Dr. Linda Lawton has been a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science since 2011, but her love of math goes back to her childhood. She grew up in the Texas Panhandle. Her family often took trips around the country when her father traveled for work. Lawton’s spot behind the driver’s seat meant she had a good view of the speedometer.

“I was fascinated by the numbers and I was fascinated by the mile markers,” Lawton said. “I had a watch with a second hand and I would do all sorts of mental calculations about how fast we were going, how many seconds it took between mile markers.”

Lawton fostered her love of numbers throughout her years in school. Now, her ability to perform quick calculations in her head is a great resource for her as a professor. It is a skill that impresses students, and can also help break the ice with a new class.

Conversation is another great way for students and faculty to connect, as Lawton discovered during her time teaching at the University of Illinois. She recalls a class in which her students knew each other and enjoyed learning together. The atmosphere in the classroom was fun for everyone, herself included. Lawton carried an appreciation for a relaxed teaching environment with her to NMU.

“I can get material across in class if I’m allowed to be informal, if I’m allowed to joke around,” Lawton said. “That works for me.”

In addition to math skills, Lawton wants students to leave her classroom having gained two other qualities. The first of these is a sense of humor. Lawton’s laugh is contagious.

“I’d rather laugh than cry, so I’ll try to find something funny,” Lawton said. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I usually just tell them, ‘Hey, you know, laugh. You’re a captive audience, sorry,’” she laughed.

She also wants her students to develop what she calls a non-hatred for math. Sometimes students come into her class with one question on their minds: Why am I here? In response, Lawton incorporates math problems that will be useful to her students in the future.

When she was a graduate student at the University of Illinois, Lawton taught quantitative literacy classes. She understands the importance of finding practical and enjoyable ways to apply mathematical concepts to her students’ lives.

“If math isn’t your thing or it’s not going to be in your field, let’s find some things where it’s going to be useful for you, or let’s find something very interesting,” Lawton said.

For Lawton, this is one of the most rewarding parts of teaching.

“I like talking to students,” she said. “I like seeing those light bulbs come on and working with them.”

Throughout her years teaching math classes, she has found ways to encourage those lightbulb moments.

“It’s very common in a math class for a student to come up with a paper and say, ‘What did I do wrong here,’ and point,” Lawton said. “Which then becomes a dance between trying to get them to understand what should have been done versus what they did. And if you can get them to phrase the question rather than point, then often they will answer it for themselves.”

Helping students help themselves has a couple of benefits. First, if students can explain their mistakes, those mistakes are more easily understood and less likely to occur in the future. Second, having students articulate their problems aloud is beneficial for Lawton, who is blind.

She describes her blindness as having pixels missing from her field of vision. Her condition, which is unnamed, developed in adulthood and has presented some challenges in the classroom.

“I can’t wander around and peek over shoulders and go, ‘Oh, wait, you dropped a three,’” Lawton said.

With limited visual input, communication becomes much more important.

“I have to make sure my class is kind of trained to talk to me,” Lawton said. “I tend to be rather interactive anyway. I usually walk in the first day with my white cane.”

Lawton seeks to be approachable for students and colleagues alike. To that end, she utilizes her sense of humor.

“It makes them more comfortable with me,” Lawton said. “And that’s also why you’ll see me in tie dye a lot, and I’ll make the joke that it’s just so I can see myself walking down the hallway.”

She enjoys teaching at NMU and living in the Upper Peninsula. However, she did not always plan to live here. While she was teaching in Illinois, she began working in the actuarial field. She was teaching classes to help students enter that field, so she figured she would benefit from firsthand experience. Lawton worked as an actuary for 4 ½ years before deciding that she wanted to teach again. As she searched for teaching positions, she discovered the UP. When she learned about the job opportunity at NMU, she mentioned it to her husband, who became very excited.

“I showed it to him and he just started jumping up and down,” Lawton said. “He said, ‘Do you know where that is?’”

Her husband was familiar with the area, having hiked across Pictured Rocks as a teenager. He was happy to go back to the UP, and she was happy to go back to teaching.

“I like my students up here,” she said. “I think they’re great.”

Lawton has established a strong rapport with many of her students. Ryan Meister is a senior and an economics major. He has had several classes with Lawton. Especially during the pandemic, Meister appreciates Lawton’s enthusiasm for teaching both in the classroom and during office hours.

“I can tell that Professor Lawton sincerely cares not only about her students’ success, but about communicating abstract concepts in a lucid manner,” Meister said.

Lawton is currently teaching several classes, including calculus 1 and 3 and statistics 1.