Post date: Sep 30, 2017 4:14:22 AM
MSM2 Periods 1 & 2
SOLs Covered: 7.1 Negative Exponents, Powers of Ten, & Scientific Notation
Math Unit: 03 Negative Exponents, Powers of Ten, & Scientific Notation
Daily Agenda: Sept. 25-29, 2017
CCPS Student Digital Resource: Negative Exponents, Powers of 10, & Scientific Notation
Upcoming Assessments: County Quiz #1 (Formative, during warm ups Tues.-Thurs.); 1.04 Compare & Order Real Numbers Quiz (Fri. 10/6/17)
Math 7H Period 3
SOLs Covered: 7.1 Negative Exponents, Powers of Ten, & Scientific Notation; 8.1 Compare & Order Real Numbers
Math Unit: 04 Negative Exponents, Powers of 10, & Scientific Notation; 05 Compare & Order Real Numbers
Daily Agenda: Sept. 25-29, 2017
CCPS Student Digital Resource: Negative Exponents, Powers of 10, & Scientific Notation; Compare & Order Rational Numbers
Upcoming Assessments: County Quiz #1 (Formative, during warm ups Tues.-Thurs.); 1.04 Real Number System & Properties Quiz (Fri. 10/6/17)
After School Help Session: Thurs. 10/12/17
Greetings! It's been another busy week and since I've got a pretty busy weekend, I wanted to go ahead and send this out so it doesn't get forgotten, but since it's getting a little late, I'm aiming to make this a quick update. Now let's get into this week's classes.
The MSM2 classes got a bit further into negative exponents and powers of ten as an intro to how it ties into scientific notation. The kids worked with "big numbers" written in scientific notation with positive powers of ten last year in sixth grade, so it's not a completely new topic. This year we've added in "small numbers" written in scientific notation with negative powers of ten. I have a slightly different way of showing the moving of the decimal that I feel helps prevent some mistakes I've found students making over the years. Most folks "loop" under the numbers, but I have students highlight the first non-zero number and draw a line right after it, then draw a line wherever the decimal currently sits.
The kids did great all week with this, but when it came time from the quiz, too many of the kids didn't do the work the way we did all week, some showing no work at all, resulting in some not so pretty scores. Since all the kids who followed the steps I taught them throughout the week did well, I've decided to approach quizzes a little differently. I'll be adding a submit password to the quizzes now and students will be required to show me that they've shown work for every problem before they get the password. I'll also be setting up a practice quiz for earlier in the week that I'll work through with them to teach them how to properly show their work for all problems. I've had to do this a few times in the past when we switched over to computer testing because I've found that some kids seem to think that if a quiz is on the computer, they don't need to show work. Please help me with this endeavor by encouraging the kids to follow all the steps I give them in class.
The 7H class also covered all of the same topics the MSM2 classes covered at the beginning of the week as a quick review to prepare for their unit on comparing and ordering rational numbers, specifically fractions, decimals, percents, and scientific notation. This is something they've been working on in pieces for years, but now they have to include scientific notation. The SOL is being updated to include all real numbers, so they can also compare anything falling under the "umbrella" of real numbers (integers and irrational numbers like imperfect squares and pi). The kids did awesome all week and their quiz results were equally wonderful.
Well, that has again gotten longer than I set out to write and it's even later now, so I'll be closing things out here. As always, let me know if you have any questions. Hope you all have a great weekend!