Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply)

What if telling someone they're a math person is actually making things ... worse?! We say it to encourage people, but what if we're unintentionally dismissing what they've actually experienced in math class?

Math educator, curriculum specialist, and competitive powerlifter Teresa Brown joins Vanessa to challenge the way we talk about math identity. After experiencing a stroke that made her, a math teacher, literally start from scratch again with math, Teresa found herself relearning skills she'd spent years helping others understand.

They discuss:

• Why “you're a math person” can backfire (even with good intentions)
• What teachers gain by admitting “I don't know”
• How relearning math changed Teresa's relationship with the idea of "identity"

Teresa's inspiring story reminds us that struggling doesn't mean we aren't capable. And maybe we don't need everyone to LOVE math—we just need them to believe they can learn it.

Links mentioned:

• Teresa's LinkedIn post that inspired this conversation
• Math Fact Fluency by Jennifer Bay-Williams and Gina Kling
• Math Therapy: Why math sucks and how to fix it w/ Raj Shah

About Teresa: (LinkedIn)

Teresa Brown is a veteran math educator, curriculum specialist, and doctoral candidate in curriculum and instruction. A former classroom teacher who now supports K–12 educators through Intermediate Unit 1 in Pennsylvania, she's also a competitive powerlifter and strongman athlete. Her work focuses on teacher learning, instructional practice, and creating environments where taking risks and making mistakes are part of learning.

Contact us:

• Vanessa Vakharia: Instagram, TikTok, Email
• Math Therapy: Text the Podcast

More Math Therapy:

• Get the book: Corwin, Amazon
• Audiobook: Audible, Spotify
• Merch store: Shop here

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply)

What happens when you give a bunch of 6-year-olds a challenging math problem and they CAN’T figure it out? Well, in Tammy McMorrow’s grade one classroom, they might just celebrate with a confetti cannon. Seriously.

Tammy’s been teaching for 32 years, but she still loves learning new tricks. She believes every student has a “math identity bank account,” and that teachers have countless opportunities to make little deposits that build confidence and create positive relationships with math!

Today she joins Vanessa to share how even the smallest changes can make a huge difference and discuss:

• Why teachers should take charge of their own professional development
• How 6-year-olds learn resilience, flexibility & optimism
• Simple ways to celebrate mistakes and build math confidence

Whether you’re a brand-new teacher or you’ve been doing this for decades, Tammy is proof that you don’t have to overhaul your teaching to make a difference - sometimes the smallest things have the biggest impact.

Links mentioned:

• Good Inside by Becky Kennedy
• A Mindset for Learning: Teaching the Traits of Joyful, Independent Growth
  by Kristine Mraz & Christine Hertz
• Building Thinking Classrooms K–2 Facebook Group

About Tammy: (Podcast, Facebook, Bluesky)

With 32 years of first-grade teaching experience and recognition as a PAEMST Finalist, Tammy McMorrow is passionate about the magical and messy elementary math classroom. She helps educators implement Peter Liljedahl’s Building Thinking Classrooms framework to make math engaging, equitable, and student-centered. As host of the podcast Little Minds, Big Thinkers, Tammy celebrates the voices of teachers and the brilliance of young mathematicians. Unfinished and imperfect, she embraces learning as a journey, inspiring teachers and students alike to take risks, explore, and grow together.

Contact us:

• Vanessa Vakharia: Instagram, TikTok, Email
• Math Therapy: Text the Podcast

More Math Therapy:

• Get the book: Corwin, Amazon
• Audiobook: Audible, Spotify
• Merch store: Shop here

Send us a text! (US messaging rates apply)

What happens in the brain when we're learning math? What makes some students struggle more than others with it? Can someone study brain science if they're scared of math?! These are some of the questions that took today's guest Hillary Mastarciyan from severe math anxiety in high school (she was a former student at Vanessa's tutoring centre) to her current PhD in neuroscience at Toronto Metropolitan University!

In today's episode, they discuss:

• if math anxiety is "transmissible" to students (from either teachers or parents)
• the real reasons we see differences in math attitudes between genders
• how learning math is different from learning reading in the brain

Hillary is living proof that math anxiety in school doesn't put an expiry date on your ambitions - if she can become a neuroscientist, you can achieve your dreams too!

Articles mentioned:

• The AIM Collective: Connecting Research and Practice in Canadian Early Mathematics Education
• Bridges over troubled waters: education and cognitive neuroscience
• Computing Whether She Belongs: Stereotypes Undermine Girls’ Interest and Sense of Belonging in Computer Science

About Hillary:

Hillary Mastarciyan is a PhD student in Psychological Sciences at Toronto Metropolitan University, working in the neuroIDEA Lab under the supervision of Dr. Moriah Sokolowski. Her research draws on developmental psychology, numerical cognition, and cognitive neuroscience to investigate how children develop mathematical knowledge and why some learners struggle to acquire foundational mathematical skills. She aims to build on this work by combining behavioural and neuroscientific approaches to better understand the cognitive foundations of early mathematical learning and the factors that support successful development in mathematics.

Contact us:

• Vanessa Vakharia: Instagram, TikTok, Email
• Math Therapy: Text the Podcast

More Math Therapy:

• Get the book: Corwin, Amazon
• Audiobook: Audible, Spotify
• Merch store: Shop here