Background
My career took paths I never imagined. These stories will document much of it.
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By far, Lonnie was the student with the best comprehension of basic math skills as well as the ability to transfer those skills to new information. As such, I should not have been surprised when he entered the class the following day saying, “Miss Brown, I bet I have a problem that nobody else in this class is going to have.”
“Okay, Lonnie, let everyone get settled so I can collect last night’s assignment and we’ll discuss it.”
Everyone had done the assignment, although I had some doubts about the student who turned in a game with a 0 – 0 final score – not that it couldn’t happen. At least he wrote 0 x 6 = 0 + 0 x 1 = 0 + 0 x 3 = 0 so 0 + 0 + 0 = 0. A for effort, right?
As I looked through the problems submitted to me, I asked if anyone wanted to place their example(s) on the board. I asked the students who did not go to the board to copy the examples into their notebooks for future reference after they determined whether the examples were correct. All three were. I noted Lonnie was pouting because I had not selected him to share his work, but I had a plan to spotlight him.
“Now, class, I want everyone to pay close attention to Lonnie’s example. There is information in his problem that I neglected to tell you about yesterday so I am going to give Lonnie some extra credit for outdoing the teacher today! Lonnie, are you ready?”
Lonnie’s pout turned into a look of both disbelief and pride as he walked to the board. “How do you want me to explain this, Miss Brown?”
“You’re the teacher, Lonnie. Unless you get too far out there, just go with what you have.”
Lonnie’s lesson: Tacoma High – 10; Blakely High – 0
There are three different ways Tacoma could have scored 10 points.
Option 1: 1 touchdown: 6; 1 P-A-T: 1; 1 field goal: 3; 1 x 6 + 1 x1 + 1 x 3 = 10
You don’t have to do anything for Blakely because 0 x 0 is always gonna be 0.
Then the insults began from all over the room. Things like “Hey, man, that’s the only way that score can be done.” “Why does Miss Brown think your example is so great? Get your dunce hat and …”
At that point, I raised my voice over them and insisted, “If you guys want to play the deuces*, do it at home, on the playground, or anywhere else but in my classroom – got it?”
Rayvon, ever the class spokesman, choked out, “Hey, guys, Teach knows about playing the deuces, we gotta be careful. No telling what else she knows.”
“Yep, and don’t y’all forget it. Now, how about letting Lonnie finish his lesson?”
Option 2: Miss Brown forgot to tell us about two important ways football teams can score points. One is that a team can go for two points after scoring a touchdown and don’t have to let the kicker “dude” try a P-A-T. If they run the ball past the goal line or complete a pass that goes past the goal line that counts for two points. So a touchdown and a two-point conversion would be 1 x 6 + 1 x 2 = 8.
“Hey, Doofus,” smirked George, one of my more limited students. “Even I know that’s not ten points.”
You gotta let me finish. The other thing Miss Brown didn’t tell us about is this thing called a safety. A safety is when the team with the ball, the offense, has someone go back into their own end zone and get tackled or if the football ends up rolling out of their end zone. Then the defense gets two points for that. So, to finish option 2, 1 touchdown, one two-point conversion, and a safety would equal 1 x 6 + 1 x 2 + 1 x 2 = 10.
Pequita asked Lonnie what the third option was.
I thought you’d never ask. Lonnie and Pequita were sweet on each other. Tacoma could have scored one touchdown and forced two safeties which would have resulted in 1 x 6 and 2 x 2 = 10.
Without my prodding, the class clapped for Lonnie as he moved back to his seat. (I suspect Pequita may have instigated it.) Either way, he deserved the accolades.
“Do they still sell those delicious chocolate chip cookies in the cafeteria?”
“Oh, yeah,” roared the class.
“How much are they?”
“Fifteen cents each or you can get two for a quarter.”
“So, if I wanted to reward the class for everybody doing their homework, how much money will I need to take to pay for them?”
“Uhhhhh….”
“Okay, guys, what is it we need to know? Tell me and I will make a list.”
The list became the number of students in the class, how many cookies each student would get (one), and would it be better to buy them individually or in twos?
“Put this information in your notebook. I think we have time to do the math before we go to lunch. Write the following information down and then we will answer it.”
Cost of 1 Cookie @ 1 for $0.15 $.15
Cost of 18 Cookies @ 18 for $0.15
18 x $0.15 _____
How many sets of 2 Cookies do we need?
18/2 = _____
Cost of 1 Cookie @ 2 for $0.25 _____
Cost of ___ Sets of Cookies @ ___ for $0.25 _____
Minimum amount Miss Brown needs to take
to the cafeteria -------
“Here’s the deal, guys. If you figure it out before the lunch bell, we do the cookies today. Otherwise, we do them tomorrow.”
They got their cookies!
