Post date: Oct 11, 2019 7:26:29 PM
MSM2 Periods 1 & 4
SOLs Covered: 7.11 & 8.14 Order of Operations (Review) & Algebraic Substitution
Math Unit: 06 Order of Operations; 07 Evaluating Expressions
Daily Agenda: Oct. 7-11, 2020
Upcoming Assessments: 1.04 Order of Operations & Algebraic Substitution Quiz (Wed. 10/16)
Math 7H Period 3
SOLs Covered: 7.11 & 8.14 Order of Operations (Review) & Algebraic Substitution
Math Unit: 06 Order of Operations; 07 Evaluating Expressions
Daily Agenda: Oct. 7-11, 2020
Upcoming Assessments: 1.04 Order of Operations & Algebraic Substitution Quiz (Wed. 10/16)
Greetings! I am one tired teacher and I still have stacks of work (both real and virtual) to grade, so I'm going to try to keep this shorter (you've probably already that I tend to get carried away with writing these emails, so we'll see if I can stick to that).
As previously mentioned, we took a little extra time to wrap up and review for the most recent quiz on scientific notation and comparing and ordering real numbers based on both my own observations as well as feedback from some of the other 7th grade math teachers who gave the quiz last week. While the results for my classes show the extra time did help some and scores were overall higher, there were still some who struggled on the last quiz. For many of those who struggled, at least part of their struggle is due to not showing work on the quiz. I distinctly remember times as a kid when I could do some of the work in my head and just being annoyed with having to take the extra time to write it out, so for that reason I've told the kids I'm not as strict as some teachers when it comes to showing work. However, that only works if they're mental math is getting them the right answers and can explain who they got to their answer when questioned. Please help me by encouraging the kids to show work or at least more work, when necessary and within reason of course.
Please also encourage them to take advantage of the opportunity to do quiz corrections to help improve their quiz grade; they'll earn back half credit for every previously missed question they get right on their correction form. The opportunity is available no matter the grade, so even if a student only missed one question, he/she can still improve his/her score! I've made myself available to work with kids during lunch as often as possible on quiz corrections (or any other assignments the need extra help with) and next week I should (fingers crossed!) have some time during SOAR when I can work with kids as well. The good news is there are a lot of kids who already took advantage of the chance to do corrections. It will take me a little while to get through the papers, but I'm soooo proud of the kids who immediately started their corrections as soon as they submitted their quiz and got their results!
Thursday was spent reviewing the order of operations (ask the kids about the latest math story time: "Mom, Dad, and the Annoying Siblings!") to help better prepare us for the following unit, algebraic substitution, which was started today and will carry over into next week. The kids were super excited to learn that the still-mostly-new online calculator we use for testing (the VA Desmos Scientific Calculator) will "do" the substitution for them, but there were of course immediate groans when I explained that there are still some teeny tiny details that could lead to wrong answers and they'll only be able to identify those details and prevent the problems if they know how to work the problems "old school style" (also applies to basic order of operations questions). For this reason, we'll still practice "the old ways" (you know, how we did the work as kids) as well as practicing how to properly type the problems into Desmos to ensure correct answers.
I'm finally all caught up on grading the math notebooks (YAY!!!), so those grades have now all been entered. I've still got the digital assignments from Units 4-5 to grade along with the quiz corrections for those units (1.03 Quiz), but everything else has been entered. If a formative assignment is listed as missing or incomplete, please help me by pushing the kids to take care of it. With my class point systems, most of the kids can still turn these assignments in without any kind of penalty applied to their grades, meaning they can still earn full credit. If you see a quiz does NOT have a note stating that quiz corrections have been completed, please push them to take advantage of the that opportunity.
Thank you to the families that have sent in snacks for my classroom "snack bar" area! I set the area up this year hoping it would not only do the obvious thing with helping kids who might be hungry for whatever reason but also to show them that I care about them as individuals and not just as a random students assigned to my room for a year. It's definitely helped many kids this year with both sides, but it's gotten a little more expensive than I'd expected and I've had to cut back on what all I buy, so I truly appreciate the help!!!
Well, I've yet again gotten carried away and these papers and digital assignments aren't going to grade themselves, so I'm going to close things out here. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to email at anytime. Hope you all have an amazing weekend!