Pi Day (Day 128)

Today is Pi Day, a key day on the mathematical calendar. I have much to say about how I celebrated it in the classroom this year.

But first things first -- I received the dreaded pink slip today. I've been expecting this ever since I took this job in the first place. Recall that last year I got the pink slip, and I wasn't rehired until July. So I already know that I got the last open position, placing me right at the bottom of the seniority list. And enrollment  is declining everywhere -- there were fewer babies born in the Great Recession, and that's the generation that's now reaching high school age.

Still that doesn't make it any easier once I receive the actual document. It makes it worse that I get in on Pi Day, which ought to be a day of celebration -- but I know it goes back to the California law that pink slips must be sent out by March 15th.

As I wrote above, last year's pink slip was rescinded in July -- and only because the district promoted one of the other math teachers to a TOSA position, thus opening a spot for me. This year, I doubt that there's going to be any TOSA loophole to allow me to stay in the district.

I'm going to save most of this pink slip discussion for tomorrow's post, since once again, the Pi Day post should be all about celebrating pi and math.

Last year, I worked at such a small school that I was able to bring enough pie for every single student who had my class on Pi Day. This year, I work at the main high school, so I can't do that. Instead, I bring pie only for the class that meets at the Pi Minute, 1:59 -- but which class is that?

Well, the block schedule on Tuesdays goes 2-3-4-5. This is my annual Daylight Saving Time post (and yes, Sen. Rubio of Florida reintroduced the Year-Round DST bill after it expired in the House last year). I notice that with school starting at 8:30, some students don't arrive until around 9:30 -- but these are students who arrive very late every Tuesday, not just during DST week.

As for the 1:59 class, in last year's Pi Day post I wondered whether 1:59 would be during a class or a passing period. Since school ends at 3:30 and each block is about an hour and a half, the last block of the day starts around 2:00 -- so 1:59 is during the passing to that block. If high schools were still allowed to start at 8:00, 1:59 would have been near the interior of that period.

Anyway since today is 2-3-4-5, that period that starts after 1:59 is fifth period. So it's this class, a Math III class, that gets most of the Pi Day goodies. I find two pies in the local supermarket (lemon meringue and sweet potato), as well as four individual pies from 7-Eleven for the top scorers on the most recent test (namely the Chapter 8 Test on DeltaMath).

And I even get them some pizza from the local pizzeria. It was one of those giant rectangular pizzas with 32 slices, since that's around how many students I have in that class. Unfortunately, due to its shape, the pizza has nothing to do with the number pi (but at least it's a pizza pie).

And of course, all throughout the period, I sing Pi Day songs. Today I choose "Pi Day Songs (All Day Long" (a "Jingle Bells" parody), "Pi Day Serenade" ("Alphabet Song"), "A Pi Day Carol" ("Row, Row, Row Your Boat"), "I'm a Little Number" ("Teapot"), "12 Decimals of Pi Day" ("Days of Christmas"), "Ludolph the Mathematician" ("Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"), and of course I had to wrap it up with "American Pi" (Bizzie Lizzie's "American Pie").

By singing "Ludolph" today, that makes this the second "Rudolph" parody I've performed this year, after "Rudolph the Statistician." (I won't post any lyrics in this post, since they're posted either elsewhere on my blog or elsewhere on the web.)

With all of this going on, do we do any actual math in Math III today? Well, today is the first day of "Boot Camp" -- aka SBAC Prep. Most Math III students are juniors who are required to take the state test this year. We're starting it now, even though the SBAC Math Test isn't until May. (The English SBAC is this week, while the California Science Test is next month.)

And, for the first time in this class, I actually use a resource from this blog. I go back to my annual SBAC Prep posts from 2021 and hand out the first eight questions in class, one to each group. The group then works out the problem on the front board (VNPS) and then the class takes a Gallery Walk around the room to get the other answers.

Today is Sunday, the third day of the week on the Eleven Calendar:

Resolution #3: We remember math like riding a bicycle.

On Pi Day, we might try to memorize the first several digits of pi. Unfortunately, there's no math involving pi today. Notice that Question #9 mentions irrational numbers including pi, but there are only eight groups in class today. (And Chapter 9 of the Math III CPM text is on trig, including radians and hence pi. But only Math III Honors classes study that chapter.)

It's my blogging tradition to post some Pi Day videos each year on the holiday.

1. Mathematical Pi:

There are so many versions of this song, mainly due to the title of the song it's parodying -- it's just too irresistible to change "American Pie" to "American Pi."

2. "Pi Day video" by musicnotes online

One thing I notice about this song is that the rapper in this video is "Lamar Queen." While I don't perform this song today, I did do one of Lamar's other raps in Math I earlier this year -- namely "Slope Intercept Rap."

3. The Pi Day Song by Michael Bautista

I first posted this one to the blog last year.

4. Vi Hart's Pi Day video 2023

It's Vi Day -- the one day of the year when Vi Hart posts a video. This year, Vi posts a video claiming that the number pi contains only a dozen digits.

Vi would really like one of the songs I perform today in class -- "The 12 Decimals of Pi Day," which also includes only twelve digits of pi. (Notice that Vi already has a "Twelve Days of Christmas" parody -- "12 Days of Christmath.") On the other hand, we shouldn't tell Vi about "Ludolph the Mathematician," which states that Ludolph van Ceulen found 35 digits of the circle constant.

5. Viva la Pi Day by Jon Jacques

This is a parody of Coldplay's "Viva la Vida." Apparently, Jon Jacques is a high school teacher who's had his class perform a Pi Day parody in recent years. Here's his parody from last year:

6. I Learned About the Number Pi by Jon Jacques

The original song here is Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine."

7. Dr. Trefor Bazett

This is video from last year is the second video I've seen that demonstrates the Basel formula -- there's another interesting one by 3blue1brown.

By the way, shortly after 1:59, the principal visits my fifth period class to deliver Pi Day pies to all of the teachers. Of course, by this time I've already received his email telling me to visit his office after school to receive a document (which I correct assumed to be the pink slip). Thus the principal gives me a pie and a pink slip in one afternoon.

But once again, that's enough about the pink slip for today. That concludes my annual Pi Day post. I wish everyone a Happy Pi Day -- even if mine isn't exactly a happy one.