Over the past year, Kelly Barr, a mathematics teacher at Gilmer County High School, has played an integral role in the growth of a statewide improvement network focused on mathematics teaching and learning as a Fellow in the “Mountaineer Mathematics Master Teachers” (M3T) project. The M3T project network began in 2020 thanks to a six-year, $3 million grant to West Virginia University from the National Science Foundation’s Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, supported by additional grants from the West Virginia Department of Education. The M3T project builds on previous efforts to support secondary mathematics teacher leadership and instructional improvement across West Virginia, which started in Pocahontas County over a decade ago.
“M3T has had such a profound impact on my teaching and instructional design”, said Barr, who is one of 43 M3T Fellows supported by the project, representing 29 counties across West Virginia. “In 22 years of being in the classroom, this professional development has been the most transformative because I can choose what I improve in my classroom. I can look at each new group of students and center on their needs as learners and make real, impactful improvements.”
As part of the project, M3T Fellows must continue to serve in their role as a middle or high school mathematics teacher and work as a network to identify and solve specific problems in their own classrooms and share that learning. Barr has also recruited and led an M3T “local improvement team” with Gilmer County colleagues—Morgan Allen and Melissa Jones—to extend the reach of M3T’s improvement efforts.
The Gilmer County High School team has worked for the past year to address math vocabulary in their mathematics classrooms. Guided by the M3T network’s approach to improvement, the team has tested the use of Word Bank Definitions, which requires students to use math vocabulary in new and meaningful ways. The team has also observed one another in the classrooms and discussed their observations of each other’s teachings.
“Being a part of this network and truly learning about improvement science has been game changing in my classroom and in the classrooms of my LIT members”, said Barr. “Without this fellowship and opportunity change like this may have never come to our classrooms in Gilmer County.”
The team has shared their ideas with other mathematics educators across the state—both on M3T network calls as well as through a poster presentation at the annual conference of the West Virginia Council of Teachers of Mathematics, held in March. The team also presented, “Vocabulary? This is Math Class.” to almost 50 WV educators during a separate session at WVCTM. Most recently, the team attended a Gilmer County School Board meeting to update the superintendent and board members of the work they have been doing over the past year for students in Gilmer County.
While the M3T project grant supports the activity of Barr as a Fellow, Gilmer County Schools has supported the work of the local improvement team, providing time and resources for the group to meet.
"The M3T project is an essential component to providing math teachers with innovative math instruction techniques by peers and professionals. I am so pleased that our school's improvement team of Kelly Barr, Morgan Allen and Melissa Jones are part of the M3T project.", said Nasia Butcher, Principal of Gilmer County High School. “It has enhanced their instruction and afforded students more ways of understanding complex and abstract ideas."
In addition to the local improvement team efforts, Barr, and other M3T Fellows are currently working to develop deeper understandings of topics related to data and statistics, as relatively new—though vital—content expectations in middle and high school mathematics classrooms. Fellows will share these and other takeaways from the year at the M3T Summer Institute, being held in June in Morgantown. The network will be sharing reports on progress made with educators across the state starting in the fall.