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The Math Club

I teach the last period of the school day this trimester, and surprisingly, it's quite fun. I think it's because of the particular mix of students I have in the class. I have taught many of these students before; they simply need the class for a credit they're missing. Even though it's seventh period, some of them actually show up on a consistent basis. They're also big personalities, which I like and work off of well.

Today, I taught graphing multiple equations on a coordinate plane. Mid-lesson, I put up a problem on the SMARTBoard and asked the class to graph the lines. Leo and George immediately raised their hands:
Leo: "Can I do this problem on the board, Mista?"

Me: "Sure Leo, why don't you wait two minutes to let everyone else copy the problem down? Then you can step on up to the plate."

George: "Mista! He just did the last one! I swear to God Leo, if you get this wrong, you're out of the math club. Like, completely banned. Don't fuck this up."

Leo: "Shut the fuck up, bitch. I'll smack you. I AM the math club."

George: "Just saying. No pressure."
Leo then proceeded to graph the solution on the SMARTBoard. All the while, George kept making creepy sounds in the background to mess him up. The rest of the class was working hard on graphing their own lines.

Unfortunately, Leo made a simple error in his graph: he forgot the slope of the line was negative. Both of the lines he graphed ran positive and did not intersect.
George: "Oh. My. God. You did it wrong! Dude! You're out. Sorry, you're just out. The slope is negative. I am sad that you are Dominican like me. You're an idiot."
Leo: "Says you, I got a 98% in the class, dick! What do you got? A 93%? Yeah, you can blow mines."
It's hard to believe that this is the language they're using when discussing mathematics. But honestly, I'll take it. This really is what makes it all worth it.

By the way, there is no math club. It's just these students in my seventh period class who claim to be in it because they're so "good" at math.
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Comments

Mr. T said…
I want to join this math club! Are there t-shirts?
October 17, 2011 at 7:55 PM
Yo Mista! said…
@ Mr. T:
The winning design is this so far.
October 17, 2011 at 8:00 PM
Anonymous said…
Dude - i just spend half an hour of my precious thursday night reading your blog posts.. it was well worth it. !!
October 20, 2011 at 10:28 PM
Yo Mista! said…
@ Anonymous:
Thanks! Thursday nights are indeed precious, particularly if you watch The Office, Parks and Recreation, Community and 30 Rock all on NBC.

(Sadly, I don't get paid by them for advertising their shows on the blog...)
October 21, 2011 at 7:45 AM
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