SOLs Covered: 6.PS.1 Data Cycle with Circle Graphs; 6.PS.2 Measures of Center
Math Unit: 13 Data Cycle with Circle Graphs; 14 Measures of Center
Daily Agenda: April 14-17, 2025
Upcoming Assessments: SOL Simulation Test (Mon. 4/21-Tues. 4/22)
Greetings! I have some plans that I need to rush off too soon, so I'm going to jump straight into this week's math happenings. Before getting into content, I do want to make sure families are aware of a technology issue that's popped up this week with the online gradebook in regards to extra credit. I use a system called "Grade Passback" that sends the grades directly from Canvas to Synergy (StudentVUE/ParentVUE). Over spring break the county updated the Synergy system and the way I had been doing extra credit is no longer working. At this time, Synergy is calculating the new extra credit opportunities (Unit 13 and 14 only) as regular grades rather than extra points. There was a menu that I could adjust in the system previously so it could be calculated correctly, but it has been disabled with the latest updates. Any adjustments I've tried making either on Synergy or Canvas haven't worked or create new issues, so I'm working with the technology department on finding a solution.
I do have options to correct once grades close prior to sending (I'll close out grades for my class on May 23rd), but I haven't found a working option for the time being while the assignments are still open to students. This problem might be exclusively in my class as many teachers still haven't started utilizing the "Grade Passback" feature, but I would encourage folks to pay a little closer attention to any grades that have been posted since spring break. Again, please be assured that the extra credit will not permanently have a negative affect on the student's overall grade even though it will show up that way for those two extra credit opportunities for the time being.
In regards to what has been covered in class this week, we started the week off with the quiz on circle graphs for Unit 13, which might potentially be the last summative grade of the year (there's a small chance of a project after SOL testing, but I'm still unsure at this time). The rest of the week was spent continuing our work with statistics, this time related to the measures of center (also known as mean, median, and mode, normally with the addition of range, which isn't technically a measure of center). This isn't a new topic for students as they covered all of these last year along with line plots, which are used heavily in this unit. We do however put more focus on mean being viewed as a "balance point" for the data set and then explore what happens when we change or add numbers to the data set as well as exploring outliers. Because of timing and the need to start reviewing for SOLs, we aren't doing our usual "big" summative quiz, but the kids have a short formative quiz to complete by the end of class Monday (it's already available to them starting today, so they can work on it this weekend as well).
Monday we'll be starting our SOL simulation (practice) test, which will most likely carry over into Tuesday. Students will get individual SOL review packets each day as well, each covering a different standard. We'll have three weeks to review before our Math 6 SOL test, which takes place on May 13th.
That should cover the biggest details but as always, please feel free to email if you have any questions or concerns. Have a great weekend!