great thing that Sam has done is create and share this Google Sheet for math teachers to list their blogs if they are still active. This will help create a new, refreshed list of blogs that are still actively producing new content so people can make new “follow” lists. I am looking forward to seeing where this new initiative goes! If you’re a math teacher who is looking to connect with other enthusiastic, committed math teachers, consider joining Mathstodon (if you haven’t already).
CLICK HERE to go to the join page!