Maths in the Inclusive Classroom

After completing her degree at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia, Jodie Parsons, BSc (Hons), Grad Dip, was delighted to start her teaching career by returning to schools in the western suburbs of Melbourne where she had been schooled. As a classroom teacher, Jodie became dissatisfied with her ability to improve student outcomes in mathematics while delivering the curriculum in the prescribed way. Finding a like mind in Yvonne Reilly, she has been collaborating with her professionally since 2007. She has co-authored papers in 2009, 2010 and 2011 describing the development of the numeracy programme at Sunshine College, Melbourne, which she has presented annually at Mathematics Association of Victoria conferences as well as delivering a keynote address with Yvonne at the 2014 conference. Jodie presented her work on differentiation and reciprocal teaching in mathematics at conferences in the USA and New Zealand and has delivered professional development to classroom teachers across Australia. Jodie is mum to Ben, Taylor, Kane and Harry.

Yvonne Reilly has been employed as an Assistant Principal at a government secondary college serving the community in a western Melbourne suburb since 2019. In the eleven years prior to this appointment, she led the mathematics team at the college in the development of the innovative Maths Futures program. The work of this program led to her team winning two Victorian Education Excellence Awards in 2015, including the prestigious Lindsay Thompson Award. Since 2009, the innovative aspects of the program have been presented at numerous international conferences.

Yvonne presents annually at the MAV conference and as a consultant, she delivers professional development for teachers and leaders of mathematics throughout Australia. In 2015, she won Brimbank Australia Day Educator of the Year. She also co-authored the Maths in the Inclusive Classroom (Years 5-8) series of teacher books and co-founded the COSINE network of schools in 2020. Yvonne completed a Masters in School Leadership (Numeracy) in 2011 and doctoral research in mathematics tasks and their effect on student engagement and learning in 2023, both at Monash University.