Algebra 1

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Pre-Algebra

REMINDERS:

All assignments are posted daily on Google Classroom. Unit vocabulary can also be found in the materials section.  Students should be studying 5-10 minutes a night EVERY night.   Also, assignments with a 💻 emoji at the start are the only ones that are required to be turned in on Google Classroom.

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. 

Most of the essays have been handed in, and now it is onto the presentations! Because of testing we only have each class once this week, but they will have two days next week to spruce up their slideshows and will be ready to present next Thursday and Friday.

For the remainder of the year I plan on a mini Shakespeare unit to prepare the students for reading Romeo and Juliet next year. 

I am so happy that I was able to begin my career at HMHS with this wonderful class! 

Light & Matter

This week we began our first unit of the year: Light & Matter — Why do we sometimes see different things when looking at the same object?

We launch with a puzzling real-world clip: a music student sees himself in what looks like a mirror, but the teacher on the other side can see right through. To explore this anchor phenomenon, students study a simple scale model with two “rooms,” a light source, and a special pane between them. Right away they notice strange things about what can and can’t be seen depending on the setup. From there, they create an initial Driving Question Board to track their ideas and questions and establish norms for how we’ll work together to figure things out.

As the unit progresses, students manipulate the light in their model: switching the flashlight from one side to the other, making both sides bright, or both sides dark. Each trial leads to new diagrams and refinements in how they represent the path of light from a source to the eye. They log predictions, compare outcomes, and begin noticing important patterns.

Next, we broaden the investigation by testing materials. Students design fair trials using light meters to measure what happens when light hits a one-way mirror sheet, plain glass, and a regular mirror. They collect multiple readings, organize data, and search for consistent trends without yet knowing why they’re different. To make sense of this, they then study short readings and visuals about how mirrors are made at the microscale, updating their models to show how structural differences might explain what they’ve observed.

With new insights in hand, students return to the anchor phenomenon and push their models further. They trace how light might travel between people on both sides of the pane, identify competing light paths, and flag the questions that still remain unresolved. At this point, the storyline zooms in on how we see. Through readings and demonstrations, students model how light entering the eye is focused and sent as signals to the brain. They experiment with lenses to make the focusing step visible, and they practice showing how multiple light inputs to the eye might compete for attention. Models are revised yet again to include these biological pieces of the system.

Ellis music comes to our school on Tuesdays for deliveries and to pick up and drop off repairs. If you have questions please see our website or send me an email!

Hopkinton Music Website

Quebec Trip was a success and students got to explore Quebec and learn the history. The French language has been the vector for the identity of the region.

Studying vocabulary regularly is a good habit to continue: 10 minutes practice a day. Students can use Quizlet or Blooket and they are also encourage to practice with Duolingo.

Hawk Time is taking place everyday from 2:20 until 2:50. Students can get the help they need  by coming to Hawk time in 207.  If your student has an inc. (incomplete) NHI (Not handed In) or abs (absent), they need to complete the work during Hawk Time. 

Bonne vacances ! 

Students have been working on talking about the various parts of the body and what we do with them (die Augen - sehen, die Ohren, hören, etc.). Along the same lines, students were practicing talking about being ill and not feeling well. They had to write apology notes for missing a party due to illness. What do they have to do to feel better? What are they not allowed to do when they are sick?

We are moving on to talking about illness or accidents that have happened in the past. (Ich hatte einen Fahrradunfall. Ich war krank). We will continue working with this and providing reasoning using "therefore" (deshalb). To put it into the cultural context, we will be talking about healthcare differences in Germany versus the United States. 

REMINDER: If your student is absent from school, please ask them to reach out to me via E-Mail so that we can get them caught up. It is a great habit to get into before high school so that they are in charge of their own learning. If students are absent, I often ask them to come down during HawkTime.

Students should be reviewing new and old vocabulary 10-15 minutes per day.

In January, we discussed current events in Venezuela, and students read a Venezuelan teenager's description of her life in Venezuela. They compared their lives in Hopkinton to her life in Venezuela. A specifial emphasis was placed on possessive adjectives  ("mi escuela" vs. "su escuela").

In February, we will dive into one of our favorite units. It centers around a very unique collaborative activity in Cataluña, Spain that UNESCO has identified as an "Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity." To kick off this unit, we divided students into small teams and presented them with this challenge: Which team can build the tallest tower out of playing cards? Which team can build the tallest tower out of plastic cups?  Then, students tried to put the world's tallest towers (i.e. La Torre Eiffel) in order, from shortest to tallest. Most of the world's tallest towers are made of stone, cement, steel, or glass.  But, in Tarragona, Spain, there are towers made of humans! This month, we will study los castells de Tarragona. Check out this National Geographic mini-documentary to learn more! 

To get ready for Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime performance, we studied his use of the sapo concho (a Puerto Rican toad) and two empty plastic white chairs on his album cover. What could these chairs and this animal symbolize?