In this episode, I get to talk to Tammy McMorrow who  lives in Boise, Idaho and has been teaching first grade for 29 years.  She’s a self-described mimicker - and was so good at following rules and doing exactly what she was told to do, she was valedictorian of her class. In this interview she does an incredible job at speaking vulnerably, sharing her learning process, and how she finally found what she was looking for to become the math teacher she wanted to be. In doing so, she has helped thousands of others as she started the Building Thinking Classrooms Facebook group for K-2 which now has over 7,500 members. I’m one of them, and she does an awesome job moderating and collaborating with this group.

The math in this episode is the beauty of geometry and shapes the fact there are MANY different ways to solve problems and when people do so, that’s actually a really good thing!

The other things in this episode are the power of being vulnerable; being creative in trying new things; understanding that as a teacher, everything doesn’t always have to be perfect; why the process of learning math is just as important as the math itself, and so much more.

Books and articles discussed in this episode:

Rigelman, N. R. (2007). Fostering mathematical thinking and problem solving: The teacher’s role. Teaching Children Mathematics, 13(6), 308–314. https://doi.org/10.5951/TCM.13.6.0308

Math is Figureoutable - Pam Harris

The 5 Practices in Practice

Intentional Talk

Productive Math Struggle

Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You’d Had

Figuring Out Fluency in Mathematics