J.M.M. BAKER

Interest in Aquinas

Joanne has a passion for the theological works of St. Thomas Aquinas. Throughout the years, she has studied the entire Summa Theologia and has led study groups for teens and adults on St. Thomas' works. Her latest Aquinas study group in the greater Denver area, she led for 7 yrs with her husband's assistance.

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Mrs. Baker earned her Master's degree in theology in 2021, with a concentration in Thomistic doctrinal and moral theology, from the Graduate School of Christendom College, and was graduated summa cum laude.

Thomas Aquinas College, a Great Books program, is where Joanne earned her undergraduate BA degree in the liberal arts, with the equivalent of a double major in Philosophy and Theology.

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Mrs. Baker is on the editing team for the Aquinas Institute's  Opera Omnia project, the goal of which is to have each of St. Thomas' works available 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 sing vespers of the monastic Divine Office and pray the rosary daily, as well as to attend the Traditional Mass.

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Interest in Education

Mrs. Baker is the mother of nine children and has spent much of her life teaching. In her early years while helping to establish classical schools and teaching in those schools, Joanne devoured books on child development, discipline, and educational theory.  She continued to educate herself in these areas as a home educator.

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

Mrs. Baker's favorite educational techniques include:

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• fostering children's deep concentration with large blocks of guided independent study time,

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

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

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

• recognizing multi-sensory experiences as children's preferred means to learning - auditory, visual, and sometimes tactile.

Some of these educational techniques, she also finds useful with adults.

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Joanne has a deep love for Gregorian Chant and 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 has taught chant and polyphony to children, incorporating elementary solfege sight-singing into her lessons.

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Joanne has enjoyed teaching all the elementary subjects. She once loved to dance the waltz and the swing, as well as to draw, write poetry, and play school sports.

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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.