Post date: Feb 18, 2018 6:09:40 PM
MSM2 Periods 1 & 2
SOLs Covered: 7.9, 7.10, & 8.12 (7.8 & 8.11) Probability
Math Unit: 18 Probability
Daily Agenda: Feb. 12-16, 2018
CCPS Student Digital Resource: Probability
Upcoming Assessments: 3.02 Quadrilaterals Quiz (Fri. 2/23)
Math 7H Period 3
SOLs Covered: 8.6 (8.5) Angle Relationships
Math Unit: 18 Angle Relationships
Daily Agenda: Feb. 12-16, 2018
CCPS Student Digital Resource: Angle Relationships
Upcoming Assessments: 3.02 Pythagorean Theorem Quiz (Fri. 2/23)
After School Help Session: Thurs. 2/22/18, 3-4PM (Parent/guardian note or email required to stay.)
Greetings, folks! Before getting into the nitty-gritty of the week, I wanted to point out that I've scheduled an after school help session for this week, which students can use to get extra math help (on topics past or present) or use to catch up on some of their work. Students need to have permission to stay (either a note or email from a parent/guardian will suffice) and a ride to pick them up at 4PM. Now onto last week's math class adventures.
My two courses are no longer working quite so in sync as the MSM2 students worked on probability and the 7H students worked on angle relationships last week. All classes did however start the week with a formative county quiz, which was filled with a few extra "SOL tricks" (rather than purely mathematical errors) that seemed to trip up the kids in all of the 7th grade math classes at EDMS. For example, there was a question that had an extra set of directions at the top telling students they needed to add a comma for answers greater than 999; the comma has no mathematical value (they just serve to make it easier to read numbers by denoting place value), but if directions specifically state it's required, then it can be counted against them. This particular example was a first for the whole Math 7 team as we've never seen them nitpick that much with answers, but it's apparently a possibility for SOL testing, so it's better to run across the issue now than on the SOL test when we wouldn't be allowed to address it. After discussing the issue with the rest of my PLC, we requested that administration "ungrade" the assessment in PowerSchool so we can give students a chance to fix these small things, even giving those who rushed a second chance to take their time and fix their mathematical errors as well. Students will get this chance tomorrow (Monday) after wrapping up the 3.01 quiz from Friday.
The MSM2 students seem to have taken well to probability, though we unfortunately didn't have enough time for some of the games played in the past. I will try to work in some when we have extra time as the games drive home a few of the concepts, but more importantly add a bit of fun that in turn increases students' interest in the topics. This is something that can be also worked in a bit at home with a family game night if folks have the time in their schedules to play any of the "old fashioned" board games with dice or spinners as well as card games. If all else fails, we will definitely work in some of the games post-SOLs as we always have tons of fun. We did have time for a "math lab" using candy hearts, which the kids greatly enjoyed; thank you so much to those who donated supplies for this activity as well as the donation of pencils! We'll be set for awhile (fingers crossed!), so we're all super grateful for the help. We finished up the week with the quiz, though we still have a few needing to wrap up tomorrow and others who were absent last week needing to catch back up.
The 7H students did well with the angle relationships topic, though some took a little extra time to work up to feeling comfortable with it. There have been a few students though who have begun to shine with the start of their geometry work. Students who tend to gravitate towards physical, hands-on activities (like sports or playing outside) as well as those who enjoy the visual arts can sometimes struggle with algebra as they can't always "see" how the math works, but a switch will sometimes turn on when they start working with geometry as these topics tend to have more hands-on and visual aspects to it. I've been telling the kids who seem to fit into this category to not give up on math and they are now seeing the pay off; even the algebra that gets worked into this unit when finding missing angles has "clicked" in a way it didn't when working on algebra alone. We also had a little time to work on what will be an ongoing mini-project that will be turned in at the end of term when all of our geometry work will be completed; the kids should be looking for the geometry around them on a daily basis, taking pictures to add to their virtual "math art gallery" presentation. The week was wrapped up with a quiz for the 7H kids as well, but there were kids in this group as well needing to finish up along with absentee students needing to catch up on Monday.