Math 7H Blocks 1 & 2
SOLs Covered: 7.2-3 & 8.4 Ratios, Rates, & Proportions & Consumer Applications
Math Unit: 15 Ratios, Rates, & Proportions; 16 Consumer Math
Daily Agenda: January 10-13, 2022
Upcoming Assessments: Stock Your Store! Project (due Fri. 1/21/22); Quiz 3.02 Consumer Applications (Mon. 1/24/22)
MSM2 Block 4
SOLs Covered: 7.2-3 & 8.4 Ratios, Rates, & Proportions & Consumer Applications
Math Unit: 15 Ratios, Rates, & Proportions; 16 Consumer Math
Daily Agenda: January 10-13, 2022
Upcoming Assessments: Stock Your Store! Project (due Fri. 1/21/22); Quiz 3.02 Consumer Applications (Mon. 1/24/22)
Greetings! I'm sending this update out early since I'm hoping the kids will use the extra day off to get caught up on work. While grades for the second marking period and first semester are pretty much done, we have three new grades for the third marking period/start of the second semester with this week's work but some kids are already behind. Some of this is slightly out of the control of the kids for some as there have been a lot of students quarantining since we returned from winter break, but others put off my work in favor of assignments for other classes. This was somewhat done with my blessing as I truly want the best for all of my kiddos, even in regards to things that are outside of my own class and work, so I told them they could definitely postpone some of the work while trying to improve their grades in other classes, but only as long as they go back to it this weekend. That being said, we're now headed into the weeknd and there are a few kids who still owe ALEKS (which I've adjusted to only requiring 5 topics per week instead of 10), the Unit 15 formative check, and/or Quiz 3.01 on ratios, rates, and proportions. The grades for the formative check and quiz are already posted on both Canvas and StudentVUE/ParentVUE and I'll be doing my "mini update" for ALEKS grades with this week's progress tomorrow morning, so please check those and help me by encouraging the kids to get on top of these tasks and starting the second semester off strong.
Since we're already "talking" about this week's work, let's go ahead and recap what was covered. We reviewed similar figures at the start of the week along with prepping for the quiz covering the ratios, rates, proportions review materials. Those that have taken it so far have done really well, but I know that some of the kids who have been out might have some questions they want to ask before taking it. If they're going to be out for awhile, they should message me with their questions and I can send back my response along with any resources that might help and/or, if our schedules align, I can even set up a Google Meet for help outside of class time. If they'll be returning soon, I'll catch up with them when they return, though I still encourage students to email before then so they can use the time out productively and stay up-to-date with the work as long as they're feeling up to it.
After wrapping up the quiz, we continued building on the topic by introducing percent of a number and the percent proportion. Basic percent of a number is pretty easy for the kids, but the hardest part of the percent proportion for most students is which number to plug into which spot in the proportion. To help with this we started with simple questions and color-coding to identify which number went where, building into more complex word problems and figuring out how to break them down into the simpler versions we started with. Not many of the kids had highlighters, colored pencils, or the like to help with this so if possible, I'd encourage everyone to get a basic set for math class. Many of our second semester topics will be made easier with color-coding, so they'll get plenty of use out of them.
We wrapped up the week with percent of change (percent of increase or decrease), which the kids took to fairly well, especially after I showed them the "Desmos hack" that makes these problems a breeze. This was of course after showing them the "old school way" of plain old order of operations, but seeing the ease of the Desmos way seemed to make some of the kids excited to tackle the rest of the problems.
We'll be continue this unit through all of next week and will also tackling a small project as part of our work. The Stock Your Store! Project has always been a fun one for the kids, so I'm excited to bring it back (we weren't able to last year between the craziness of virtual learning along with snow days). The kids will be getting plenty of time to work on it during class and I'll help with the "techy parts" since the "cash register" portion can be a little trickier.
Well, that should more than cover the week, so I'll wrap things up here. Tomorrow's a teacher workday, so feel free to reach out if you have any questions. I'll be doing final checks of grades, updating the new grades, and prepping for the second semester, but I'll try to get back to you before the end of the work day. If I don't hear from anyone tomorrow, I'll see all you kiddos bright and early on Tuesday. Enjoy your long weekend!