Minor Details - September 27

September 27 - October 1, 2021

Terry Fox Walk

Today we spent about 40 minutes together as a class walking in honour of Terry Fox. Although it looks very different from pre-Covid times, it is still important to recognize the contribution Terry made to cancer research over the past 40 years.

National Day for Truth & Reconciliation

To prepare for National Day for Truth & Reconciliation, today we discussed the difference between reconciliation and an apology. We shared that we've all had the experience of someone expressing an insincere apology that wasn't followed up with any action. We recognize that for true reconciliation, we need to ask the person we've hurt how they want us to make things right, and then we need to follow through.

We researched what Indigenous people of Canada want in order to reconcile the hurt caused to them through residential schools. You can find the complete list here

We wrote letters to The Honourable Vance Badawey who is our Member of Parliament in support of specific actions we want the government to take to support Indigenous people in healing. Here is Logan's letter.

Solving Patterning Problems

Here is an example of the patterning problems we are solving.

We have learned how to write equations to represent word problems and then use the equation solve any problem with the relationship!

Take some time to listen to how we would solve this problem.

Cornell Notes for Patterning

We are mastering our Cornell note-taking skills. Here are 4 examples of notes from today's class on determining the equation to represent patterns.

You can see that Macy, Jersey, Will and Matthew all have slightly different styles but the format is the same.

There is a clear purpose written at the top of the note. You can see the questions written clearly on one side of the page and the answer directly opposite the question.

When students prepare for tests, they simply cover up the "answer" side of the page and use the "question" to test their understanding.

Students are taking their binders home tonight to show off their notes. Please take a few minutes to look at their notes and listen to them explain what they are learning.

You can compare student notes to the instructional slides used in class by going the the "Math" section in our Google Classroom and opening the "Patterning - Notes for Sept 28" file (click here).

Student Council Elections

Congratulations to William Laur and Bannon Sexton who were elected by their classmates to represent our class on Student Council!

They will be bringing their ideas to Student Council later this week. Stay tuned for upcoming events!

Reflection Journal - Reflection #4

Each student has a Reflection Journal that he or she uses to reflect on key ideas throughout the year.

Reflection is a key strategy to make sense of what we're learning. You can read an article I wrote on the importance of reflection here.

Reflection #4 is on how to identify a composite pattern rule and how to determine the pattern rule (or equation) for a pattern.

Students have time to complete their reflections in class but they will need to take their Reflection Journals home to finish if they don't have enough time in class.

UofW Problem of the Week #2

This is our problem of the week!

What is so fantastic about these problems is that there are always multiple ways of solving the problem and it's exciting to see other peoples' solutions.

Using Patterns to Determine Relationships

Understanding patterns is a concept in math that DSBN students start thinking about in grade 1 and continue to develop more complex ways of thinking about patterns through grade 12!

In grade 7 and 8, we are learning how to represent patterns in multiple ways: pictures, data tables, equations and graphs.

Here you can see a growing pattern of coloured tiles. The data table shows the pattern growing by 5 each time (this is the "multiplier"). The "constant" is 1.

Thinking about composite patterns in terms of a multiplier and constant helps us identify the pattern rule (or equation).

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