SOLs Covered: SOL 8.14 Simplifying & Evaluating Algebraic Expressions
Math Unit: 06 Simplifying Expressions & Properties Review; 07 Evaluation Expressions
Daily Agenda: October 24-28, 2022
Upcoming Assessments: Unit 2 Test (SOL 8.14a&b) (A-Fri. 10/28; B-Mon. 10/31)
Greetings! Before getting into this week's math happenings, I want to remind folks that this first quarter is quickly coming to a close. With that being said, please help me by encouraging the kids to take advantage of the different opportunities made available to improve upon their grades before it's too late. First, any missing work should be completed as a missing assignment/assessment has a grade of 0F; there is no grade penalty for late work as I believe grades should reflect learning, not behaviors or other factors. The kids also have the previously mentioned extra credit opportunity through IXL. Additionally, all formative checks can be redone an unlimited amount of times through the final deadline (Fri. 11/4), quizzes can be redone once and then corrected for half credit for any still missed questions, and tests can be corrected also for half credit. Students who fail any test have a chance to retake it, but they need to attend some kind of remediation session first.
I've held several after-school sessions for the first test these past two weeks, but I'm no longer able to offer after-school time myself for the time being. I am instead offering before-school time for extra help from 7AM until kids start to arrive for the start of school (7:20AM at least); next week, I've already marked my calendar for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, but I still ask that folks either email or call/text (my Google Voice number is in my email signature) to let me know to expect their child. After next week, I'll still be happy to provide extra help for anyone, but it will need to be arranged with me first. The school also provides before- and after-school tutoring program of its own for various subjects, including our pre-algebra; details for this can be found here on this document. Students who attend any remediation session of any kind can then retake the test in the morning or make arrangements with me to take it at another time, possibly during their royal block or academic lab.
Now onto this week's math happenings! This week the kids have continued to make me so incredibly proud of their efforts, writing out their work in detail and really giving it their all... though often with a dose of whining about their poor hands and all the writing, but most have still pushed through their "struggles" to keep up the good work. We started the week by reviewing simplifying expressions, focusing on some of the tougher questions we didn't get to last week. We then moved onto evaluating expressions, which I started by showing them the "old school" way of writing it out on paper, carefully plugging the numbers in by adding parenthesis around the variables first to avoid potential issues with negative signs, and then solving it with the order of operations. Once I tormented them enough with that, I showed them how Desmos can basically do all the work for them. After they finished whining about how I made them work it out the hard way first, I then showed them where problems can pop up if we're not careful with how we plug them into the calculator, which you can only catch and fix if you know how to work it out "the hard way" first.
As I mentioned last week, the quiz for this unit was a take-home quiz. The kids were given a paper copy of the quiz, which I'll be doing from now on as I think it will help with encouraging the kids to write out their work, but they are expected to input their answers on Canvas once completed, both to help with data gathering for me and to ensure the kids get the practice of "online testing" since the SOL test will be online at the end of the year. Many students haven't entered their answers yet and thus now have that marked as missing with a 0F, but they can easily take care of that this weekend at home or when they're back in school next week if they don't have access to internet outside of school. I've gotten permission from administration to work in a "catch-up day" next week to help students with that final push to improve their grades before the term ends. We'll likely need that time to help kids catch up on the final test of the term, which was given today in A-day classes and will be given in B-day classes on Monday. We had a lot of absences today, so those kids will need Tuesday to take the test in class, so please encourage them to make up any missing formative checks and quizzes outside of class.
Well that should cover everything this week, but please feel free to reach out if you have any questions. I hope everyone has an amazing weekend!