For Becky Melvin, the numbers have always mattered — but never as much as the people behind them. The seventh-grade math teacher at Macomb Junior High School has spent nearly three decades shaping minds across rural Illinois, and though the formulas and theorems fill her days, it’s the relationships she’s built that define her work.

“I didn’t get into this to teach math,” she said. “I got into this to teach students.”

Becky grew up just down the road in Table Grove, about seventeen miles from Macomb. “That’s where we went to shop, where all the stuff was,” she laughed. Her ties to the region run deep. Her father, a beloved educator at VIT Schools for 48 years, taught chemistry and physics before serving as principal. “He was the reason I went into teaching,” Becky said. “Students would come to the house, and I’d watch him help them with their math or science. I just thought it was neat — helping people understand things.”

After earning both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in math education from Western Illinois University, following in her father’s footsteps felt natural. She spent 23 years teaching at VIT before joining Macomb Schools about seven years ago. “I’d always wanted to be in Macomb,” she said. “It’s a family-oriented staff, and that’s how we treat our kids too. We want them to feel supported — not just educated.”

That philosophy shows up daily in the seventh-grade team she helps lead. “There are five or six of us, depending on the year, and we divide up the kids so each of us really gets to know a group well,” she said. “If one of our students is having a rough day, we let the others know so we can put out a safety net. Maybe something happened at home — it’s important that someone’s aware.”

She calls it mentorship, but the practice feels more like family. “Everybody needs someone who cares,” she said. “Once students know they can trust you, they’ll give you so much more of themselves. That’s when the learning really starts.”

For Becky, math is both a subject and a metaphor. “There are as many ways to solve a problem as there are ways to get to Macomb,” she likes to tell her students. “Some are shorter than others, but they’ll all get you there.”

It’s that same mindset she brings to connecting with students individually — finding their route, their way of learning. “You can’t teach every student the same,” she said. “Some need structure, some need encouragement, some just need someone to eat lunch with.”

She smiles when she recalls those lunches. “Sometimes a kid just wants company,” she said. “If you have time for them, it multiplies all over the place — there’s that math again. They remember.”

Beyond the classroom, Becky has been known to take hands-on learning to a new level — literally. “I actually learned how to side a house so I could teach two of my students,” she said. “We sided my mom and dad’s house that summer. There were a few kids sitting in lawn chairs watching us work, but those two helped me do it. I never ask kids to do something I wouldn’t do myself.”

Her curiosity extends well beyond construction projects. Summers often found her volunteering for the Illinois State Museum, working at places like Black Hawk State Park, identifying fossils and learning field techniques she could share back home. “I’d bring things to class so they could see and touch real science,” she said. “Anything I can bring to make it real for them, I do.”

Even with technology like AI making its way into classrooms, Becky believes the human element remains irreplaceable. “AI doesn’t teach logic,” she said. “You need to be able to tell if an answer makes sense. You have to know enough to know whether it’s reasonable — and that’s not something a computer can give you.”

She chuckled at the irony. “AI can’t side a house,” she said. “That takes math — and a lot of it.”

When asked what keeps her energized after nearly thirty years in education, her answer comes easily: teamwork and purpose. “I couldn’t do what I do without my team,” she said. “They’re everything. We work together, we support each other, and we all care deeply about the kids.”

Becky’s formula for teaching, it turns out, isn’t found in a textbook. It’s written in compassion, trust, and community — the kind of math that adds up to something much greater than numbers on a page.