Hooray for Teachers of Pi!

March 14 is a wonderful day for teachers due to a delightful coincidence between the way March 14 is written and the approximate value of Pi, a mathematical constant.

Irrational numbers can be mysterious and teaching students to understand and use Pi requires patience, multiple approaches, and rich activities. It turns out that an approximation of Pi and March 14 can both be written as 3.14. Teachers made a big deal out of Pi Day because understanding that the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter is about 3.14 is elusive. All the thinking, ritual, and fun of the annual Pi Day celebration helps make Pi a friendly idea to children.

This is my first Pi Day as a retired educator and I am thinking about the many wonderful teachers who made this day so special for their students. Even more worthy of celebration than Pi, is the dedication of teachers to teaching ideas like Pi. Hooray for teachers and the efforts they go to as individuals and teams to make the seemingly incomprehensible ‘as easy as pie’ for their students!  Have fun today!

This sketch is done completely in Procreate, an app for digital tablets.