Post date: Nov 8, 2015 6:53:56 PM
Math 7H Period 1/2
SOLs Covered: 8.15a Solving Equations
Math Unit: #09 One- & Two-Step Equations
CCPS Student Digital Resource: Verbal Translations (6H Review); Equations
Upcoming Assessments: 2.01 One- & Two-Step Equations Quiz (Wed. 11/11); 2.02 Multi-Step Equations Quiz (Fri. 11/20)
MSM2 Period 5/6 & 9/10
SOLs Covered: 8.2 Subsets of the Real Number System
Math Unit: #08 Real Number System
CCPS Student Digital Resource: Subsets of the Real Number System
Upcoming Assessments: 2.02 Real Number System Quiz (Mon. 11/9); 2.03 Verbal Translations Quiz (Fri. 11/13)
It was a short week for the kids, but we (the teachers) started the week with conferences. Thanks to all those who made it in to meet with us! For those who could not make it out (or onto the schedule, which filled up fast!), please feel free to contact any of your child's teachers with any questions/concerns. Tuesday was for staff development, which we in the 7th grade math department used to start working on our PBL for the year. Most of the group will be starting in January, but I introduced it this week with my students since I completed a professional development by Code.org and CodeVA on Computer Science in Algebra. A little information can be found on (and through) the Coding in Math Class page of the school website. We'll be working on it periodically during class, but this week the students learned the basics of what it entailed, joined the class group on Code.org, and tried some of the other coding opportunities on the site. The kids really got into the idea and it was exciting to see their own excitement once they created their own games. Needless to say, I was thrilled with the response from the kids! I'll continue to include our progress in the weekly postings/emails and I'll be updating the "Coding" page as we move along. I'm still developing some ideas for things we might do with the project later in the year, so if anyone reading this post/email works with coding in any capacity and might be willing to lend their expertise, please let me know. I'd like to know who might be available since I'm rolling a few ideas through my head at the moment (possible guest speakers, an "audience" for the kids to present their work, etc.).
In "regular math news," The Math 7H class started the second term with some basic review of algebra topics: vocabulary, translating from English to "Mathish" as I like to call it, and solving one- and two-step equations. Most of the kids quickly remembered their previous work with it and there's only a little struggle with two-step equations, which we'll be continuing this week, so I'm confident they'll be fine after a couple more days practice before our quiz on the unit; this will thankfully give us a couple extra days to work on the multi-step equations unit, which will encompass some Algebra I HS level problems and likely be a bit more difficult for some of the kids. The MSM2 classes learned about the subsets of the real number system (their minds were blown by the idea that there are numbers that are NOT real!). Even though this is completely a Math 8 topic (meaning it's not tested on their SOL at the end of the year, only assessed sparingly on small assessments), the kids did an awesome job with it! They wrapped up their week with the third county assessment, which some need time to finish. They'll have time on Monday before they take a short quiz on the real number system; if time permits, we'll get a head start on our next unit, verbal translations.
I hope everyone's enjoying this interesting seasonal weather (Is it fall? Spring? Summer? Who knows?!). As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions. Hope everyone has a great week!