Math 2015-2016: Week 37

Post date: Jun 12, 2016 12:58:04 AM

Math 7H Period 1/2

SOLs Covered: All Math 8 SOLs

Math Unit: Math 8 SOL Review

CCPS Student Digital Resource: Math 7H

Upcoming Assessments: None!

MSM2 Period 5/6 & 9/10

SOLs Covered: All Math 7 SOLs

Math Unit: Math 7 SOL Review

CCPS Student Digital Resource: MSM2

Upcoming Assessments: None!

Just one more week, everyone! That's five short days or (as one student has already calculated) just 26.5 hours! The week will go by fast and before you know it, we'll be heading off for a well deserved summer break, though you'll still get a final update from me at the end of the week.

For this past week, the 7H class started with a mini-project. On Monday, I took the kids out for a "math walk" and urged the kids to look for math in the things around us, taking pictures of what they found to be used in a "math gallery" Google Presentation through class on Tuesday. The kids seemed to really enjoy the activity and while I know part of that was just being able to get out and walk around together and chat along the way, they all found math in things they previously would have overlooked before. I pulled one slide from each student (plus the awesome entry by Camile!) and put them together in the presentation below. I hope everyone appreciates their work as much as I do!

The MSM2 classes had the start of the week to finish up their coding. I had quite a few "proud teacher" moments as kids completed their code and found themselves with a working game. One student tell me he never thought he'd make it through the whole thing and his look of pride for having completed it was one of the best moments of the year for me. I know the work was difficult for many, but I'm so proud of them for sticking with it. If your own child hasn't shared their game with you yet, I encourage you to ask him/her about it. For the kids, I'd like to encourage each of you to try some of the other coding opportunities on Code.org and think about how coding can possibly fit into your future.

On Wednesday and Thursday, all the classes got their wish of watching a movie finally, though there was admittedly a few groans when they learned they'd have a worksheet to fill out along the way. The movie, October Sky, is the true story of the Rocket Boys, Homer Hickam and three of his high school friends. The boys, all from a poor coal mining town in West Virginia, didn't have big aspirations for their future until the launch of Sputnik inspires Homer to start studying rockets, dragging his friends along for the ride in pursuit of successfully launching their own rocket. They have many struggles along the way, not the least of which being the fact that they struggled with the science and math required to accomplish this. Through hard work and determination, the boys are not only successful, they all go onto graduate college and Homer, who started out thinking he'd never get out of his small town, eventually became a NASA engineer. It is my sincerest hope that all of my students took away this one thing if nothing else from the video: you can accomplish anything if you believe in yourself and work hard to achieve it. If you don't believe in yourself yet, know that I believe in you and will help however I can.

On Friday, the students got to design their own obstacles for the NBC show American Ninja Warrior©. The show has just started up again for its 8th season and while I'd thought about this activity a little last year, it came back again after seeing that the show has an Obstacle Design Challenge. I plan to further develop the math side of it for future years, but I think the kids loved the activity and some came up with some pretty complex obstacles.

We'll obviously be wrapping things up this week and while grades are pretty much done for the year, we'll continue to have math related activities. One of the activities most of the kids have been looking forward to since basically the first day of school is origami. I have a few pieces made at the end of previous years around the room and the kids are eager to make their own. This does require quite a bit of paper, so if folks have any printer paper (especially colorful pieces) or actual origami paper they'd be willing to donate, it would be very much appreciated. It's not crucial since I have a bit already, but some kids always struggle a little at first and go through a few pieces before they get the hang of it.