This is how I teach math now, because of her

Dr. Sue Baker

Cedarville University – Colorado Springs, CO USA

By: Nikki Myers

I had several teachers who made a deep impact on me. My second grade teacher was so good that I wanted to be a teacher just like her when I grew up, and never strayed from wanting to teach. However, when Dr. Sue Baker became my professor in college, my world view about teaching and learning changed. She was also my advisor, and helped me navigate classes as an unrecognized gifted learner, including helping me get into classes early and take a heavier caseload than recommended- and I thrived. But her approach to teaching math changed my whole world. Because she taught with concrete, hands-on methods that showed me that I could enjoy math. As a visual-spatial learner with some unrecognized visual processing speed gaps, I had been taught all of my K12 years that successful math was memorized- and I was miserable. She is now in my head every time I teach math… and now every time I train a new set of teachers about math methods. Touch it, play with it, move it, ask questions… this is how I teach math now, because of her.

I got to see her two fall seasons ago, now in her retirement. She recently published a short book with her son, and she sent me a copy last spring- and just before our school shut down from the pandemic. Taking a picture of myself holding that book, in front of a display case at my school, knowing that I am a better teacher and a better principal, who has enabled others to be better because of her, is a priceless moment in my life… and writing that ‘thank you’ note to her meant the world.