Math 7H Blocks 1 & 2
SOLs Covered: 7.8 & 8.11 Probability; 8.9 Pythagorean Theorem
Math Unit: 17 Probability; 18 Pythagorean Theorem
Daily Agenda: January 31, 2022 & February 1-4, 2022
Upcoming Assessments: Quiz 3.04 Pythagorean Theorem & Angle Relationships (Fri. 2/18)
MSM2 Block 4
SOLs Covered: 7.8 & 8.11 Probability; 8.9 Pythagorean Theorem
Math Unit: 17 Probability; 18 Pythagorean Theorem
Daily Agenda: January 31, 2022 & February 1-4, 2022
Upcoming Assessments: Quiz 3.04 Pythagorean Theorem & Angle Relationships (Fri. 2/18)
Howdy, folks! I'm going to keep this update pretty quick (for real!) in the hopes that I can head out faster and hopefully avoid the rain, so let's get straight into our math work for the week.
Most of the week was spent wrapping up our work on probability. We started off with an introduction to independent versus dependent events. The kids have done well with this overall, but I warned them that sometimes they could run into scenarios that might not be as obvious and they'll need to approach those questions slowly. For instance, the county once came up with a scenario where two cats were escaping from a cage full of cats that didn't want to be there (that was literally part of the phrasing, LOL!); even though the usual phrases that indicate a dependent event weren't anywhere in the problem, one can infer that they had to be two different cats since the first cat wouldn't have returned to the cage. I went over a few other scenarios with them but since I told them there was no way I could predict that types of questions they might get, I couldn't prepare them for every possibility and they should think about how things would play out in real life if given a scenario we never discussed.
We did a pretty detailed review for the quiz on Wednesday before the kids took the quiz on Thursday. Unfortunately, some of the kids have really started slacking on their work and I still have several who not only haven't finished the quiz but also haven't completed the formative check and have fallen behind on their ALEKS work. This is resulting in some less than ideal grades, so I'll be sending individual emails and making phone calls next week, but please help me out in the meantime by checking up on grades on ParentVUE/StudentVUE and pushing the kids to get caught up on their work as soon as possible.
We ended the week by launching our first geometry unit of the year, the Pythagorean theorem. We haven't gotten too far into it at this point, but the kids seem to be liking it so far and I think that's only in part due to their love of creepiness (when they heard the phrase "missing leg," that got a few of them far too excited... and sending me their creepy stories from their creative writing classes). We'll be continuing the unit next week, but the assessment for the unit will get combined with the following (angle relationships) since both are on the shorter side and occasionally merge together (not much at the middle school level, but still happens sometimes).
Well that should cover everything and the kiddos are heading back for the last block of the day, so I'll wrap things up here. As always, let me know if you have any questions. Hope you all have a great weekend!