J.M.M. BAKER

​​Experience

Mrs. Baker is a Thomisitic scholar. "I've had a passion for St. Thomas Aquinas's works since I was a teen." Having been so fortunate to receive an education in Aristotelian philosophy from TAC, Joanne has the expertise needed as a prerequisite for Thomistic theology. For over 35 years, she has led study groups for teens and adults on St. Thomas' works. Her latest Aquinas study group on his Summa Theologiae at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the greater Denver area, flourished for 7 years before she moved away.

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Mrs. Baker has been on the editing team for the Aquinas Institute's  Opera Omnia project, the goal of which is to publish each of St. Thomas' works in side-by-side Latin and English in three formats: online, eBook, and print.

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Joanne is a novice Dominican of the Third Order, currently without a chapter. She loves to chant vespers of the monastic Divine Office, as well as to pray the Traditional Mass.

​Interest in Pedagogy

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Mrs. Baker has spent much of her life teaching. "In my single years while helping to establish classical schools and teaching in those schools, I devoured books on child development, discipline, and educational theory."  She continued to educate herself in these areas as a home educator.

Joanne received training in the Montessori method and Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, and has also employed aspects of Charlotte Mason, Unschooling, and Classical methodologies in her teaching. She has lectured on some of these topics, as well. "When I did not find curricula to meet the needs of my students, I developed  my own materials."

Mrs. Baker's favorite educational techniques include:

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• stimulating wonder and 'great thinker' skills through Socratic dialogue, and scientific observation and demonstration,

• handing down the tools of learning: the first principles of a subject and the basic skills of an art,

• fostering children's deep concentration with large blocks of guided independent and group learning time,

• harnessing children's interest during their developmental 'sensitive periods,' and

• providing multi-sensory experiences which are children's preferred means to learning - auditory, visual, and sometimes tactile.

"Many of these educational techniques, I also find useful with adults."

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Joanne has a deep love for Gregorian Chant and at one time spent many years singing sacred chant and polyphony in church choirs. She was a soprano section leader for polyphonic choirs during her high school and college years. She also taught chant and simple polyphony, incorporating elementary solfege sight-singing into her lessons with children.

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Joanne has enjoyed dabbling in teaching all the elementary subjects. She once shared her love for the waltz and swing dancing, as well as drawing, poetry, and school sports.

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"The most rewarding thing about teaching for me was having students return to me years later to tell me how I had influenced them. One group flawlessly performed the Sicut Cervus for me saying that my music class had started them singing in parts together. Another student made me proud simply by letting go of his obstinate biases and instead engaging in discussion to test the truth of his positions."

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Please use the contact form to invite J.M.M. Baker to lead a study group, conduct a workshop, or present a lecture, on parenting, education, or theology.

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