Burke and student participants talked about the wonders of the pi day events which were hosted last week on the 14th of March in the WMS cafeteria and auditorium. 

Mrs. Burke, a 7th grade math teacher and Pi enthusiast, explained what Pi Day is and why it’s there. Explaining the purpose of Pi Day, Mrs. Burke said, “Pi Day exists to show that math can be fun and that circles are cool.” She also claimed that another reason for Pi Day is “making math fun and memorable.”

Pi day represents pi, a mathematical term. The first few numbers of pi is 3.14159. It is an area of a circle. Pi helps us understand our world with precision.  Pi is the world’s infinite complexity. 

Aliyah Skeete, a 6th grade participant in the pi eating events, stated, “No. I was very surprised that I was chosen to participate. Because from what I’ve seen, there were many other peoples’ tickets in the box.” Luckily, to her surprise, she’d been chosen with two tickets in the basket. She claimed before that, “I don’t think Pi day should be an international event, because the only people that talk about it are math teachers.”

A pi-your- teacher participant, 7th grade student Skyler Chipepo, explained how pieing a teacher makes her feel “powerful”, and how it really “spices the school year up.”  She said, “I chose pieing a teacher in the face instead of pie eating because, one, I didn’t want to get my face messy in school. And also, I really felt like pie-ing a teacher, because this school year is really dry and boring. And, pieing a teacher can really spice it up.” 

Chipepo joked saying, “I felt great and powerful because I got to choose a teacher to pie so they can finally get payback for my grades.”

A 7th grade participant at WMS, Zarah Cajacuri stated, “I don’t know what strategy I would use to win the pie eating contest. That’s really something to think about.” When asked about her luck, she said, “I didn’t think I was going to get chosen because there were many other people trying to get chosen and participating.”

8th grade pi-eating competitor, Ciara Murphy, talked about her pi eating strategy and her incredible luck. Murphy claimed, “I didn’t think I was going to be chosen because it looked like a lot of people. But, I asked my friends if they’re doing it because I knew they got the tickets, but half of them said they forgot to put them in.” 

Replying to a question about strategy, Murphy said, “I think I’m going to maybe cut some of it and then I’m going to take bites. After that, I’m going to drink water so it goes down faster and then keep doing that.”

8th grade science teacher and pi competitor, Mr. Blackmore, talked about how kids “lack inspiration and creativity” these days, and how pi day is a good opportunity for students to see that there is more to teachers than they think.  Blackmore explained,“I love when kids participate. Sometimes, they see teachers as being something different. They’re just people. I have kids, I was a student. I would’ve loved to shove a pie in my teacher’s face.” 

Gym teacher and pie in the face contender, Mrs. Traschetti, explained how she wasn’t sure how to take pies in the face, but found the event fun anyways, “I wasn’t sure how to take it. Like if students liked me or disliked me, but it was fun regardless.” Traschetti then explained her opinion of the usage of shaving cream instead of whipped cream, “Who wants to taste shaving cream? That’s gross.” 

Journalism and ELA teacher and pi participant Mr. Malmstrom, explained how he wasn’t exactly excited to be pied, but still enjoyed himself.  He said, “Excited is an interesting word. I don’t know if anyone is excited to get pied in the face. Although, I was excited that students had the opportunity to do something like that.” 

Malmstrom added how bad the whipped cream smelled, “I was excited, but at the same time the whipped cream smells really bad. I had to take 2-3 showers yesterday to get it out. Every so often I still get a whiff of whipped cream coming from somewhere.”

Lugina Elshikh, a 7th grade pie contest participant, expressed her excitement about pieing Mr. Malmstrom. But through her excitement, she was nervous as well, “I don’t really like when everybody has their eyes on me. I get stage fright sometimes. But it was funny too.” Supposedly, Mr. Malmstrom had made a joke in Mrs. Cleary’s class. She said she’d felt the urge to pie him in the face after that. But, she’d stated that she did feel bad about pieing Mr. Malmstrom. Other than that, she also said that it felt “amazing and cool” to pie her teacher she chose. 

Omar Aboalatta, a proud 6th grade pie contestant, said that it was “very fun” to pie his teacher. But, it was difficult as well because of the way it was positioned. He’d also said that he was still nervous. Aboalatta pied WMS Principle, Dr. Lott. He said that he doesn’t know why he chose her. But, he doesn’t feel bad either. Supposedly, it was “relieving” to pie her.

Gary Engelbrecht, an 8th grade participant, really enjoyed pieing his teacher. “Absolutely, I loved it,” said Engelbrecht. He’d also said that he pied his favorite teacher, Mr. Malmstrom, “I felt bad at first, but then, not really,” he’d added.

It was “nothing to complain about.” And through all this, he also said that he didn’t feel nervous on stage whatsoever. Also, it wasn’t difficult to aim pie as much as it might’ve been for the other participants.