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Mrs. Bowden is both a teacher and engineer.  She has taught 7th grade math at the Veterans Middle School for the past three years.  Before that, she taught at the Higgins Middle School in Peabody.  She, however, came to teaching from the engineering profession.  Her last engineering position was at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) as Manager of Engineering where she was responsible for the engineering maintenance and design for the tracks for the subway and rapid transit lines in and around Boston.  Before entering the teaching profession, Mrs. Bowden gained training and teaching experience through the rigorous Massachusetts Department of Education MINT (Massachusetts Institute for New Teachers) Program. Even while Mrs. Bowden was an engineer and manager, she was deeply involved in education.  She was the coordinator for both the local and state MATHCOUNTS programs, a mathematics competition for middle school students.  Later she also became a MATHCOUNTS coach.  Throughout her engineering career, she was involved with outreach to schools.  She visited many classrooms to spread the word about engineering and explain the real-world applications of math.  Now as a teacher, Mrs. Bowden has been a coach for the award-winning Model Bridge Building team at the Higgins and now at MVMS. The engineering community has recognized Denise Bowden for her involvement and volunteerism.  In 1993 she received the Massachusetts Young Engineer of the Year award and the following year received the Bertram Berger Award for a young engineer.  Most recently, she was presented the Citizen Engineer award by the Boston Society of Civil Engineers (BSCES) and the Math Hero Award. Visit the BSCES web site -- www.bsces.org -- to learn more about civil engineering and some of the opportunities for students.  Also check out http://egineeryourfuture.org to find out more about bridge building. Connected Mathematics Curriculum  Copy of information letter sent home to parents: This year, students will be studying mathematics from the Connected Mathematics Project (CMP) materials. The curriculum materials were field-tested, evaluated, and revised over a six-year period with 45,000 students across the country. Since publication, its use has spread to all fifty states. Student achievement data have been and continue to be collected in sites across the country. Collected data range from state tests to standardized norm-referenced tests. In many instances, comparison groups were tested. The results demonstrate that students are learning at greater levels than prior to the use of CMP.The materials are organized into units, each of which take about 4 to 6 weeks of class time. Each unit is focused around problem situations that help students to learn an important set of related mathematical ideas and to become skillful at using these ideas to solve problems. The curriculum is structured to help students communicate their strategies and their reasoning so that their mathematical understandings are deepened. The kinds of problems that the student will work on in class, as well as for homework, may be more challenging and interesting than those they have encountered in the past. Practice with ideas and skills are provided throughout the units in the Applications-Connections-Extensions questions assigned for homework. Our main goal is to help more of our students to be successful in mathematics and to encourage them to continue its study as they proceed through middle school and high school.You can do a great deal to help your student succeed in mathematics. Here are some strategies that can be used through the year with many of the mathematics units.§           Encourage your child to do his or her homework on a regular basis. Provide a regular place and time to do homework.§           Have your child show you his or her mathematics notebook and explain to you what he or she has been doing in class.§           Help him or her to be more organized. Look for sections in the notebook that contain class notes, vocabulary, homework, and assessment pieces.§           Have your child explain the words in the vocabulary list or the solution to a problem.§           Encourage your child by explaining that you believe that he or she can succeed through trying and working hard at the assignments.We are excited about this curriculum and its potential for helping students develop strong mathematical knowledge and skills. We are looking forward to a successful year for all of our students. If you have any questions or concerns at any time during the year, please feel free to contact me. Visit the CMP web site for more information:   http://connectedmath.msu.edu/ There is also a parent page at:  http://connectedmath.msu.edu/parents/

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