Longfellow is well known for having a strong math department, but it was science teacher Jim Bradford that is spearheading a once-in-a-lifetime, number-focused celebration.

Mr. Bradford really likes numbers! He enjoys numbers that celebrate special dates and times, like:

• Pi Day on March 14 (3-14) – which is the first 3 digits of Pi
• Or, in the year 2015, when Pi Day was (3-14-15) – The first 5 digits of pi!
• Or, you can include the time and celebrate a special moment in time:
• 3-14-15 at 9:26 and 53 seconds (10 digits of pi)! 3.1415926
• Or Metric Day on October 10 (10-10)
• And likewise, in the year 2010 at 10:10 am and 10 seconds (10-10-10 10:10:10)!

Maybe it’s because he is located in room 222, but he wasn’t willing to let Feb 22, 2022, go unnoticed (2/22/22 on a Tues[2s]day, no less).   This is a rare opportunity to celebrate a whole bunch of 2’s.

Bradford kicked off a mini-celebration with his class on February 2^nd.  He set his alarm to make sure that everyone in the class knew the moment of the 2nd second, of the 2nd minute, of the 2nd hour, of the 2nd day, of the 2nd month, of the 2nd year, of the 2nd decade, of the 2nd millennium! Yay! (Most of the students were not as excited about the moment as Mr. Bradford was–but some of them thought it was pretty cool).

Now, the whole school is celebrating February 22 (#LMS2sDay). At 2:22 and 22 seconds, there will be a line-up of eleven 2’s! That record will stand until we get to the year 2222, 200 years from now. To mark this very important day, the whole school will be doing a number of fun activities.

During lunches, students will have the option to come out to the front field to take a picture in the shape of the number 2.

In PE classes, points in games will all be worth 2. In addition, all stretches and warm-ups will be done for 22 seconds. In math classes, students will participate in an activity created for this day called ‘Five Twos.’  In ‘Five Twos,’ students must use ALL 2s and only the digit 2 with any math symbol to create expressions whose values are  0-100.

In the library, students who check out 2 books can pick up a bookmark with fun facts about the number two. 8th grade science will be doing an SOL review scavenger hunt that looks for pairs and 2s throughout all science disciplines.

Bradford has a lot more ideas. “We could have anyone who is two meters tall get a special award,” he suggested, “or twins could have a special picture on Two Day.”

Bradford caught the numbers celebration bug when he first started teaching in 1999.   He was at McLean High School teaching Chemistry on September 9th (9’s Day). He and his class decided to celebrate the 9th second, of the 9th minute, of the 9th hour, of the 9th day, of the 9th month, of the 9th year, of the 9th decade, of the 9th century, of the Millenium!

The principal came to count down with his class. “It was a fun moment in history, so I thought it would be fun to do it again with the twos.”

Here are some other reasons why Mr. Bradford loves the number 2!!

• He has been teaching at Longfellow for 22 years
• He teaches on the 2nd floor
• He teaches in room 222
• To get to his room, you enter the school through the 2 doors at the main entrance, take 2 right turns (walking to the end of each hall, go up 2 flights of stairs (2 dozen steps, in all), and enter the 2nd door on the right (room 222).

Mr. Bradford hopes he has not become 2 obsessed, or gone 2 far, or said 2 much!