Math 7H Blocks 1 & 2
SOLs Covered: 7.11, 7.12, 8.12, 8.14, 8.17 One- & Two-Step Equations
Math Unit: 10 One- & Two-Step Equations
Daily Agenda: October 18-22, 2021
Upcoming Assessments: Quiz 1.05 Intro to Algebra (Tues. 10/26)
MSM2 Block 4
SOLs Covered: 7.11, 7.12, 8.12, 8.14, 8.17 One- & Two-Step Equations
Math Unit: 10 One- & Two-Step Equations
Daily Agenda: October 18-22, 2021
Upcoming Assessments: Quiz 1.05 Intro to Algebra (Tues. 10/26)
And that's a wrap! On the first quarter at least! I'm super proud of these kids! It's not been an easy adjustment and some of the kids are still struggling to find their groove, but they've worked hard and every single one of my students are passing this first term! Now that's not to say that there's not room for improvement because there definitely is. I'll start next week off by talking with the kids about things they can possibly change or add to do even better in the next quarter. For example, not every student took full advantage of the chance to redo the assignments with lower grades or even the second attempts on their quizzes. Many didn't try the extra credit. I know some students were happy with their grades and didn't feel the need, but as I tried to explain to the kids, their term grades will impact their semester grades, which in turn impact their final average. While they might not have needed the extra points this quarter, you never know what the future holds and those extra points might have helped balance out a less desirable second quarter grade, which in turn would have bumped up the semester grade and the final average. I know it's the nature of middle schoolers (and let's be honest, humans in general) to just think of the immediate impact, but I'd like to push the kids to think of the long term. Even so, I'm still proud of all the hard work the kids have put in and can't wait to see where the rest of the year takes us! I've just finished my last updates to grades, so what you now see on StudentVUE/ParentVUE is the grade that will be on the report card.
In regards to this week's math, after having a "catch-up day" on Monday, we spent the week fully immersing ourselves into the world of equations. You might be surprised to hear that the kids were really excited to start, but that's because I bribed them with the candy corn used for their first activity. The activity (Candy Corn Algebra!) replaces traditional algebra tiles with candy corn, so the kids were obviously a lot more into the idea from the get-go, especially when they realized that they would indeed be allowed to take their candy with them to eat at lunch or home as long as they followed all the directions for staying safe. While the kids were thrilled at the chance for some extra candy, I was equally thrilled to hear comments like "this is so easy!" and "I didn't get it last year, but this makes so much more sense now!"
The kids all moved smoothly through the one-step equations and while my two honors blocks also smoothly transitioned to knocking out the two-step equations, there was still a bit of discomfort in my MSM2 class. We slowed things down a lot for that class and took extra notes while practicing together, but this means we didn't get into some of the practice assignments that had been planned. I've encouraged the kids to make sure they continue their practice tomorrow and/or over the weekend to make sure they have the steps down solid. The steps are of course the tale of our friend "SAD MEG" (that's GEMDAS backwards). Our poor pal "SAD MEG" just broke up with her boyfriend, but she wants to get her "X" back. While we might think she needs to move on, we're good friends and will at least make sure she doesn't make a fool of herself in front of the entire 7th grade, so we make sure the crowd has moved along (that's dealing with the addition or subtraction part first, working backwards and undoing the order of operations essentially) before she confronts her "X" and his new companion (the coefficient). It's a silly story but the kids love it (and usually start calling out their friends who would be the "SAD MEG" of their friend group) and it seems to be helping them with those pesky two-step equations.
We'll be wrapping up our algebra review work at the beginning of next week, reviewing everything on Monday and taking the quiz on Tuesday, before we take it up a step and start working on multi-step equations. Those will probably stump a lot of the kids at first, but we'll be taking them even slower than we did the basic equations, so I'm confident the kids will have a strong understanding by the time the quiz rolls around, which won't be until November 10th.
Well, I've probably overwhelmed you with everything today (notice I didn't even bother to promise to try to keep this one short), but I wanted to get this all out early in case any of you decided to take advantage of the unexpected three-day weekend and head out early. Tomorrow is still a workday for teachers, so please feel free to reach out if you have any questions. I'll be prepping for the second term (and probably freezing in my classroom!), but I'll get back to you ASAP. Thank you for all the help and support from home this quarter! Hope everyone has an amazing weekend!