What Math Teachers Were Sharing on Twitter in 2022
Get caught up on all the viral math education stuff you missed.
Happy new year, folks! To send off 2022, I analyzed the tweets of a group of several thousand math teachers and compiled the photos, videos, links, articles, and resources they shared the most in each month of the year. Get caught up on everything that went viral in 2022!
January
At the end of January, Wordle was acquired by the New York Times, and the #1 most shared link was a math-themed adaptation called Ooodle. Relatedly, the most shared article was my post analyzing Why Wordle Works.
Most Active Conversation: “I don't mean to start any drama but...do you prefer doing math in pen or in pencil?” [link]
February
In February, we were still sharing Wordle knock-offs, now including Quordle (#1 link in February), Worldle (#3), and Sedecordle (#4). The Olympics were live in Beijing and Ralph Pantozzi had the most shared photo with this beautiful skiing parabola.
Most Active Conversation: “How many years have you been teaching and, at this point, what has most influenced how you teach?” [link]
March
The top three links in March were all Wordle knock-offs, now including Heardle at #3.
A bunch of math teachers in the UK got together and wrote “If I Could Tell You One Thing,” which was most shared in the non Wordle-related division.
Most Active Conversation: “In honor of pi day, replace a word in a movie title with the word ‘pi.’” [link]
April
Okay, I am no longer reporting Wordle-related rankings here. The most shared link here was for Julia Aguirre’s webinar, “Grades and Test Scores Do Not Define Us as Math Learners: Cultivating Transformative Spaces for Anti-Racist Mathematics Education.”
Zak Champagne had the most shared article: “The Teaching and Learning of Mathematics is NOT About “Right Answers”
Most Active Conversation: “What's the best teaching advice you can give in 3 words?” [link]
May
Desmos had the top two links in May. Sean Sweeney’s Desmos Escape Room took top honors. Then Desmos Classroom announced its merger with Amplify, taking the silver medal overall, though a strong gold in the “press release” division.
The most shared photo was the gorgeous little number sense problem above.
Most Active Conversation: “Suppose that your pupils are having difficulty with this question. [If a = 10 and b = -2 find the value of a-b.] How do you go about getting them over this hurdle?” [link]
June
Simon Singh’s “home for curious mathematical minds” Parallel was the most shared link in June.
In the most shared photo, Jonathan Hall asked, “Where do we lose the 2?”
Most Active Conversation: “Make a math teacher cry with 4 words.” [link]
July
The most shared link in July was Brian Bushart’s Numberless Word Problems website.
Aleda Klassen’s sketchnotes for Building Thinking Classrooms were also a hit.
The most shared image included these Mathematical Points of Power from Margie Pearse.
Most Active Conversation: Something about high school mascots and it isn’t hard to conclude that much of math education Twitter took a break this month. Good!
August
Desmos Classroom had the top three links as the school year as the US started ramping up, including:
Polypad integrating into Activity Builder
A new Twitter handle for @DesmosClassroom.
Fawn Nguyen starting work at Amplify, the parent company of Desmos Classroom.
Robert Kaplinsky wrote the most shared article in August, an ode to Peter Liljedahl’s book Building Thinking Classrooms.
Most active conversation: “It's Mental Math Monday. How would you mentally calculate 80% of 150?” [link]
September
In the most shared video, David Poras showed us how Polypad can turn mathematical shapes into musical notes.
In the most shared photo, Emily Rae turned a complaint about an Amazon purchase into a promising lesson about surface area.
Most Active Conversation: A roll-call of attendees of NCTM’s annual conference. [link]
October
A Desmos Classroom upgrade took the #2 spot but otherwise this month belonged to the United Kingdom, including:
A Black Heroes of Maths poster from the UK’s International Centre for Mathematical Sciences.
A resource called “Developing Your Use of Manipulatives in Maths Teaching” from the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics.
This resource called “Worked Examples” which is exactly what you think it might be.
At this point in the year, the Wordle adaptations have largely faded from the Top 20. They’re now surpassed by a new contender for daily-puzzle-you-complete-while-brushing-your-teeth called Fiddlebrix.
Most Active Conversation: Howie got real about the haters and hopefully felt the love in return. [link]
November
The call for proposals for next year’s national NCSM conference was most shared in November. NCSM has some juice!
Ayelian had the most shared video with a construction of 1/7 of a circle that is the only way that this household will cut a pizza into seven slices from now on.
400+ educators signed a petition urging The College Board to reconsider its syllabus for AP Precalculus.
Most Active Conversation: Tracy Zager, stellar human and editor, announces she is leaving Stenhouse Publishers under circumstances not of her choosing. There are other great editors at Stenhouse but working with Tracy was the biggest reason I signed a contract for a book there, one which I have since withdrawn. [link]
December
Nothing was shared even half as much in December as Mathigon’s annual December puzzle calendar. I’d invite you to bookmark it for next year but I’ll wager it’ll get shared just as much.
All Ten from Beast Academy is another puzzle that placed pretty high as well.
No one kept the math education Twitter chatting in 2022 like Howie Hua so it’s fitting that he had the most shared video, turning math into an infomercial, and conversation this month. In fact, he had the most active conversation of all of 2022.
Most Active Conversation: Make a math teacher cry in 4 words. [link]
My Twitter use has changed quite a bit since I first joined in 2007, but true then as now, there are forms of knowledge sharing, professional development, and community you can only find on Twitter, hints of which you’ll find all throughout this rundown of 2022. Let’s keep it going in 2023.