Post date: Jan 8, 2021 6:42:47 PM
MSM2 Block 1
SOLs Covered: 7.10 & 8.14-16 Relations & Functions
Math Unit: 13 Relations & Functions
Daily Agenda: Jan. 4-8, 2021
Upcoming Assessments: 2.03 Relations & Functions Quiz (Thurs. 1/14)
Math 7H Blocks 2 & 3
SOLs Covered: 7.10 & 8.14-16 Relations & Functions
Math Unit: 13 Relations & Functions
Daily Agenda: Jan. 4-8, 2021
Upcoming Assessments: 2.03 Relations & Functions Quiz (Thurs. 1/14)
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a joyful while hopefully also restful holiday and that you were all able to ring in the new year on a good note. To help the kids start their year off right academically, we spent Monday and Tuesday at first catching up on work from earlier in the term and then reviewing the current topic (relations and functions) so that we could continue building on the concept the rest of this week and into the beginning of next week. In regards to catching up on work, I still have about 20 students who have submitted nothing for the "12 Days of Mathmas." Since it is currently the only formative assessment grade, it is crucial that kids get whatever work they've done submitted so they can have some grade aside from a zero in that category. As I've told the students multiple times this week (to the point some of the kids who have done it are tired of hearing it themselves), just by fulfilling the requirements of that one assignment (meaning completing at least 10 of the 12 days per the directions provided), their overall grade would increase by 20 percentage points (ex. a student with a 56F would got up to a 76C!). Please help me by encouraging the kids to finish this assignment.
We will be adding another grade to that category next week when the kids take the winter math MAP test. Just for completing the MAP test, students will receive an additional grade in the formative assessment category. For students who also meet their goal, I will also give them a "homework pass" that can be used retroactively on any assignment from this term or saved and used on a future assignment (please note that students who are currently at risk of failing won't have the option of saving their pass as I will need to use that to help with their current grade. The amount they need to improve varies by student based on their starting point, but it's anywhere from adding 2 to 7 points to their fall score. Fall scores were mailed home, but students can send me a Canvas message asking for their previous scores and what their goal is if they no longer have their old score.
Moving back to the current topic, we "bumped up" our work on the unit by introducing slope-intercept form. While slope-intercept form isn't technically considered a middle school math standard (it's an Algebra I SOL), I find it helps a lot of students better understand functions and can make the work a lot easier for a majority of the kids. Some of the kids are already fans of the topic with the little bit we covered so far, but we'll continue with it and wrap up the last little bit of our algebra work at the beginning of next week.
I know I'm sending this out a little earlier than normal, but since this is currently the only thing on my to-do list, I figured there was no reason to delay sending. This should pretty much cover everything but as always, please let me know if you have any questions. I hope you all have an amazing weekend!