SOLs Covered: SOL 8.3a,b Squares & Square Roots; 8.2 Subsets of Real Number System
Math Unit: 01 Exponents, Powers & Roots; 02 Real Number System
Daily Agenda: September 12-16, 2022
Upcoming Assessments: Quiz 1.01 Exponents/Roots & Real Number System (A-Thurs. 9/22; B-Fri. 9/23)
¡Buenas tardes! I hope everyone has had an amazing week! It's time for your next installment of the latest math happenings in Room 203, but before getting into this week's work, I wanted to ensure everyone knew a few details for these emails and a few other tidbits families might be interested in learning. The section at the top contains several links to help families stay on top of the materials covered in class. The Math Units section links to the folder of all the assignments, notes, and any extra items for each unit while the Daily Agenda tells the exact assignments covered each day (with links to those items) and usually some additional practice resources. While we go over each assignment in class, we don't always go over every single problem, so I provide the kids with links to answer keys so they can check their practice assignments within Canvas as a module directly under the work modules, but parents/guardians can access them from this folder.
Speaking of Canvas, for those who might have missed either of my first two emails, Canvas is the Learning Management System (LMS) I use for my classes instead of Google Classroom. While Google Classroom is great, there are some things that just aren't available there that are on Canvas and the kids will hopefully see as the year progresses how much easier it is for them to keep up with their work because of the way the modules (Canvas's term for units) are organized. For those families who are interested in following along on Canvas directly themselves, you can add yourselves as Observers for your child using the directions here. If anyone needs help with this, please let me know. If you're thinking to yourself that you just can't handle setting up an account on one more website, never fear! You can keep up with everything through the grades on TylerSIS, these emails, and my class website, which has copies of these emails along with additional items, including a calendar that contains projected dates for several weeks at a time.
Well, I've already carried on for a bit, so it's time to start delving into this week's math happenings. We started the week by wrapping up our first bit of work on perfect and imperfect squares and square roots with a little more practice before the kids completed their first graded assignment, the Unit 1 Formative Check. Like most things for my class, it was completed on Canvas and since this was the first assignment of its kind that the kids were completing for me, I spent some time going over the difference in some of the question types as these assignments as well as our quizzes are built to simulate what the kids can expect on the SOL test later in the year. In addition to the traditional multiple choice question, there are various TEI (technology enhanced items) like those they'll see on the SOL test. These questions can be tricky as they can often have more than one answer and they are sadly an "all or nothing" question, meaning it's marked wrong and no points are awarded for partially correct questions. I know this might seem harsh and because honestly I completely agree that it doesn't seem fair, I have these assignments set up so that the kids can redo them until they (or you!) are happy with their grades (this is in addition to being open-notes!). The kids will also be given a second chance on their quizzes, but only one retake for those. The kids' minds are normally blown when I tell them (lots of dropped jaws!), but like I told the kids, I'd rather them make all their mistakes now and have the chance to learn from them so that by the time they get to a test or the SOL where there is no retake or notes allowed, they won't get tripped up and will end up performing better in the end. As I told the kids, my goal is their learning and growth, not grades. Grades are a byproduct of that learning and they're used by the county to determine whether they can move onto the next grade level, but that number doesn't tell the whole story of a child.
There I've gone and gotten carried away again and my eyes are telling me I need to step away from the computer, so I'm sure your ready for me to wrap this up, so I'm going to give the Cliff Notes version of the rest of the week, which was spent covering the real number system. The kids have learned about different parts of the system throughout their math education, but this is the first time they've looked at it as a whole system. It was a little trickier than they first thought, but I have a few unique ways of approaching it and I think the kids enjoyed my comparisons of the real number system to a family reunion (the irrational numbers are like that crazy aunt or uncle you try not to get stuck talking with because they just go on and on and never make any sense!). We're wrapping up our work with this at the start of the week and reviewing before they take the first quiz, which I was able to push back a day to give us a full review day instead of having to squish it in with the final part of the unit work.
Well, this definitely got away from me several times, so I'm going to close it out here before I think of something else to add. As always, please let me know if you have any questions or need anything. I hope everyone has an amazing weekend!