We were coming to the end of our third unit in College Algebra, so I reminded my students that we had a test coming up. “It will open next Friday, April 1st, so make sure you work on the test review.” Rich, a boy in my class, started to laugh. “Oh, that’s good. A test on April Fool’s Day.” I shrugged. “That just happens to be when the unit ends. I don’t control the calendar.” He laughed even more. “Oh, that is so funny.” The other students stared at Rich but said nothing. His social skills weren’t the best, so it wasn’t new. More than once, we had been right in the middle of an important discussion when he had turned to the person next to him to talk about something totally off-topic. One day, I was showing the students the easiest way to think about logarithms when he said to the boy beside him, “Did you catch the basketball game last night? I can’t believe an eleventh-seed team could knock off the first-seed one. I guess that blows my bracket.” The other boy looked frustrated because he was trying hard to take notes and understand the material. I paused, … Continue reading April Fools Test