MEDIA ADVISORY

Our Lady of Lourdes to Host Celebrity Math Teacher

(Louisville, KY) On Tuesday, April 3, from 9-10 a.m. a celebrity math teacher will visit Our Lady of Lourdes School (510 Breckenridge Lane) as an award for a math contest the school won. The award was made by Raytheon Missile Systems of Louisville, Kentucky. (The identity of the celebrity is a surprise for the school.)

In early February, Raytheon Missile Systems in Louisville mailed 126 MathMovesU Celebrity Substitute Teacher drawing packets to public and private schools in the Greater Louisville area. Students in grades 6-8 were invited to write essays in one of three topic areas: 1) What would you do to make the study of math cool? 2) How does your teacher or school make learning math fun? or 3) What would you do with a $1,000 grant to help students learn and enjoy math? Out of the responses received, Raytheon held a drawing to select two Louisville schools for the “Celebrity Substitute Teacher.”

At Our Lady of Lourdes, 100% of Laura Duran’s 6th-grade students completed the essay. The majority of students responded that Ms. Duran makes math fun through her use of basketball and football games, student projects, and the use of the SmartBoard in the classroom. According to Katie O., a 6th-grade student, Ms. Duran makes math so much fun "that people talk about it at recess sometimes."

MathMovesU is a Corporate Raytheon program designed to promote math to middle school students and elevate math in students’ lives by highlighting celebrity careers that involve math. Raytheon is addressing the math and science issue by introducing an innovative new national initiative to help change young students' attitudes and negative perceptions of math.

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