Along with suggested instructional notes each month, teachers are given a problem and asked to use it in their own classrooms and report solutions, strategies, reflections, and misconceptions to the journal audience. The winter months often keep students involved in such extracurricular activities as competing in sports, dancing, or playing a musical instrument. This set of problems involves a real-life scenario about scheduling basketball games for the local gym and offers students the opportunity to show their creativity in using elapsed time.
Jeffrey Smith, jas5331@gmail.com, is a fourth-grade teacher at Upper Allen Elementary School in Pennsylvania's Mechanicsburg Area School District. He is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University and an avid fan of all sports. Smith enjoys traveling in his free time.