Spencer County Middle School teacher Michelle Gross is a champion for vibrant learning experiences in the projects she leads to help students understand how math applies to their lives. Gross, who has 22 years of teaching experience in math, was named the 2026 Kentucky Teacher of the Year during a ceremony in Frankfort on Oct. 7. She also was named the middle school division winner. (Photo submitted)
(SPENCER COUNTY, KY) – Spencer County Middle School teacher Michelle Gross is a champion for vibrant learning experiences in the projects she leads to help students understand how math applies to their lives.
Gross, who has 22 years of teaching experience in math, was named the 2026 Kentucky Teacher of the Year during a ceremony in Frankfort on Oct. 7. She also was named the middle school division winner. Gross and eight other Teacher Achievement Award recipients were honored by the Kentucky Department of Education at the ceremony.
“It’s absolutely wonderful and I’m excited about it,” Gross said of being named a Teacher Achievement Award winner. “There’s so many good teachers out there that are deserving of the award and that the fact that they chose me to be a finalist truly is an honor.”
Ashley Marie McGaughey, a Spencer County Middle School teacher, said Gross epitomizes the characteristics of a servant leader.
“Michelle’s incredible dedication, expert pedagogical knowledge, positive rapport with stakeholders, love of community and excellence in the classroom embody the best traits of the Kentucky Teacher of the Year program,” McGaughey said. “She understands how differently students can think, and has made it her mission to meet each child where they are. Michelle provides the structure and opportunities students need to succeed at high levels regardless of their background or ability level.”
Gross teaches four 7th-grade math classes at Spencer County Middle School. She also teaches a gifted and talented class called The Academy, where students pick a subject area to dig into deeper.
She taught for two years at Middlesboro Middle School before coming to Spencer County, where she has taught for 20 years.
Gross said she loves teaching math not only because she is good at math, but also because she loves helping students see how the subject connects to the real world.
One project that Gross leads is the ratios recipe project. Students pick a recipe and use math to scale it up for a crowd or scale it down to feed just a few people. Then they actually cook the food, either for their family or their class.
Gross also started a class initiative called the Dream Homerama project, where each January, math students design and build a model of their dream house. They start by researching architecture and design concepts, then gather inspiration.
Using the math they learn in class, students draw their house to scale on blueprints. Then they design it digitally and build 3D models using whatever materials they want.
Gross said she enjoys seeing students getting creative with it by using materials such as popsicle sticks, LEGOs, cardboard and foam board.
Each year, students have the opportunity to present their houses in front of architects, contractors, interior designers, real estate agents and community members. Students present what the inside of their houses look like, explaining how they used math to determine design features and how much paint they would use.
“It has become a big deal over the past few years,” Gross said. “I love looking at being creative and looking at ways kids can use the math they’re learning, but in a way that would make sense to them or a way that they might use in the future.”
She said last year’s Dream Homerama presentation drew more than 100 local professionals and community members from across the Louisville area.
“When I originally started doing this, I thought this is going to benefit my kids. It did benefit my kids, but it also benefited the community,” Gross said. “The community was like, ‘Oh my goodness, look what these kids are capable of doing.’”
Gross has been a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT) since 2010. She said the process of getting certified, which included difficult tests, is one reason she focuses so heavily on project-based learning as a teacher.
“Sometimes students can’t showcase what they’re learning via test; they may be amazing at something and then fail a test,” Gross said. “My struggle through the (NBCT) process helped me realize I don’t need to only provide tests for students. … It further strengthens why I do a lot of project-based learning and have the kids showcase learning in different ways, like writing things out and even making a video of what they’re learning.”
Another one of her class projects gained attention on a national scale. When teaching about statistics, Gross helped her students create surveys. Their goal was to look at data from two different populations.
Gross connected with someone at the University of Louisville who encouraged her to apply to speak at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference about the work in her classroom. At the conference, she met teachers from across the nation and their classes were able to collaborate. Students made their surveys digital and the students in other states took each other’s surveys.
“That actually helped my students because sometimes perspectives in Spencer County Middle School or the perspective in a rural area doesn’t always connect,” Gross said. “So by having opportunities and having connections across the globe or across the United States, it does help inform their thinking and looking at different areas.”
Gross always loved to help other people but didn’t know she wanted to be a teacher until she was a senior in high school. She said her high school math teacher saw she excelled at math and helping others and asked her to start peer tutoring other students.
Gross tutored one student who was at risk of not graduating, and her tutoring helped him pass.
“At this point, I thought maybe I might want to be a teacher, but I still wasn’t 100% sure,” Gross said. “On graduation day when he crossed the stage, it was one of those moments for me. … I was like, ‘This is where I can make a difference.’”
She was thankful for the teachers who saw her gift and encouraged her to help other students. Now, Gross does the same thing for her students.
She recently noticed some of her students were having trouble with a proportionality concept. But one student understood it, so Gross asked her to make a video for the class explaining how to do the math problem.
“She was so excited to do that and she emailed me back and she’s like, I’d love to do some more of these,” Gross said. “Giving her that opportunity, it helped the other kids as well because (they) were able to watch the video and said, ‘That makes more sense now.’ So seeing that my teachers in the past did that for me and now I have the opportunity to do that for my students, I feel like it’s kind of come full circle.”
Gross is the math department chair at Spencer County Middle School and the 7th-grade team leader. She also coaches the academic team, is one of the quick recall coaches and the Math Counts coach, where she encourages students to compete in the Math Counts competition.
She helps with the after school tutoring and club program called Grizzlies Beyond the Bell three days a week. She also leads Grizzly News, which broadcasts weekly school news videos, and helps with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Gross believes one thing that helped her stand out when she was nominated as a finalist for Kentucky Teacher of the Year is that she has a desire to build connections with students.
“I want to make connections for students with the math and what they’re learning to the real world, but then also, I want to connect with students for a lifetime and realize that I’m not just their teacher for now, I’m their teacher for a lifetime,” she said.
That’s my teacher