Post date: Mar 26, 2021 6:43:09 PM
MSM2 Block 1
SOLs Covered: 8.5 Angle Relationships
Math Unit: 19 Angle Relationships
Daily Agenda: March 22-26, 2021
Upcoming Assessments: 4.01 3D Models Quiz (Thurs. 4/1/21)
Math 7H Blocks 2 & 3
SOLs Covered: 8.5 Angle Relationships
Math Unit: 19 Angle Relationships
Daily Agenda: March 22-26, 2021
Upcoming Assessments: 4.01 3D Models Quiz (Thurs. 4/1/21)
Happy Friday!!! I hope you've all had an amazing week and that you'll be able to get out and enjoy this beautiful day at least a little! I don't know about you, but I'm so happy to see these signs of spring. Speaking of spring, we're only one week away from spring break, which also marks the end of the third quarter. I've updated grades with everything that has been turned in up to this point, including today's quiz. The quiz marks the last grade for the term (everything for next week will go onto the final quarter), so if students don't turn anything in over the last few days of term, what you see on ParentVUE/StudentVUE is the grade you will see on the next report card. That being said, I've encouraged all the kids to take advantage of all the little things they can do to improve upon their grades, which literally every student who doesn't already have a 100% can still do. There has been an extra credit opportunity open on ALEKS (located in the CCPS Rapid Identity Backpack, labeled as McGraw-Hill) that will close Monday (3/29) evening. That will also be the last chance to turn in the now-late ALKES formative assessment work. Additionally, if students didn't submit the 3.04 quiz today or the 3.03 quiz (still a few missing), then they really need to get those in as soon as possible. All students are also encouraged to take advantage of the chance to redo any of the quizzes from this quarter, complete quiz corrections for any problems still wrong after the second attempt, and/or complete any still missing/incomplete assignments from Units 14-19. Ideally all of this would be finished by Monday, but I will still accept things through the last day of term, which is Thursday, April 1st.
In regards to the work, as previously stated, we took the 3.04 quiz, which covered our work on the Pythagorean theorem as well as angle relationships. This was of course after we finished up the rest of our work on angle relationships. The kids did a great job all week even though some were a little less than thrilled to see the return of algebra when we were working to solve missing angles. There are a fair number of students who were struggling with the algebra at first, but once we reviewed the process of simplifying expressions and then solving them, they were doing much better and feeling more confident with their work. I do want to remind them all that if they algebra is what "trips them up," then they really need to make sure they are writing/typing their work out, showing each step in detail rather than trying to work it out in their heads. I teach this stuff all day long, but I still have to record my work somewhere.
I showed kids both the "old school" method of writing it down (though in a modern format since I was using a Chrome extension to turn any webpage into a digital whiteboard (Chrome users, check out Web Paint! It's an awesome extension!). Unfortunately, Chrome extensions are blocked for students on their school Chromebooks, but they also have access to another digital whiteboard if they like that format, but I reminded them that they can still write it out on an actual whiteboard or on paper; for those kids in the classroom, I've even told them they are welcome to use their desk as whiteboard space. I also showed the kids how they can use our Desmos calculator as a quasi-whiteboard, typing in their steps even if the calculator can't calculate anything at that point. No matter how/where the kids chose to do the work, we went over how to use Desmos to check their work.
Thursday was spent doing the second part of our review, the first taking place last week at the end of the Pythagorean theorem unit. In addition to reviewing everything we did with angle relationships, we went over a variety of test-taking strategies as has become the norm with our group practice quizzes. Despite having me tell them multiple times that these practice quizzes are generally harder than the actual quizzes, the kids were a little worried at first, but they were much happier when they saw the quiz was indeed easier. They are also much less anxious going into any quiz nowadays with the reminder that they get a second attempt. I can't tell you how many times kids have said they'd second guess themselves on a problem only to get it wrong or that they realized after they made the problem way harder than it needed to be. These are the types of things that can lead to excessive test anxiety, so it's been great for me to see relaxed faces going into our quizzes and I can only imagine how the kids feel. I wish this was something I'd thought to do at the start of the year, but it's definitely something I will continue into the future. Yes, it's not something they'll be able to do on the SOLs or even other classes in the future, but it's my hope that the kids will all leave at the end of this year feeling more confident in their math abilities overall and they'll take that feeling with them throughout the rest of their education.
Well, I seem to have gotten a little carried away again, so I'll wrap things up here, but as always let me know if you have any questions. Hope you all have an amazing weekend!!!