Applebee’s

Buffalo Wild Wings

Dairy Queen Brazier

Firken and Friar

Fuddrucker’s

La Salsa

Little Anthony’s Diner

Mama’s Pizza 

Nico’s

Old Chicago

Olive Garden

Outback

Panda Express

Quizno’s

Texas Roadhouse

Yes, I did mean to leave the ‘e’ off of that pi!  That’s because I’m talking about pi, the number, not pie, the delicious dessert. 

Officially, Pi Day is March 14th, or 3/14.  If you don’t get it…think about it.  But, we celebrated Pi Day at school this past week, and in honor of that, I would like to share some of the fun pi facts I learned! 

So, here goes:

First of all, the definition: pi is the ratio between a circle’s circumference and diameter.  Basically, it means if you measure the distance around a circle, and divide it by the distance across that circle, you get pi.  No matter the size of the circle. How cool is that!

Pi is an irrational number, which means it can’t be written as a fraction.  It is a decimal that goes on forever and ever, until the end of time, without repetition or a pattern. 

For the Pi Day festivities, we had students memorize digits of pi.  The current Desert Sky champion, Nathan, recited over 230 digits of pi. My sources tell me he is up to 430 digits.  This year’s champion, Becca, recited about 120 digits.  The world champion, Hiroyoki Gotu, has memorized 42,000 digits!!

The earliest known reference of pi is on a papyrus scroll, dated around 1650 B.C.

π is the Greek letter p.  It denoted the number 80 in ancient Greece, and was first used as it is today in 1706. 

In 2002, frantic Japanese mathematicians used a supercomputer to accurately compute pi to 1,241,100,000,000 digits. That is 1.2 TRILLION digits.  Unfortunately, the most accurate approximation of pi that scientists would ever need (as far as they can tell) is only about 43 digits. 

Although pi is inherently a part of the geometry of circles, the number randomly appears in some suprising areas of higher mathematics. 

Wow.  I am inspired to give you guys a challenge.  If you can recite to me the first 20 digits of pi, before the end of May, I will have a reward for you!!  I’ve posted the first 1,000 digits of pi.  Well, 1,001 if you include the three

Also, can anyone tell me the time of day on March 14th that Pi Day is officially celebrated?

 If you want to know the first million digits of pi, check out this page: http://www.exploratorium.edu/pi/Pi10-6.html

3.
1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489 5493038196 4428810975 6659334461 2847564823 3786783165 2712019091 4564856692 3460348610 4543266482 1339360726 0249141273 7245870066 0631558817 4881520920 9628292540 9171536436 7892590360 0113305305 4882046652 1384146951 9415116094 3305727036 5759591953 0921861173 8193261179 3105118548 0744623799 6274956735 1885752724 8912279381 8301194912 9833673362 4406566430 8602139494 6395224737 1907021798 6094370277 0539217176 2931767523 8467481846 7669405132 0005681271 4526356082 7785771342 7577896091 7363717872 1468440901 2249534301 4654958537 1050792279 6892589235 4201995611 2129021960 8640344181 5981362977 4771309960 5187072113 4999999837 2978049951 0597317328 1609631859 5024459455 3469083026 4252230825 3344685035 2619311881 7101000313 7838752886 5875332083 8142061717 7669147303 5982534904 2875546873 1159562863 8823537875 9375195778 1857780532 1712268066 1300192787 6611195909 2164201989. . .

This week at my school it is AIMS week.  The students have been testing every morning since Tuesday, and will continue to do so until next Monday morning.  Are you taking the AIMS this week?

 It is a pretty stressful week, so I decided to post some test-taking tips for you guys!

 1. Get a good night’s sleep.  Probably a lot of your teachers have told you this, and you probably just ignore it, but seriously guys: Sleep well!  It truly does make a big difference. 

2.  Some people will say to eat a good breakfast, but I say this: Do what you are used to.  If you don’t normally eat breakfast, don’t eat breakfast during AIMS week.  If you do eat breakfast, I encourage you to eat a good breakfast. 

A little side note for those of you who do not eat breakfast.  After AIMS week-start eating breakfast!!  It really is the most important meal of the day.  I promise.

3.  Relax.  Before you begin the test, take a deep breath and remind yourself that all you have to do is your best.  You have been learning this stuff all year, and you will do fine. 

4.  Listen to the directions.  All 182 times your teacher reads them. 

5.  Do the questions you know you can do first.  It is okay to skip around that section of the test, but be really careful to check that the number of the test question matches the number next to the bubble you are filling in.  Also, fill in the bubble completely. 

6.  Physically cross out the answers you know are wrong. 

7.  You can write in the test booklet as much as you want.  Use this privilege!

8.  Do something that you really enjoy after school.  Preferably something active.  (i.e. NOT video games or tv or movies!)

I hope your testing goes well.  You will do great!!

So, the past few weeks have been absolutely gorgeous!  I am loving this weather.  I enjoy being able to leave my house without a jacket, and driving with the windows down.  I like sitting outside and reading a book.  Or just sitting outside.  When I am inside, I like to have the windows open. 

This season is especially great, because it is not to cold, and not too hot.  But if you have been in Tucson for any amount of time, you know that it won’t last long!  Soon, the temperature will rise into the upper 80’s, the 90’s, and then into the 100’s. 

So, enjoy this mild(er) weather while you can. Spend some time outside, enjoying God’s beautiful creation. 

Take a walk, climb a tree, do your homework outside, do some yard work, get some friends and play an old school game like tag or hide and seek, play catch with a football or baseball, sit in your backyard and draw something, even if you aren’t good at it, wash your parents’ car. 

Do something outside!!! 

Oh, and if you plan on spending more than a few minutes outside, don’t forget sunscreen

Ya!! Two week spring break starting next week!!  I’m so excited about sleeping in and doing nothing!! That’s right, all you Vail students know what I’m talking about.

For all you other students, I don’t know when your spring break is, but I hope it’s soon! 

Oh ya! Leaving in a few days to go up to Prescott for winter camp at UCYC.  I’m so looking forward to it!  I think it’s awesome that we will be doing a service project up there.  I’ve looked at some of the material they are preparing for this weekend, and it looks like some good stuff.

Let’s hope it snows! I love cold weather, and cold weather is so much better with snow.  Yay! 

I’ll write more about how it went when we get back….for now, pack your bags with plenty of warm clothes and get ready for a sweet weekend! 

The big news for me this past week is that I started student teaching!!  I am with an amazing teacher at an amazing middle school, and will be in her classroom for the next couple of months.  Right now, I am just observing, and getting to know the school and stuff, but soon I will begin teaching!!

I will slowly work my way up to teaching 4 classes, which I will be responsible for entirely.  The whole time, my cooperating teacher will be in there, telling me what things I can improve on to be a better teacher.  Also, someone from the University of Arizona will come every so often to watch and critique me.  And….this part is crazy…I have to have someone come videotape me teaching, and then watch it and critique myself! 

Anyway, this whole experience is meant to help me become a good teacher, which I am glad for.  I do want to be an excellent teacher! 

Then, when I am done in May, I will graduate from college, and hopefully have a job!!  Yay, Sarah. 

So, that’s what’s going on in my life.  As students, what advice do you have for me to be a good teacher?   

I just finished fixing up my costume for the party on Wednesday! I can’t wait. I am so excited about my costume, and I’ve been hearing about some other people’s ideas as well.  Sounds like it will be a pretty awesome night.  If you’re not planning on coming, I seriously suggest you rethink. :)  See you there!

p.s. I’ve had some people ask what I am going to be, and I told them they’ll just have to come and see for themselves.   

I found a list of phobias, or fears, today.  Some are very interesting!  Would you rather have alektorophobia, the fear of chickens, or agyrophobia, the fear of crossing the road?

What about arachibutyrophobia, the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth? 

Did you know there is a fear of chins? Geniophobia. 

What is Myxophobia? The fear of slime. 

Here’s an ironic one.  The fear of long words is hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. 

Interesting….