Oh, my gosh!
Which Fair Share of a Pie On This Plate Would YOU Like?
In a rush, in the middle of a lesson, I tossed some paper plates to my teaching assistant and asked him to mark a few into fractions. That picture shows how he divided one into thirds.
Well, I had said “They don’t have to be perfect.” You should have seen the OTHER plates.
Oh boy. So this is the teaching assistant the other teachers gave the new kid.
And Val is in training to become a teacher? He admits that he didn’t pay any attention during his own elementary school days. He’s a young local man, so he’s a product of the same school machine as my students. The one that cheerily promotes on to each higher grade level every non-trying, non-learning, non-student, just like the chair-warmer Val used to be.
The only happy lining to this grim cloud is that Val is intelligent and ambitious and wants to do right by these kids. He says that I inspire him, the sweet sap. Stumbling teacher though I am, it is true that I can still teach Val a thing or two.
Or three.
Three Equal, Fair Shares of a Pie.
REFERENCES
The clever pie photo comes courtesy of Serious Eats, and its recipe can be found at this node on that site, from way back in November, ’09.
However, I first found a reference to the pie on Not Martha, a site which deserves a visit for its title alone.
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