In this second half of our interview with Ruth Watson, a secondary math teacher, Ruth continues to unpack her quest to answer the question, "What if the most important reason to study maths is to worship God – what would this look like?" 

Ruth shares where she is on in the journey of unit development, how she is linking God, humanity and creation to mathematical ideas, and how we can help students join in real work for real need in math classes.   Ruth shares the importance of unit planning to help her resist falling into dualism, as well as sharing very practical advice on how to frame conversations during parent-teacher interviews.

Ruth concludes by leaving math teachers a very practical 'next step' as they continue on their journey of teaching math in a way that helps us to worship God.

This episode is for you if you have ever wondered:

• Should I include my Transformational Goals in real assessment pieces?
• How can I guard myself against dualism in my teaching?
• How can I teach mathematics in a God honouring way?

Ruth is a secondary math teacher at Marrara Christian College, curriculum advisor for NT Christian Schools.  She is married with three nearly adult children and loves going for long walks on the Darwin beaches at sunrise and sunset.

In this episode, Ruth Watson, a secondary math teacher, shares her quest to answer the question, "What if the most important reason to study maths is to worship God – what would this look like?" 

Ruth has recently written a booklet, Worshipful practices: What if the most basic reason to learn maths is to worship God? What would this look like? to share how maths, far from being a neutral subject of drills facts and rules, actually enables us to worship our creator God.  Ruth shares how routines in a math's classroom may be tweaked and reframed to assist in the worship of God. 

She also shares how she uses math's curriculum to directly feed into formational (life-long) learning outcomes that enable her students to worship God, serve in their communities and steward his world with their whole being (head, heart and hands).

Ruth is a secondary math teacher for Marrara Christian College, curriculum advisor for NT Christian Schools.  She is married with three nearly adult children and loves going for long walks on the Darwin beaches at sunrise and sunset.

This episode is for you if you have ever wondered:

• How can I teach math in a way that brings glory to God?
• How can I develop worshipful pedagogical practice, rhythms and routines in my math class?
• How can I be cover the content of the mandated curriculum and still be faithful to the transformational goals I have for my students?

In this episode, Alistair Coffey, a passionate upper primary teacher, shares how his pedagogical strategy, Shapes of Learning https://shapesoflearning.com reflect his journey moving from enforcing uncritical structures of control and power to enabling responsive discipleship and effective learning.  His profound self-reflection ability invites us all to question why we are so attached to our classroom practices and structures.  This conversation moves seamlessly between philosophical reflections and everyday classroom practice. Alistair's ability to link classroom practices (often as mundane and ubiquitous as desks facing the front of the room) with the roots and fruits of these practices is both challenging and inspiring. 

Alistair has been a teacher for 12 years in both the UK and Australia. He is a husband, father and passionate Christian educator and ongoing student, continually learning and growing in the outworking of his calling.