More Things I Miss

People often ask me if I miss being a teacher.  It has been ten years now since I retired and in many ways those 39 years now seem like a different lifetime.  I don't miss the many meetings, the standardized testing, the reports to be filed, the teacher observations to be completed, the budget prep and hearings, the state mandates, the required wasted in-service programs, some of the staff relationships and the piles of paperwork.  However I do miss the classroom interaction with older teens and the relationships with some of the staff, especially the elementary teachers.  I miss the technology training, the opening days of a new semester and, believe it or not, parent nights.  One of the things that I do miss the most are the annual math bowls that I started and ran for our elementary schools.  For about 15 years I prepared questions and led three math competitions annually for fourth, fifth and sixth graders.  Each of the elementary schools would send teams of three to compete for trophies.  I would prepare three segments – the first was a written skills test, the second featured one-minute challenging problems and the third was a speed competition in which points were awarded for just the first, second and third place teams to solve the problem correctly.  I prepared very challenging problems and it was exciting to see these teams work together to solve them.  But the part of the bowls I often enjoyed the most was the time before the quiz began when I would challenge and teach the kids with some new type of problem situation.  Often they were in game formats that produced some unusual results.  So, since I miss the fun of that challenge, I will give you one to consider.  Hopefully you'll give it a try.  Here goes.  First, write the month number of your birthday.  Multiply it by five.  Now add seven.  Multiply that by four.  Now add 13.  Multiply that by 5.  Add the day number of your birthday.  Finally, subtract 205.  Now do you recognize the digits in your answer (hint – think of your birthday)?  If not, better go back and check your arithmetic.  Did you get it correct?  Did you do it without a calculator or can't you do arithmetic with just paper and pencil and your brain anymore?  If you have it correct, then congratulations to you.  Now you are ready for a math bowl.  Next question, can you set up and explain this problem algebraically?  I would show the kids how to do that.  How about setting it up on a spreadsheet – a gold star if you can do that.  Oh how I do miss teaching things like this.  Now humor me, wasn't that fun?