Milken Award-winning educator shares teaching style, tips during lab sessions in Coeur d'Alene

COEUR d'ALENE — He walked around his colorful and ambiently lit classroom, stopping at different desks to check in with small student groups as his pupils worked their way to cylinder volume answers using formulas such as V=πr^2h.

Soft music played as a timer ticked down to discussion time. Lakes Middle School math instructor Marcus Ross encouraged students to engage in dialogue about their work and how they came to their conclusions.

"How did you get there?" he asked one group that offered an answer.

"Tell me why you think that," he replied to them, patiently waiting for the students to explain their mathematical process.

He asked the class for examples of cylinders in everyday life, calling on individuals who gave answers such as toilet paper rolls, car exhaust pipes and water towers.

One of the students in that period, Eli Nail, said Ross' class is a good environment in which to learn.

"He talks to us," Eli said. "He shows us that he cares about what his job is."

Ross was not the only teacher in the room that March 5 morning. A handful of educators from across North Idaho observed Ross' teaching style during a math lab session, an annual exercise Ross has participated in for four years.

"Thank you so much for coming to my classroom and looking into my world," Ross wrote in a letter to the attending educators. "I adore learning, growing and experiencing insight from peers with the same passion for this profession."

A former Lakes student and 2014 Lake City High School graduate, Ross is a Milken Educator for the 2024–25 school year. His award was announced in November.

The Milken Educator Awards were created by philanthropist Lowell Milken in 1987 to reward and inspire excellence in the world of education with $25,000 unrestricted awards that are bestowed upon early-to-mid career education professionals who are already doing great things in their classrooms.

Ross, who is in his sixth year of teaching, has been lauded for his four-tier classroom management system — now used throughout Lakes — that uses different colors of LED lights to keep students on task and to inform them when it's time to move to instructional time, independent work, partner time/peer support and small group activities.

"It just helps with my transitions so fast, it saves me time and energy," Ross said. "I find that I'm less tired and the students are more prone to going straight to what I need them to do. That tier system makes my life so much easier."

Canfield Middle School Principal Nick Lilyquist was a math teacher before he became an administrator 17 years ago. He said Ross taught the cylinder and volume formula lesson way better than he would have.

"I would have said, 'Hey you guys know what this is? This is a cylinder,' and then we would have gone through procedural fluency and I would have shown the formula and we would have 17 (examples) of them and I would have thought they were really good at it because they could take a calculator and they could do volume formulas," he said.

"It's just the evolution of teaching and whatnot," he said to Ross, "so kudos to you."

Kathy Prummer, a regional math specialist with the University of Idaho Regional Math Center, was among the visiting educators who observed Ross in action.

"It's amazing stuff that happens in this building," she said.

    Marcus Ross, center, in plaid, discusses his teaching style and what works in his classroom March 5 during a math lab at Lakes Middle School. Educators from around the area visited Ross' classroom that day to observe how he conducts lessons and engages students.

    Milken Educator Marcus Ross introduces cylinders and how to find their volume March 5 during a morning math class at Lakes Middle School.
  

  

    Math teacher and Milken Educator Marcus Ross talks cylinder volume with eighth grader Asher Barajas during a March 5 morning class.