Mrs. Siu's Next Big Steps

As a long-standing math teacher, with eight years at Masterman and five years as head of the Math Department, Maeve Siu has had a significant impact on the school’s math culture. With her unique teaching style of critical thinking and conceptual sense-making, combined with her self-made math songs (now posted on SoundCloud and iTunes), she has redefined what it means to learn mathematics. For her students and viewers online, she is teaching them to love and appreciate math, instead of fearing it or having anxiety over it, and is teaching them to think about every step in the process of solving a problem—and why each step works—instead of plugging in formulas or using “tricks” without understanding why they work.  With her prominence in the school, it is immensely saddening that Mrs. Siu will depart from Masterman next year. 

The reason for Mrs. Siu’s departure is because she has been overloaded with work, and that has started to stifle her immense creativity and emotional health. In addition to being the head of the Math Department, she has had to teach five classes this year. She also has had to balance her immense school work with her motherly duties with her daughters, Mable and Joy. Her youngest daughter, Joy, often gets sick and cannot sleep well, which adds to the work overload. “Right now, I’ve been taking care of too many people—my family and all my students, and not taking enough care of myself,” Mrs. Siu explained in an interview. “It was just too overwhelming, and I knew for the sake of my mental health, something had to change.” So, Mrs. Siu decided to leave Masterman and will work at a college next year as a part-time professor, teaching college algebra and college precalculus. This decision is groundbreaking for her. “I’m happy to say that I will be able to walk both of my daughters to school and walk myself to work,” Mrs. Siu remarked. “I’m also excited and happy because I will have more time to create math songs and put that into the world with the hopes of helping more students while letting myself indulge in creative work.” 

Mrs. Siu clarified that her departure has nothing to do with Masterman. “I know many people who can juggle a huge professional and personal workload,” she said, “and I acknowledge and own up to the fact that I can’t.” 

While the move from full time teaching to part-time teaching will improve Mrs. Siu’s emotional health, the decision to move has definitely been hard on her. Just like how she has had a huge impact on Masterman, the same could be said for the school having a huge impact on her. She is proud of many things in Masterman, including the community’s work on creating a choice-based math program (see “Inclusive Math Opportunities”) and the increased access to technology this year (with all students being able to use Ti-84 calculators). Most importantly, Mrs. Siu is proud of her students. “I’m deeply proud of and thankful for all of my students—especially those that I have taught for many years,” Mrs. Siu said. “Those students here at Masterman have decidedly made me a better teacher and person. One of the things that have been so wonderful working here has witnessing growth for my math loves from 7th grade to 11th grade. That has been such a gift. You’ve seen me grow. You are the class that I remember through personal tragedy. I feel very seen by you.” 

While Mrs. Siu is sadly leaving, it will be better for her in the long run. She will get to devote more of her time to raising her two daughters. And, even though she will be gone, she leaves a legacy in Masterman that will never be forgotten (She also has TikTok and Instagram accounts called @mathlovesiu, where she uploads daily.) Thanks to the incredible work of Mrs. Siu, all her Masterman students can now more easily feel the math love.