Laurie Murdock (6th Grade, Terra Linda Elementary) loves teaching. It’s evident in her smile when she’s with her students and her pride in their learning.

Laurie hit the ground running beginning her first year of teaching. She rarely passed up an opportunity to learn regardless of the subject matter. She’s been involved in the Jordan History Academy, Balanced Literacy training, REACH Training, Video Journaling, ESL training, Writing Workshop, Core Academy, Jordan math courses, and is currently the Engaged Classroom teacher for her school. She has developed a well-rounded understanding of teaching and implements strong research based practices in her instruction. Her varied interests strengthen her math instruction because of her ability to see correlations between content areas. Studying Ancient Egypt will also be an exercise in thinking about geometric solids, surface area, angles, and other geometry concepts. Each new topic is a new opportunity to explore the mathematics of that domain. That’s why children in her classroom feel lucky to have her for a teacher.

Last year, Laurie completed her Utah State Elementary Mathematics Endorsement. She gravitated toward the algebra classes and thrills to share activities from these courses with her students. She firmly believes that her students can be proficient with reasoning algebraically or creating and solving linear equations.

Laurie applies her passion for algebra in her role as facilitator for district courses. She is viewed as knowledgeable and as a teacher who understands both teaching and learning. Laurie is full of energy and life, and is respected by her colleagues whether in the school or district. She is one of those teachers that children remember years later. While she might not recognize this just yet, she is creating a legacy of learning in her classroom.