It was a foggy morning and to top it off, we expected math class to be rather dull! Then Mr. Mitchell came in and passed out some really interesting tools with numbers from 0 through 180 on them.
“These are .” He told us and Josiah laughed because everyone knew THAT! Mr. Mitchell shot a stern look toward the young man and continued. “We use these when we need to measure . Who remembers the 4 types of angles?”
As Mr. Mitchell reached into the bucket to pull out a name to answer the question, I looked around. Ahmad and Ryan were squirming in their seats. I inferred from their nervousness that they didn’t know the answer. I hoped that they didn’t get caught, as Mr. Mitchell would help them study by making them copy the definition 5 times each. He drew Amanda’s name.
“ angles measure exactly 90^o” Amanda answered.
It was Brittney’s turn. “ angles are little angles less than 90^o.” She answered assuredly and smiled at me.
I knew the last two answers, but Trey was called and he answered, “ angles measure greater than 90^o.”
“OK!” Mr. Mitchell said and smiled. He was pleased that we had been studying. “Now if an angle measures 180^o, it is a line segment but we call it a…” He paused and called my name.
“ Angle!”
“Very nice class.” He went on. “I guess nobody needs me to help them to study!” He shot a knowing look at Ryan. “But if you do, Math6.org has lots of vocabulary help for Geometry.
“Now let me teach you how to use your protractors.
“Step One: Identify the angle as acute or obtuse.
“Step Two: Now find the point where the two sides come together…that’s called the…Darion!”
Darion stumbled for just a flash then answered with an ‘I just remembered’ grin, “!”
“Good Darion.” Lay the bull’s eye of the protractor on the vertex and line up either line with either side.
“ Step Three: What number does the other side cross?”
We were confused because our protractors had 2 numbers!!! I raised my hand and spoke when called on. “It crosses at 80^o and 100^o.”
“Excellent, so is the angle acute 80^o or obtuse 100^o?”
“Acute 80^o.” I answered and the class had a moment of murmured excitement. This stuff was easy and Mr. Mitchell said there would be measuring angles questions on our end of grade test!!!