Australia’s coolest maths teacher
Children across the globe are getting excited about algebra and equations thanks to Eddie Woo
He’s the rock-star maths teacher who’s changing the lives of teenagers every day thanks to his online mathematics channel – “Wootube”. Wootube . Since uploading his first online tutorial six years ago, Eddie Woo has gained a cult following of more than 200,000 subscribers from around the world. His free tuto tutorials have been watched mo more than 13 million times. B But the internet sensation, wh who was one of 10 finalists in the $US1 million 2018 Gl Global Teacher Prize last m month, is the first to admit he hated maths as a kid at hi high school in Sydney. “I was a student who s struggled with maths and I w was the person who would p put my hand up and ask if t they could explain it again,” t the 33-year-old father-oft three recalls. “I spent h hours beating my head against the text book!”
Despite this, Eddie did well and went on to study teaching at university, where he learnt to adore maths. Now he’s the head of mathematics at Cherrybrook Technology High School in Sydney’s Hills District.
His rise to fame began when he started uploading his maths classes to Youtube for one of his students who was gravely ill with pancreatic cancer. Having had to deal with his own mother’s cancer diagnosis during his high school years, Eddie couldn’t bear to let his student slip behind.
“I had it as a keen memory how much of my later years in high school had been deeply affected by cancer and what that did to my education,” says Eddie.
“I felt very personally I should do something about this. I came to the realisation that we have technology that can help with this. So I began taking my phone into class and just hit record when my lesson started.”
After winning Australia’s Local Hero award earlier this year, the maths guru is now travelling across the state to mentor students and teachers in regional areas.
“It’s astonishing and it’s a great privilege for me to share the knowledge I have with people around the world,” says Eddie.
“My dream for students who I teach, and for the people who watch my videos, is they learn maths is a beautiful thing! It is actually a very playful subject.”
‘Maths is a beautiful thing! It is actually a very playful subject’