Geometry B

[Roderick Faulkner]

@caiti
Liana Mars
Noah Sorley
Serenity Oliver
Stefan Eder

Board
Textbook

Rod was more than a little happy to be back teaching. The classes were small, which was nice. It was easier for him to adjust his lesson plans or give students one-on-one attention if they needed it. Plus, a small class had a more intimate feel where he wasn't some abstract professor figure that just stood up for an hour and droned on about math. In college, he loved his classes where there were only maybe ten other students. He got to know his professor and felt more comfortable approaching him or her with questions.

He sat down in his chair to wait for the students to arrive, the board all ready for the day's lesson. Geometric Mean was a bit of a bore, but necessary to really understand the Pythagorean Theorem. A calendar for the month was posted near the door with all the homework assignments and test dates. He also had it written up on the board as an extra reminder. A manila folder sat on an extra desk titled HOMEWORK 8.1. As he said in the previous class session, homework was always due at the beginning of class. He was grading more for completion, though one point was given for correctness. He would randomly check four problems, and a quarter of a point was awarded for a correct answer with work shown.

He wrote today's homework on the far right side in purple, HW: 8.2 1-3, 9-19 odd, 30-33, 41-44, 49. The heading was the Pythagorean Theorem, a² + b² = c²[/sup][/b], and underneath, he had a big triangle with the angles and sides listed in green. To the left of that were the Pythaogrean Triples.

3, 4, 5
5, 12, 13
8, 15, 17
7, 24, 25

They were worth memorizing in his opinion especially given how often they would come up in homework. Underneath the homework and to the right of the main triangle, he had six sample problems for students to work through. The first three were to establish that any side could be found, not just c, and the bottom three all used a Pythagorean Triple, though it wasn't readily apparent. He started class as soon as the bell rang.

"Good morning, class. If you haven't turned in your homework to the folder, please do so now. I'll hand back the homework next time, and we can go over any questions then. Your first quiz is next Wednesday, and that will cover sections eight-point-one through eight-point-four."

He proceeded to take roll call as a way to refresh his memory of names and faces. He felt bad for his wife who had four sections to teach and a lot more students. Then again, student teaching in the New York area was interesting as those classes could have around twenty students in each section.

"Today we'll be covering the Pythagorean Theorem. Pythagoras was a Greek philosopher and mathematician in the sixth century B-C-E. He proved that the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the square of each leg added together. We write this out as a squared plus b squared equals c squared. There is a proof in your textbook on page 541. For example, if we set side a to three and side b to four, we can solve for c. Three squared is nine plus four squared--sixteen. Nine plus sixteen is twenty-five, and the square root of twenty-five is five."

He erased the lowercase letters and replaced them with numbers as he demonstrated. It took him a little longer as he couldn't erase with one hand and write with the other, but speed was not important in math.

"The three-four-five triangle is particular is special. We call it a Pythagorean Triple. The rest are listed here on the board--five-twelve-thirteen, eight-fifteen-seventeen, and seven-twenty-four-twenty-five. I highly suggest you memorize these as they will appear on your homework and throughout the term."

Like any good math teacher, he could recite them from memory and didn't need to look at the board. He gave the students to copy it down in their notes before continuing.

"Now, you can also solve for sides a and b as well using elimination. For example, if you knew that side c is thirteen and side b is twelve, you can solve for a. A squared plus twelve squared equals thirteen squared, or a squared plus one hundred forty-four equals one hundred sixty-nine. Subtract one hundred forty-four from each side to get a squared equals twenty five, square root of both sides, and a equals five. Any questions?"

He scanned the room for any raised hands. It started off fairly simply, but he wanted to make sure everyone understood the basics before covering more complex ideas such as what the converse of the Pythagorean Theorem proved.

"For practice, here are six problems. I want you to work through them all for about five minutes, then write an answer up on the board."

He erased the numbers from the big triangle and rewrote a, b, and c for the sides. In his opinion, the best way to understand and get good at solving math problems was to just do them. He assigned homework to solidify the material, not to give his students busy work.

[Serenity Oliver]

The worst thing about small classes, was when her and Tommy took the same class, yet found themselves in two different classes. It wasn't like she needed her brother to hold her hand - not all the time anyway - but she felt a little bolder, as she could borrow his confidence.

Walking into the geometry room, she dug the homework out of her bag and placed it on the folder and walked over to her seat. Sitting down and pulling the folder she needed from her bag, along with her pencil case and daily planner. Opening the planner to that day's page, she wrote down the homework in the maths section and tucked the book back into her bag. She then opened her folder and copied down everything else on the board, using a small rule to draw the triangles, spacing them out so that she had three rows of two rather than two of three.

She listened to Mr Faulkner's words and nodded as she took it all in, opening the textbook to the correct page on the Pythagorean Theorem. When they were told to solve the triangles on the board she got to work, knowing that if she got them wrong she would be very embarrassed. Once she had finished, she rose to her feet, walked up to the board and on the middle bottom she wrote 39 and returned to her seat, feeling ever so slightly nervous.

[Liana Mars]

Liana left Raijin lounging on her bed and headed towards the academic building. She'd eaten lunch earlier, before returning to her room to pack for the day (and make sure that she'd collected all of her homework!). Her first class for the day was geometry, and she walked into the classroom, nodding to the teacher without a word as she set down her bag by his desk to pull her homework out of its pink folder. After transferring it to the manila folder that was labeled for that sheet, she picked up her backpack again and walked to the back of the class, dropping her bag by a seat and then sitting down herself and pulling out her quadrille-ruled notebook. Sure, she liked math, and found it an interesting subject, but that didn't mean she had to be obvious about it! Her marks would speak for themselves.

As Mr. Faulkner started the class, Liana turned her attention to him, noting the date of the first quiz, as well as what would be covered. Under that she wrote the homework that would be due the next period, including the numbers, and then spoke as she heard her name, “Present.”

The subject they were going over today was relatively new to her. She'd heard of Pythagoras before, but triangles and geometry weren't much related to the accounting that she'd watched her dad do, so the class was definitely worth taking. As Mr. Faulkner explained about the triples, she jotted them down with a star, noting to herself that she should memorize these. It made sense so far, and she shook her head as they were asked about questions. As they were told to work out the triangles, Liana nodded and then copied all six down, before she grabbed a purple colored pencil to add in her answers for the blank sides. Finally, having solved for all of them, she walked up to the board and wrote '6' for the middle of the top row, before putting down the marker and heading back to her desk.

[Stefan Eder]

Kai walked into the math classroom, his homework already in his hand. He pushed it into the folder and then went to take a seat, sitting down next to Serenity with a smile, “Good morning, again.” He reached into his backpack and pulled out his math notebook, opening it to a fresh page before he wrote down the homework, and then copying down the triangles and numbers that were on the board. This would be easy, they'd covered Pythagoras back home already. German math wasn't seperated into the different classes quite as much as it seemed that American math was, so sometimes he'd already covered things, while other concepts were quite new to him.

When roll was taken, he signified his presence with a simple 'here', and then quieted again, listening to the teacher's explanation while he worked out the answers for the triangles that had been on the board, boxing those so that he would remember which ones had been missing. When he'd finished all of them, he sat quietly and waited for someone else to go up first, not wanting to disturb those working already. After Serenity and Liana had gone, though, he stood and walked over to the board, writing the easy answer in for the bottom left, '10'.

[Deleted]

love is a dangerous game

Nicole pulled out her map and schedule as she walked around the school. Her headphones were playing a various playlist of classical music, something she enjoyed listening to when she was nervous. She found the classroom and pressed a button on her headphones to stop the music and gently pushed the headphones around her neck. She slid quietly into class and glanced around for a familiar face. When she didn't see anyone, she sighed and sat down at an empty desk. She pulled out her notebook, pencil and textbook from her backpack and turned off her phone. She watched everyone else do the problems on the board and picked up her pencil. She opened to the first page and started figuring out the problems. Math was something that Nikki was not good at, but she knew she would have to push through it. When her name wasn't called, she looked around. Nikki shook her head, knowing she was the new girl in class and scribbled down the problems. She raised her hand slowly, which was unusual for her. "Sorry to interrupt, but my name wasn't called." she said, dropping her hand softly on the desk and looked down at the paper in front of her. She put her name in the top left corner and wracked her brain about triangles.

notes

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Outfit