Ms. Baur Makes a Difference in Our Children’s Lives

by Lauren Mulvaney, Eastbluff Elementary School, Newport Beach

IRVINE, Calif.  Ms. Amber Baur received 2008 Orange County Math Club Coach of the Year for Elementary School award at the Avid Academy Excellence in Mathematics Award Ceremony.

Ms. Amber Baur has an extremely youthful approach to teaching the students to love math while using it in everyday life. 

When she first introduced a website in September for our 5^th and 6^th graders, many parents were tentative about features like “blogs” or “networked homework”.  Once we saw how the website facilitates effective communication between the entire grade and the math teacher, our concerns vanished.  Every night, she would monitor communications, add responses to questions and put together study groups!

Early in October, Ms. Baur took math to the everyday world for our students.  She allowed the children to research recipes on the internet. They would then pretend to purchase the ingredients, put the numbers into an Excel spreadsheet, and learn about budgeting/tax/quantities -- all while working with recipes!  It is amazing how much real life knowledge a child can get from shopping.

Finally, about 2 months ago, Ms. Baur asked the students to use geometric shapes to draw famous buildings that were to scale with pictures that she provided.  This amazing teacher was so impressed with the outcome that she begged a friend of hers to use her gallery in Newport Beach for a night this month as an Art Exhibit for our 6^th graders.  Each piece was matted by Ms. Baur and hung in the gallery.  Each and every student in the entire 6^th grade at Eastbluff attended with their families to see what they learned from this teacher about Math.

Please take my hasty humble words into consideration when reviewing candidates that make a difference in our children’s lives!  Ms. Baur has touched the mathematical minds of all her students at Eastbluff.