Post date: Feb 28, 2020 4:16:24 PM
MSM2 Periods 1 & 4
SOLs Covered: 8.11 Probability
Math Unit: 17 Probability
Daily Agenda: Feb. 24-28, 2020
Upcoming Assessments: 3.04 Geometry Part 1 Quiz (Tues. 3/17)
Math 7H Period 3
SOLs Covered: 8.11 Probability
Math Unit: 19 Probability
Daily Agenda: Feb. 24-28, 2020
Upcoming Assessments: 3.04 Geometry Part 1 Quiz (Tues. 3/17)
Greetings! Before we get into this week's math happenings, I want to start by jumping straight into a major request from me. We'll be at the halfway point for the quarter next week, but the kids have severely declined in their work efforts in the past couple of weeks, so I really need parents to help me out by encouraging students to get on top of their work and to buckle down when it comes to their studies. The kids can tell you I've probably sounded like a broken record this week, begging the kids to get serious about their work again as well as overall behavior here at school (we've seen an increase in goofing off to match the decrease in work). I'm not sure if it's early "spring fever" or what, but it sounds like it's across the board for all the 7th grade teachers from what I'm hearing from my colleagues. We'll be teaming up as a grade level to make phone calls and/or send emails for D/F grades next week, but no matter your child's individual grades, please take a look at the notes for grades in my class as even some of my top performing students have dropped the ball recently.
If you see something listed as missing or incomplete, it can usually still be completed, the only exception being ALEKS (I'm brainstorming a way to give students an opportunity to make up at least a week of ALEKS and will include that in a future weekly update once I come up with a plan). All quizzes in my class can be improved upon by completing quiz corrections since students can earn back half credit for all problems they correct. The new Canvas math notebook checks can also be corrected, but for these students can still earn FULL credit. I've told the kids that no matter how much I care about their grades, it won't matter until they show they care about it as well. I'm here to help them however possible, but I need some effort on their part as well. I've finally finished up my round of lunch duty, so I'm again able to work with students some days during lunch, they just need to get a pass from me prior to lunch, both to make sure I'm available and to ensure they are allowed to leave the cafeteria (no pass = no exit). I'm here to help however I can, but I can't do it all on my own and as I've told the kids, they need to be active participants in their own education, not passive observers.
On a much lighter note, let's move onto our regular math class happenings for the week. We continued working on probability this week, reviewing theoretical and experimental probability (covered last year in 6th grade) before moving onto independent versus dependent events. This is a slightly more complicated part of probability, but the Skittles lab we did softened the blow a little. The kids could all ultimately agree that it wasn't any more complicated to perform and that it was really just the phrasing of some of the world problems that makes it trickier, but we all know that's generally the case when it comes to world problems. I told them which phrases to be on the lookout for to signal each type (independent ex: return, put back, replace; dependent ex: do NOT return, do NOT put back, do NOT replace, simultaneously, at the same time). Even with the clarification, I felt we needed an extra day to review before the quiz, so I pushed the quiz today, leaving us with all of yesterday to review. That included a "survivor" review game that, while not identical to the quiz, had an equivalent example of each question from the quiz. We weren't able to get through the entire presentation but as I'd promised the kids, I posted a link to the key for that at the end of the school day so they could use it to continue their studying last night. It's evident in the scores who used the review to guide their studying and who did not, if they even took the time to study at all, so again I ask that parents please push the kids to complete corrections for their quizzes, even for those who scored well since even one missed question presents an opportunity to improve.
Well, that should more than cover the week. I want to include just one final plea to parents to push their child to take advantage of every opportunity to improve and thank you in advance for helping with this. I wish everyone the very best weekend!