Getting geared up for the final

Today we chucked all that linear function stuff we've been working on and started stepping back to get ready for our final. The Jacobs final exam is pretty simple: I take 2-4 questions from all of the old Jacobs tests and make one large final exam. So today I handed back their old tests and we started reviewing missed questions.

The final will be next Tuesday and Wednesday... tomorrow and Monday will continue to be review.

More on graphing lines

Yesterday and today we've spent working more with lines, in particular in the form y = mx + b. Yesterday was graphing them using the slope-intercept form (graph the intercept and build the line based on the slope) and today we created the equation from reading the graph. The kids also practiced transforming linear equations from the form Ax + By = C to y = mx + b. They DO have homework: transform and graph #s 53 - 60 on the sheet I gave them today in class.

On linear functions

Today we checked Set II, and I took up the Pre-Algebra unit tests that were due today at 11:30a. We then skipped over Lesson 2 in Chapter 3 and started Lesson 3... but ended up leaving that altogether! (Basically I did an introduction to graphing lines today...) Tonight's homework is to graph the four linear equations/functions that I wrote up on the board today at the end of class.

Continuing the conversation about functions

We started today by checking Set I from Lesson 1, Chapter 3 -- and then worked to complete Set II of Lesson 1. We're studying the "idea of a function" - Jacobs style. They'll want to finish this by Monday... in addition to completing the take-home Pre-Algebra Unit Test that they got yesterday and will be due on Monday as well.

On to volume

We checked the 2D area and perimeter, nailed down the surface area of the 3D shapes, and today they worked on finding the volume of those 3D shapes. If they finished that, no homework.

Geometry: The final unit

Geometry is the final unit for our Pre-Algebra review time and today we began by working through some "shape sheets" - sheets with pictures of each shape along with the appropriate formulas and practice problems. I'd like all Area, Perimeter, and Surface Area completed by tomorrow (homework). We'll work on Volume in class tomorrow.

Getting d=rty

Today we checked the one-step word problems that the kids had for homework last night (#s 1-9 from the packet) and then started talking about d=rt problems (distance = rate * time). Tonight's homework is to write up a d=rt problem of their own.

Homework tonight

In continuing to practice these equations, tonight's homework (from the same sheet)... 17-20, 45-48, 90-95, 136-138.

Lots of work on equations

The kids worked today on one, two and multi-step equations. Tonight's homework is a mixture of these.

On their latest handout, they should complete: #s 5-8, 37-40, 84-89, and 133-135.

Starting equations

Yesterday in Jacobs we continued our work in the Pre-Algebra unit by checking our distributing problems and then began a review of equations. Since we didn't have class today (Tuesday) we'll pick up on this tomorrow (Wednesday.)

Answers to Saturday, April 4 to Wednesday, April 8

Saturday, April 4
y^2 (y squared)

Sunday, April 5
6y + -18 or 6y - 18

Monday, April 6
22

Tuesday, April 7
8

Wednesday, April 8
-27

Math Brain Munching Bugs! AH!!!

Hello all! It has been over a week since I posted last. The week before Spring Break, well, you could tell that there wasn't a lot of time to blog about what was going on in Jacobs.

Anyways, I am enjoying my Spring Break immensely and I must not pander any longer -- there is serious work to be done. Your children may have mentioned the MBMB's, and now you must hear about them too. The note your children received prior to Spring Break:

Dear Jacobs Students & Parents—

To keep the Math Brain Munching Bugs away, one problem and one problem only must be done a day.

Think of a doctor’s orders to take a certain amount of medicine at certain times of the day. The Munching Bugs are just as severe.

Children have been known to return from Spring Break with only an empty frame of what their minds used to be!

These problems, done once a day, with their work and steps totally and completely shown and written down should significantly diminish the Munching Bugs’ effect.

Yours in the fight against MBMB ( or MB2 ) – matthew

Just in case (I know that nothing has happened to the MBMB sheet at your house), I have posted the sheets for Jacobs on our Class Docs here.

Look later this evening for answers up until today!

Happy de-bugging! :)

Into combining like terms

Today we checked homework and talked about combining like terms. Homework is #s 25-59 odd.

Onto translating

After checking our homework on plug-it-in from last night, we took some break notes on translating expressions, and then the kids started to work on their homework, getting to #40 on the sheets (labeled #12 in their notebooks) they got in class.

Plug it in, plug it in

We checked the rational number work from yesterday, took notes on plugging it in (expressions and variables), and the kids do have homework -- a sheet that they should do #s 12-36, multiples of 3.

Rational number work continues

We checked the homework from the weekend and then had ourselves a workday. See below for the problems that the kids worked on during class and that they will need to have completed for class tomorrow. (all these problems are from the rational numbers packet they've already got)

HW for tonight

Rational Numbers and Operations

Today was an intense day. We plowed through all four operations with fractions and with decimals, and the kids will need to complete 10 problems for homework -- see below for the specific problems.

Decimals notes

HW

Beginning Rational Numbers

Today we finished the NUMB3RS episode we were watching yesterday, checked our homework from yesterday on integers and took notes on rational numbers. Specifically, today we talked about conversion between fractions, decimals, and percents. Their homework tonight is #s 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and #s 125-153 ODD in the rational numbers packet they got today.

Rational numbers

Fraction to decimal and back again

Percent To decimal and back again

HW

The Pre-Al Review Unit

We have shifted our focus away from the Jacobs text for a while into our Pre-Algebra review unit. We'll be in this unit for about a month. Basically, I cram all of Pre-Algebra into about 20 days. It's intense, there are a lot of notes, and a lot of homework. They had an old Pre-Al test for homework Monday night that was due today (no class yesterday because of block) and today we worked on Integers (and they have a number of problems for homework, posted below) while we watched a NUMB3RS episode. These problems are due tomorrow! Stay tuned! Tomorrow is rational numbers...

Homework

Ex 1, 2, 4, 5

Ex 3

Chapter 9 Test

We took our Chapter 9 test today! I'll be taking these home with me and checking them over the weekend. The kids will get them back on Monday when we start our next unit: A Review of Pre-Algebra... Whoohoo!

Test Tomorrow!

Chapter 9 test is tomorrow and we used our time together today to review for that test. On a larger scale, this test is not as much of a bear as Chapters 7 & 8. They're going to be fine.

The next unit we will start is the Pre-Algebra unit... next Monday!

Using Excel to do the work for us

We used the computers primarily today to talk about mean, median, mode, range, and standard deviation. We talked about using Excel to do most of the math for us! That then begged the question, if computers can do this work... then shouldn't we be doing other stuff? I'll post the one of the excel docs on the class docs so you can see what we did!

A Trillion?

Collecting data and what to do?

Today we talked about and collected data from ourselves... that we'll use tomorrow with the computers. I want to show the kids how to use the computers to do some of the statistics work we've been doing for the past few weeks.

Tomorrow we'll plug all the data in the computer, Wednesday will be review and THURSDAY will be the test!

Collecting data

The Census

Since I was absent yesterday for fourth period (had to leave early with a debilitating headache), the kids ended up working on a lesson that I hadn't planned we would study on Sampling.

They worked on that and finished the first set for homework last night. Today we checked that homework, and then watched part of an episode from The West Wing, a political tv drama. The episode was about sampling with regards to the census, quite an appropriate topic considering next year we're up for a census... and we're studying data collection in Jacobs. :)

No homework, but there will be a test next week on Chapter 9.

Lesson 5

Today we quickly checked Lesson 5 Set I, and then moved into Set II. The kids will need to finish up Set II for homework.

And as Madeline found out yesterday, no worries if you forget your book! I scanned in the sheets from the book and emailed them to her. No more excuses for not having homework done because the book wasn't there! :)

Finishing up Chapter 9: Lesson 5

After a quick warm up we started the last section of Chapter 9 that we study: Lesson 5 on reading graphs. I introduced the lesson for them, and I've assigned Set I for homework tonight.

We also checked the range, median, mode and mean homework from the weekend.

We're coming down to the count... only two more units!

Warm up

On Trimester 2 Evaluations

I wanted to send out a note about how to read your child's second trimester math evaluation which you will be getting in the mail (along with your child's other reports) in the coming days.

You may have heard through the grapevine (in fact, you might have even heard through me!) that the Middle School Staff has been engaged in an Action Research Project on assessment and evaluation this year. (For more information on what exactly Action Research is, see this Wikipedia article.)

We've been asking ourselves many, many questions over the past few months. Among those are questions like:

    * Who are evaluations for? Students? Parents? Future teachers (of the students)?

    * What is the best way to convey how a child is "doing" in a class?

    * How can we improve our process to meet the needs of all parties involved in the assessment/evaluation experience?

(Note: These are a summary of the questions that my brain has latched on to and mulls over before I fall asleep each night--not necessarily representative of the entire Middle School Staff's questions.)

And, as you can imagine, many of us have taken on the task of actively experimenting with how our evaluations look, what they say, and how they say it. Some of us have added rubrics. Some of us have focused more on project assessment.

For my second trimester evaluation, I decided to focus on truly involving the students in the assessment/evaluation process.

There are many overarching goals that teachers have. These are the goals, dreams, and visions for what students will take from their time spent with us beyond how to add fractions and diagram a sentence.

As you probably guessed, I have a whole slew of these. :) But the one that got tapped these past few weeks was this: Students (and successful human beings) should be able to accurately evaluate themselves on how they are doing according to a specific standard--whether internal or external. Put plainly, people should know whether they're good at something or bad at something and how to process that.

When you open up your child's second trimester evaluation packet and turn to their math evaluation, you're going to see what I'm talking about.

The week before evaluations were due in advisor's boxes, each one of my math classes took an online form/survey of their performance and experience in my class. On that day, we rolled out the Mobile Mac lab and I made a BIG deal about all that I've written to you so far. I explained myself, and walked them step-by-step through the survey, answering questions along the way.

Basically, the kids had to answer the following sentences with the choices of Never... Sometimes... Most of the time... Always. And they could only choose one of the four.

Take a look at the actual evaluation the kids filled out. (This is just a PDF copy, you can't make any more submissions--don't forget to scroll down!)

I explained to the kids that they were to fill out the evaluation and that they were essentially writing their own evaluations. I, of course, reserved the right to adjust and tweak where I saw fit, and I would make my own comments on their reports as always. But you would be surprised how little I actually had to go back and change.

As the kids filled out the evaluations, many questions arose that sounded like, "Matthew... What if I'm more towards Sometimes... or maybe Most of the time?... I don't know... Can I say in between?"

I encouraged them to think these things through, for it's in that conversation that I think the magic of this evaluation and assessment experiment lie. And this is what I want to encourage you to do as you sit down and process your child's evaluation.

For example, "My child put down 'Most of the time' for 'helps to create a productive learning environment.' That sounds pretty good to me. Good job!"

Or... "My child put down 'Most of the time' for 'helps to create a productive learning environment.' That sounds interesting. What was it that kept you from putting down 'Always' on that one?"

To add another layer to the process, I decided at the last minute to let the kids see their final evaluations before they were delivered to advisors. In this way, I hoped kids would be able to continue to be part of the conversation about how they were evaluated and assessed in math. This created the space for kids to ask me, "Matthew? Why did you move me from 'Most of the time' to 'Sometimes' on this one?" And what a great conversation we had then!

Take a look at what the second trimester evaluations look like.

So, Matthew. Why this long blog post/email?

There are a couple of reasons. One is to keep you in the loop. Another is to try and prepare you and go ahead and answer some of your questions about how to read your child's evaluation.

And finally, I want your feedback. :) Be on the lookout for a post or an email asking for your feedback soon!

Thanks for all that you do--I hope all of this makes sense and that it was an easy and straight-forward read. I appreciate your patience and kindness as well in this wonderful dance we're doing called education your children. :) Have a great day!

Benjamin Banneker and Practice

Taking a break from Jacobs, we read a story about Benjamin Banneker, an African American mathematician and scientist. This is normally a weekly routine for first year math students, so it was a bit bittersweet to be read to again. :)

We also worked on just some simple mean, median, mode, and range problems that I would like the kids to finish over the weekend. I'll get that posted up on class docs in a bit. Have a great weekend!

Finishing up Set II

We finished up watching the NUMB3Rs episode we started watching yesterday first today, and then we checked the rest of Set I that they had for homework last night.

Afterwards, we worked on Set II of Lesson 4.... together. No homework!

Standard Deviation & NUMB3RS

Today we checked our work from yesterday and from homework, and then moved into watching an episode of NUMB3RS that focuses on statistics. They will also need to complete the rest of Set I, Lesson 4 for homework. (That was the trade off!)

Standard Deviation

We checked our Lesson 3, Set I today at the beginning of class and swiftly moved on to Lesson 4 -- Standard Deviation. This is the crux of Chapter 9.

The kids began working in Lesson 4, Set I, #s 1-15 and I'd like them to struggle through and finish for homework. (Most will need to finish tonight.)

Heads up--due to absences, some kids spent the first part of their period outside the room working on last night's homework. They only got a brief time to start working on tonight's homework and might need a little extra support tonight. (Either from a parent... or a phone call to Matthew!)

Measures of Central Tendency

Today we moved into Lesson 3, on mean, median, and mode. The kids are only going to do Set I from this Lesson, and I want it done by tomorrow. (Thus, it could be homework.)

Anna's Code

Evaluations!

Today after our warm up, we used the mobile Mac Lab to literally <> our evaluations. I've been experimenting with GoogleDocs, and Forms in particular, and the kids used a form that I had created to help in the writing of their evaluations!

You'll here more about this later, when evals come home, but if you want to see what it looked like, click here for a pdf version. (Look under All Class Docs)

Warm up!

Lesson 2, Set 1

After a special birthday warm up, we worked on the rest of Set 1 in
Lesson 2 on codes and ciphers. Not finished? HW! ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Matthew Ross
ross.matthew@mac.com
mross@cfsnc.org
919/414-1983

Sent from my iPhone

Codes and Ciphers

Today we finished up the NUMB3Rs episode on codes... and then jumped right into the next Lesson of Chapter 9 -- Ciphers!

Tonight / today in class we worked on problems #1-4 from Set I, Lesson 2.

If you want the background from that lesson check out "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" (Sherlock Holmes story) text.

Codes & Ciphers

After checking our homework (and others finishing...) we tuned into an episode of Numbers on Codes and Ciphers (our next Lesson in Chapter 9). No homework!

Another workday

We spent today again engaged, either independently or collaboratively, in Lesson 1, Set 2. They should come in the door with all of Set 2 completed by tomorrow.

NOTE: I understand there are other outside of school commitments -- and what I've said and made clear to the kids is that these problems/sets will get completed, even if that doesn't happen until the weekend!

More histograms

We checked Lesson 1, Set 1 today in class and the kids worked through #s 1-7 of Set II. Given enough time, they should try to complete this at home tonight... but I totally get that the play is going on and there's not a lot of ample time these days--I understand it might not get done tonight!

Lesson 1, Set 1

Workday today to complete Lesson 1, Set 1... creating frequency distributions and drawing histograms.

They WILL need to complete this for homework if they didn't in class. Be sure to check the class docs.

Class Docs Link - NEW!

Check out the LINKS section of our blog over there on the right. There's a new addition! A direct link to the docs for Jacobs! Check it regularly... for notes and copies of stuff from class.

Into Chapter 9... unknown territory...

Hey! I hope this posting finds you all well!

Well, we survived the Chapter 8 test and the Adolescent Issues Forum. Whoohoo!

And before I talk about what we're up to now, I must talk about how your children did on the Chapter 8 Test. They did INCREDIBLE WORK! YES!! I was so, so very proud of all of your kids. There are those who need some tweaking, but by and large your children knocked this test out of the park!

We've moved into Chapter 9 - An Introduction to Statistics. This is a chapter that we normally don't have time to get into during the school year, but lo and behold, we've found some time!

So, these past few days (today included) have been about getting into statistics. Today we focused on creating frequency distributions and histograms. Tomorrow... world domination. I mean, more histograms... :)

There are a few class docs that have been added to the wikispace, so you'll definitely want to check those out. Plus, I've reorganized the wikispace because we started to get so many documents up there! Check it out!

http://cfsmatthew.wikispaces.com/classdocs

Reminder about Class Docs!

Remember that you can now watch play-by-play with what happened during your child's math class when I use the tablet @ http://cfsmatthew.wikispaces.com/classdocs!

Chapter 8 Test

We took our test today! I've got the test sitting in my bag beside me... we'll see if I get them checked tonight or if that will be a task for tomorrow!

And an apology for such a late post. The latter part of my day was spent in my role as fourth year advisor on a mini-retreat with the fourth years. AND, Jacobs will not meet tomorrow due to Adolescent Issues Forum. Until Thursday!

Checking and Prepping

We focused on checking the review problems I assigned today during class (for those that didn't check over the weekend when it was posted online) and me giving them a pseudo-play-by-play of what to expect on the test tomorrow. They should remember to study, and remember that they can use their review sheets during the test... and everything that happens to be written on the review sheet. :)

For a copy of what we did today, see http://cfsmatthew.wikispaces.com/classdocs.

Ch 8 Review, Set 1, #s 14-18

Chapter 8 Review Answers Posted

Heads up - Chapter 8 Review Answers were just posted at http://cfsmatthew.wikispaces.com/classdocs.

Have a great weekend!

Review Part II

After a warm up using Number Tiles (see picture), we moved back into our Review of Chapter 8. We took notes on the tablet (see http://cfsmatthew.wikispaces.com/classdocs under Jacobs for a copy of these notes) and then I assigned problems from the Review section of Chapter 8 for them to complete over the weekend. You have to go open the PDF of the notes from today to see the problems I assigned!

The trade off? If they do them, I'll post answers on Sunday morning so that they can use that to help them study... Monday we'll review some more... Tuesday is the test.

So there's your heads up--Chapter 8 Test next Tuesday!

An intense, and jam-packed fourth period!

I worked the kids today, we did a lot in our short amount of time together.

We started off by using some Algebra tiles to warm up our math brains on some equations.

Then we worked through some fraction, decimal, and percent conversions -- which they completed in record time, pretty accurately!

And finally we began looking through the review work for Chapter 8. I gave them the heads up for the test at the beginning of the next week.

Check out http://cfsmatthew.wikispaces.com/classdocs -- I've got a new Tablet that allows me to write/project on my computer and easily put up on the web. Scroll down and look under "Jacobs."

Chapter 8 Review

Chapter 8 Test Review – The Mathematics of Chance
Jacobs

For the Chapter 8 Test you should be able to:

• Give the basic definition of probability
• Express and deduce independent from dependent events
• Convert fractions to decimals to percents and back again, as needed
• Solve problems using “basic” probability
• Solve problems involving probabilities of successive events
• Solve problems involving binomial probabilities
• Create and use (as needed) Pascal’s triangle to help in solving binomial probabilities
• Solve problems involving probabilities of complementary events

A quick check in

Alright, so we started off with our warm up (see below) and moved on to check the homework that they got almost a week ago! (Lesson 6, Set II)

No homework as we ran out of time before lunch -- but tomorrow and Friday will be review days before the big Chapter 8 test. (Sometime early next week...) YAY!

Warm up

Lesson 6, Set II

Today (while I was up in the Upper School), my sub Bo lead the class through checking their homework from last night and assigned them the rest of Set II to work on... and finish for homework as needed.

Have a great weekend!

Awesome day!

Today we had just an amazing day in Jacobs.

It started with a fantastic warm up--Anthony is our right-hand this week and he lead warm up today magnificently. He was thorough, helpful, warm, knowledgeable.... and his peers turned to him for guidance more than once! In fact, everyone really helped everyone else and there was just a buzz in the air of math. It was fantastic. :)

We recapped our episode of NUMB3RS from yesterday, before hitting the book again... and finishing Lesson 6, Set I. Tonight, I'd like them to complete #s 1-6 of Set II.

Onward!

Warm up

Awesome warm up

NUMB3RS

Today we took a bit of a side road.

Given the longer period of time, I decided to treat the Jacobs kids to something I promised I'd share with them at some point this year... the television show NUMB3RS. It's a crime solving show (much like a CSI) except they use mathematics to help solve and predict crimes. And what's even better, they use "real-life" examples to make it that much more accessible to viewers--the math is pretty complex!

The episode that we watched today just so happened to focus on two kinds of probability. Take a look at a quick YouTube video of one part:



Did you get it right??

I had wanted to test this out with the kids--there can be some pretty tense moments as it's a television show that comes on during prime time on CBS. However, I'll take just about any opportunity I can to show kids that math is "real" and truly applicable in everyday life... even if it is to catch the bad guy on TV. :)

To see more, check out their website: http://www.cbs.com/primetime/numb3rs/

Tomorrow we will look at the "goat" problem again, and then move back into finishing up Chapter 8.

Warm up d = rt

The Birthday Problem

We finally wrapped up Lesson 5 yesterday and swiftly moved into Lesson 6: The Birthday Problem (the final Lesson in Chapter 8). Your kids have tonight and last night to get their homework complete (Lesson 6, Set I, #s 1-8).

We're looking around the corner at a Chapter 8 test, very soon!

Warm up on combining like terms

#1 from Lesson 5, Set 2

HW from Monday night from all math classes

What did they do?

Today your children worked on Set II and played some games of chance.  More than that, I'm not exactly sure!

You see, I was a guest member of the fourth year, fourth period American History class.  And Karen McCall graciously agreed to be me for today during Jacobs fourth period!  So, that's the notes I left for them to do... and I do want them to complete Set II by Monday... but I'm still not 100% sure what all they did!

Ah, the mystery. :)

Too late to be of ANY use!

Well, this isn't the post I was going to make a few hours ago!  How time flies!

Today we checked up to #19 in Set I and finished that same set up before the end of class.

Tomorrow's class is pseudo-up in the air as I'll be making a guest appearance in American History during fourth period!  More on that tomorrow. ;)

Late posts

Meetings took up most of my afternoon, so blog posts will come this
evening.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Matthew Ross
ross.matthew@mac.com
mross@cfsnc.org
919/414-1983

Sent from my iPhone

Warm up

20-25

27-30

Notes from the board (yesterday)

Back to Chapter 8

Today we got back into Chapter 8... Lesson 5, in particular.  The kids will need to work on Set I, up to #19.  It should be a little tough. ;)

Hello 2009!

Welcome back!

Today we solely greeted each other and shared about our time away during first period. Lots of laughs and stories were exchanged... it's good to be back. :)

On the horizon? Decimals Test! (not tomorrow, but soon!)