Pi Day
March 24, 2008 at 2:10 pm 16 comments
all of my geometry students (in fact, all of my students) already know how obsessed with pi i am. i’m not really sure why i ever became so obsessed, but i know that it started back when i was in high school, primarily because i was fascinated by the number.
pi has long been what i would classify as my favorite number and being a teacher, i have the ability to go all out and celebrate pi day annually with activities in my classroom.
i realize that pi day was a little over a week ago. however, i would like to use this blog as the chance to get some feedback from students about pi day and the activities that we did this year or have done in the past. i do not merely want the comment of “I like it” or “i don’t like it,” please give more constructive responses. comment about the specific contests that are offered (school-wide), as well the activites that i have done during the day within the classroom. this year we also did a pi chain which was a bit overwhelming, yet i thought turned out kind of cool – but i would like student thought as well. i have considered not doing pi day activities anymore because some students can tend to get out of hand. what are your thoughts as students, or do you have a thought for a way in which i can structure it better to provide more control?
also i have included a comic strip – please let me know what you think about it.
Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: mathematics.
16 Comments Add your own
Leave a reply to TOM MCQUEEN\\\\ Cancel reply
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed
Rbinkley's Weblog 
1.
rbinkley | March 24, 2008 at 3:13 pm
If you cannot see the full comic strip, all you need to do is click on it and a seperate window will show it!
2.
Samantha Daniel | March 27, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Personally, I enjoy pie day. I think that you and Mrs. Dixon should keep doing it. It’s just those couple hours on that one day that you get to relax and have some fun. You get a break throught that day. The activities are fun and some of them help us by giving us extra credt. Getting prizes for the contests isn’t bad either. I really enjoyed the circle contest where we had to fit the circles on a game board. I found that one challening but fun. I missed that day that we did the pie chain but I thought that it looked really cool hanging around the school. It was like just that little extra touch. I think we should try that again next year. I am not sure of any ways that you could keep those select few under control because I believe that there will always be those few people who ruin things for the others. I don’t think that we should let them stop this though.
The comic strip is cute and kinda funny at the end. It definately goes with the theme of this weeks blog so it works. My favorite part about it is when at the very end he says,”holy radians, batman geekism is contagious.” That part made me laugh alittle.
3.
Melissa Kinch | March 27, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Personally I hate pie day. I can’t remember the stupid numbers. ^-^ But, I do think you and Ms.Dixon should continue it. The activities were fun it made the day good. I think you all should do it next year though I’m a senior and won’t be there. Some people did ruin things for others. The pie chain was a good idea at first but…a lot of time and effort went into just for it to be destroyed. People had little respect for it after it being put up.
Like Samantha I also enjoyed the part at the very end he says,”holy radians, batman geekism is contagious.”
The comic strip was cute.
4.
Preston "Mozy" Mozingo | March 28, 2008 at 4:49 am
I really liked pi day because of all the different kinds of activities that we did and I think maybe next year instead of making designs for, I think it was, buttons we could make something for a pop company and we would have to design a can instead of a button. I don’t know, anyhow, I really loved the different pies that were brought in by the different students. I think that the guy that died trying to draw a perfect circle was a nut and he had no right to live, but that was a kind of hard challenge because, well I have never seen it done, but it was interesting to actually try something of that nature. The only thing I could think of that would make the Pi chain not so easy to destroy is to either use steel metal strips or use a lot more tape to keep it together. I believe you do have a yard stick in your classroom and you don’t necessarily need it for measuring if you catch my drift.*cough*Beat them*cough* or you could just have them not be able to participate in any of the fun activities.
The comic was interesting in that it was completely lame in my opinion, however the last speech bubble did get a giggle out of me. It had to do with Pie and how it symbolized the number Pi, but they had to make it square to be total morons. Maybe next time a “spider-man” comic would be nice.
5.
Ashley McCrandall | March 29, 2008 at 1:38 am
Pi day is always a lot of fun. It mixes things up a little bit. It is different from anything we ever do in class on a “normal” day. I liked the activities. The button and movie poster designs allowed me to be creative and still have math involved. Memorizing the digits of pi isn’t really that difficult, it just takes a lot of time and patience. The pi day chain was huge and I thought it would fit around the whole school. I think that pi day should continue for years to come.
I dont’ have many suggestions for the students who misbehave. There are always those people who ruin things for everyone. Maybe they should earn the privilege to participate in the activities, or maybe those students shouldn’t be allowed to do anything at all.
I liked the comic strip, especially at the end. I got a laugh out of it. I’m with Preston with the whole square cake thing though. The comic was still cute and it really has a lot to do with this blog.
6.
KRYSTIN PREMO : ) | April 3, 2008 at 2:46 pm
I personally don’t mind pi day. Even though this year the juniours were doing mme and act and we didn’t get to really join in the weekly excitement. It was nice to just take a day to “celebrate” 3-14. If there are people who misbehave that’s what we have iss for send them there and then they won’t ruin your favorite day.
So I think you should keep doing pi day and the chain was kind of cool even though it took all day to put up. You can’t quit pi day then you won’t have the pie judging contests and then you couldn’t wear your shirt : ).
The comic strip was cute I wouldn’t think you would be able to find one on this subject though.
7.
Samantha Rude | April 8, 2008 at 3:06 pm
The chain activity was easy and fun, there was a lot of team worked involved and really made me realize how many numbers were in pie. I have both algebra 2 and geometry, geometry in which is the last hour of my day, so i was able to see how many papers were left compared to earlier in the day and there was a big difference. Not includeing all the paper they had to cut through out the day it was crazy how many little sheets we used.
The comic strip was amuseing. I’m gald this blog is not borring, and for school it has had a better turn out than i expected.
8.
Zach Rose | April 8, 2008 at 10:43 pm
Personally i thought pie day was great. The activities that are done bring classmates together. usually we are all seperated by cliques and so on. this day brought us together and made us have fun. The pie chain was the most exciting thing to pie day for me. what could have made it better is if you had a competition with the classes to see which class could create the longest chain within the hour given, or you could even try to go for the world record for the longest paper chain. (54.33 miles in 24 hours with 60 people) This day you celebrate is great in itself and not a joke at all. By the way, the comic strip was great. Very matheriffic!!
9.
Chelsea Ledger | April 9, 2008 at 11:41 pm
i actually like pi day. Its way cooler than what we do in class normally. I really like that we got to memorize numbers for extra credit :] also the other activities like making the buttons or posters and making pies. Even though i dont really like pie (the food) that doesnt stop me from liking the day because its not about the food. I really liked the comic its better than all the other comics you read in the newspaper, plus it had to do with pi. About the bad students just like Krystin put them in ISS they shouldnt stop you from enjoying pi day :]
My locker number is 314 haaaa i think i should get extra credit for that
because it starts with 3.14 :]
10.
TOM MCQUEEN\\\\ | April 10, 2008 at 2:40 am
pi day is ok but i hate how i cant remember the numbers for when we did that extra credit thing but you let me try it like 9 times haha and then i finally got the 5 points ec or what ever it was LATER
11.
ZACH JACKSON | April 10, 2008 at 2:50 am
i think that pi day is neat because it’s nice to get a break from book work and be able to do little activities like making the chain this year or making posters and bringing in a pie. annnnnd memorizing the digits is cool cause its free points and the comic was cool and related to math.
and i should get extra credit cause 3+14=17 and ill be that old in like 5 days
12.
Jash | April 10, 2008 at 6:44 pm
In my opinion pie day is pretty cool. I like the chance to get extra credit by testing my memory of the number all though I cant rmeber very much. I like the way you let people bring in pies to see who cooks the best.
I love tractors!!!! Escpecially John Deere tractors.
13.
Shea:) | April 10, 2008 at 6:45 pm
i think pi day is alright. it gives us a chance to not do so much work and that is okay with me. the activities were okay. i was gonna make a pi but i forgot to. the comic was pretty funny and it was cool how it was related to math. well see you later!! 🙂
14.
Ashley Pinter | April 13, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Well I would have to say that pi day is def. one of my favorite days in math class. And you should def. keep it. It gives us a chance to relax and not worry about the assingments that we have or test that are coming up. Pi day=love
15.
Brad *!Tank!* Gear | April 14, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Pi day is very interesting. Well at least you make it interesting that is, your activitiy’s are always exciting. The only thing that I hate is repeting all of the numbers. I cant remember them so its an unfair assignment in my opinion.
16.
Andrea Boulton | April 14, 2008 at 8:10 pm
I think that pi day is a great idea. It changes things up in the classroom. It kind of gives us a break from some of our normal math work to do something that everyone could be interested in. But, it disappoints me when students abuse our priveledges and screw around. I think that homework point should be offered for the day and students can lose their points if they do not cooperate.