Pi Day is celebrated on March 14th each year, but this year’s Pi day was on 3/14/15, making it a once-in-a-lifetime event. Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. That ratio, approximately 3.14159, is actually a number that goes on infinitely, meaning the digits of pi never end and seem to go on at random. This makes pi a favorite number to many who love math.
At Sagamore Middle School, math teacher Sal Alfredson turned Pi Day into an amazing event, bringing staff and students together to “Throw a Pie in Your Teacher’s Face.” Sal wanted to do something special at Sagamore, and fondly recalled how at Sachem North, Mr. Mastrogiacomo let students bring in pies to eat in class on Pi Day. When Sal was in 12th grade, his math teacher Mr. Miller let the students compete in pie eating contests. Sal wanted to continue the Sachem tradition of doing something creative and fun with students to celebrate mathematics on Pi Day.
Sal and his fellow math teacher, Kelly DiJiorio, discussed ways to get the whole school involved in the celebration. In addition to promoting a competition among students to memorize as many digits of pi as they could, they decided to sell raffle tickets to students for the chance of throwing a pie in their favorite teacher’s face. Sal laughed as he recalled, “I thought it would be cool if teachers were up to the challenge and the kids would love it.”
The staff and students at Sagamore did love the idea. Dave Cruz organized a t-shirt sale, selling close to 400 shirts celebrating this one-in-a-lifetime Pi Day. In their math classes, students bought over 500 raffle tickets for a chance to “pie” their choice of 35 teachers who bravely volunteered. Earnings will go right back to the students on Sagamore Day, a celebration of leadership and teamwork at the end of the year, and everyone had a great time.
While students ate lunch in the cafeteria on Pi Day, raffle tickets were selected, and the lucky ticket holders were invited to throw a whipped cream pie at one of the 35 teachers who volunteered to be “pied.” Jake Meyers recalls, “Pi Day was a lot of fun because of what the teachers looked like after the pie got thrown in their face. Most of the teachers got the pie thrown right in the middle of their face, so that was hilarious. They looked like they had marshmallow faces.” James Saladino agreed, stating, “I enjoyed watching the teachers’ reactions after getting pied. Even if the teacher got hit really hard, they all laughed.” According to Rohan Sundaran, “The best part of Pi Day was when I hit Ms. Alexander in the face because it was funny seeing pie all over her face.” Tommy Wu said, “The best thing was seeing the teachers’ shocked and surprised looks and their vows to get back at you!”
The cafeteria was full of laughs and good spirit, and some teachers got a turn to pie a colleague. Mrs. Scaturro got to throw a pie at Mr. Costa, followed by Mr. Williams hitting his lovely wife, Mrs. Williams, right in the face. Mrs. Williams then bravely volunteered with her co-lab partner, Mrs. Symancek, to be pied by two students, which was a huge highlight! Mrs. Trombetta was a great sport as she participated during all three lunch periods, getting some of the hardest hit pies of the day!
Most importantly, the students and staff at Sagamore Middle School had one of the funniest days ever together. The staff showed their school spirit and their sense of humor, and the students really appreciated it. They loved having this kind of crazy and creative fun with their teachers. Not only was this an amazing Pi Day numerically, it was a tremendous success in bringing laughter and good spirits to Sagamore.
–Submitted by Betsy Gennosa, English 7 Teacher, Sagamore