@happynumbers

All-staff session at @APSClevelandAve focused on math and literacy connections. I shared how @HappyNumbers and @GoogleForEdu Read Along can support skill growth, engagement, and personalized learning for every student! @APSInstructTech @apsitnatasha @apsitjen

Stephen Hawking asked me where I was from. I didn't expect what came next. ⠀ I was a DPhil (PhD) student in cosmology at the @UniofOxford when I had the privilege of meeting him. We exchanged a few words, and he asked about my background. ⠀ "Armenia," I said. ⠀ His eyes immediately lit up. "My math teacher, Dikran, was Armenian." ⠀ Dikran Tahta (Tahtabrounian) was Hawking's teacher at St Albans School. An Armenian immigrant. The Guardian later called him "one of the outstanding mathematics teachers of his generation." ⠀ Then Hawking did something that stunned me. He modified his lecture that day to include Dikran. ⠀ In front of everyone, he said: "Thanks to Mr. Tahta, I became a professor of mathematics at Cambridge—a position once held by Isaac Newton." ⠀ The greatest physicist of our time credited his path to a math teacher. An immigrant. One of my people. ⠀ This photo is from that day. ⠀ I think about this often. The leverage of a single teacher is infinite. ⠀ It's why we built @happynumbers . We didn't build it to replace that connection. We built it to protect it. ⠀ Happy Numbers saves teachers countless hours—across millions of students—so they can do what Dikran Tahta did: connect and inspire. ⠀ But teachers are the ones who create the next Hawking. ⠀ Today is the last day of school before Christmas. Somewhere, a Dikran Tahta just changed a kid's life. And they might not know it for another 20 years. ⠀ Who was your Dikran Tahta? 👇