Each Friday this Fall, we will introduce one of our new Cohort 3 M3T Fellows. This week, let’s meet Breck Loudermilk from Fairmont Senior High School!
Breck Loudermilk
M3T Mountain State Fellow – Cohort 3
High School Mathematics Teacher
Fairmont Senior High School
Marion County Schools
Twitter: @BreckLoudermilk
Number of years teaching: 8
Other roles & positions: Math field day coach, math tutor, PBIS team, MSC team, FSHS tailgate team, Curriculum Development Committee, Mu Alpha Theta
Professional awards, distinctions, and points of pride: M3T fellow, MSC educator
Interesting personal facts: My little family is my husband (highschool sweetheart), daughter, and two dogs. We love being active and going on adventures. We also love playing games as a family. Recently, my group of friends and I have been learning to play D&D. I read 1-2 books a week from no particular genre. I like to run 5-15 miles at a time and am training for a marathon. Some refer to me as a beer snob. I collect crystals and house plants.
Why are you excited to be part of the M3T project?
I want to always improve my teaching. I don’t teach for me, I teach for my students. M3T will give me the support, tools, and ideas to be better. How could I not be excited about the massive community of math educators working together?!
Why do you teach mathematics?
I have been a teacher my whole life. Let’s rewind to when I was five. I’d be playing “school” with me as the teacher and my little brother or dolls as the students. All throughout school, I’d show high ability in math and I’d attend math field day. In highschool, I became a peer tutor for math. Again in college, I was hired in three different departments to tutor math. Teaching came naturally. The ease and love of math came naturally. Watching students struggle and then have the “ah-ha” moment is rewarding. When a student’s negative perspective of math turns neutral or positive, that is a win, in my opinion. I teach math simply because of my love for the subject. I’m sure I could teach anything else, but I’ve never even considered it.
What are you focused on improving about mathematics teaching?
Ever since I was in the education program in college, my goal was to change the negative perspective toward math. It still is one of my areas of focus. If the negative mindset shifts towards the positive side, learning becomes easier, life becomes easier. Math is more than numbers. Math is logic and problem solving. Getting students to feel comfortable in the struggle is part of the battle. I am also focusing on encouraging more math talk in my classroom. Students need to know the proper terminology for tests such as the SAT. Sometimes students could do the math, if only they knew the vocabulary used in the question. Perhaps, these points of focus will benefit one another.
Final thoughts:
Working with all the M3T educators is going to keep me motivated and challenged. I do look forward to helping other math teachers in my school by relaying what I’m learning while being a part of M3T. Teachers grow by collaborating.
Check in each week on #M3TFellowFriday throughout the school year to meet another M3T Fellow. You can find a listing of all of the M3T Fellows and stay up-to-date with the work of the M3T network at our website, https://m3twv.org. You can also stay up-to-date with all of the activity of our network by following us on Twitter, @m3t_wv, and on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/m3twv.
