Matt MorenoYou would expect a math teacher to be good with numbers, but spelling and words? Not so much. Well, this Maryland math teacher is and she's got $1 million to prove it.
SARAH: "Loud Laughter."
HOST: "That's it."
...
HOST: "Can you use a million dollars?"
SARAH: "What?! Oh my gosh!"
...
ANNOUNCER: "One million dollars!"
Sarah Manchester is only the third person ever to hit the $1 million jackpot. She was even on ABC Thursday morning to rub in ... we mean, talk about her winnings.
"It's such a rare thing and the math teacher in me is saying 'Pshhh. Probability? That's not gonna happen."
But, let's not call Sarah's win a fluke. While on ABC, the "Good Morning America" gang decided to have some fun and give her another puzzle to solve.
"Can I guess already or is that going to spoil your fun?"
"No. If you're ready go ahead."
"Best day of my life?"
(anchors rip up papers)
Manchester teaches at a middle school in Silver Spring, Maryland — a town just north of Washington, D.C.
The episode was filmed earlier this year as part of the show's "Teacher Week." She had to wait four months to tell her colleagues about her winnings. Guess she wasn't driving a brand new car to work then.
WJLA joined her, her friends and her family night Wednesday when the show finally aired.
"I've been looking forward to this night for a long time and it was amazing."
Manchester says her family is still trying to figure out how to spend the winnings, although a good portion of it will go to her children's education. In all, she's taking home $1,017,490.
Which is quite the pay increase. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the average salary of a middle school teacher is about $53,400 according to data from 2012.
So, if our math is correct, that's about 19 times the amount of money she makes in a single year. We're confident she'll have no problem dividing up where that money will go.
