A Tasmanian thank you

Recently I was asked to be a keynote speaker at the annual conference of the Mathematical Association of Tasmania. It was also the MAT’s 50th anniversary, and I think that one of the reasons I was asked was because I was an expatriate Tasmanian who had been involved with the association in my younger days (my artwork is still used on the cover of their journal) and because they hoped I could bring a certain maths and teaching slant that they wanted.

I did a couple of keynote presentations for them, as well as running a workshop for primary teachers. One of the keynotes preceded the anniversary dinner, so I tried to make that one a bit witty and mathematical and reminiscy and teachery … and, in fact, I might revisit bits of it with a few blog entries in future, because in preparing it I was reminded of various mathematical and teaching experiences that had been important to me [and, over three years later, I finally got around to doing this]. The second keynote was about the role of examples in teaching mathematics, and how the specific numbers used in and the order of presentation of examples can affect what we learn.

Anyway, none of that is really what this blog entry is about. After my second presentation I was given a really nice thank you gift. It is a cross-stitch of some very cute ring-tail possums perched on a branch of flowering gum (one of the eucalyptus family). It was hand-embroidered by one of the Tasmanian mathematics education folk, Noleine Fitzallen, and it is lovely. It had been framed in black-heart sassafras, which is one of the iconic Tasmanian timbers. I love it.

I’m not yet sure if I have any wall space for pictures in my new office (let alone if I am allowed to hang anything on it), but that’s where I’m hoping it will go.