SOLs Covered: 7.NS.3 Analyze Square Roots & Perfect Squares
Math Unit: 00 Back-to-School; 01 Squares & Square Roots
Daily Agenda: August 19-22, 2025
Upcoming Assessments: MAPS Testing (Mon. 9/8-Tues. 9/9); Unit 1 Exponents & Powers (TBD)
Greetings! We made it through the first week and I think it's been great! This being the first time I've "looped up" with the kids, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I think it's been very positive thus far. There have been different mixes of students and about half the kids are new to my rosters, but I still know many of them from the halls last year in 6th grade. The kids who had me last year are already used to my rules and routines and they've been great classmates to the new-to-me students with getting them adjusted to their new setting. All of my former students can tell you that I'm very structured in the sense that I have a dedicated spot for everything, generally always have the supply or tool needed for any job, and that they always know what to expect from me. They can also tell you that I'm a bit of a goofball, so even when they might not love the current topic, we can still have fun and even get a few laughs throughout class. I think the "newbies" are already learning that just from this week.
Most of the week has just been reviewing/learning classroom and school expectations, which includes a few new things from the school such as the electronic hall pass system run through StudentVUE. We're all learning and getting used to that and I know some students are a little anxious about it, but I've assured them that there will be a little bit of a grace period with that. For instance, if they go over their pass time here in the beginning by a little bit because they didn't see that it was activated or because they forgot to adjust the time, it's not something to worry about at this point. As long as they are acting appropriately in the halls, not wasting time, and not gone from class an inappropriate amount of time, they'll have no problems.
We did start on our first math topic of the year, which is predominately a review of one we covered last year: perfect squares and square roots. We delve a little deeper into the topic and "preview" the idea of imperfect squares (all those between the perfect squares), which is a Math 8 topic they'll cover next year. We'll continue this next week before continuing our work with exponents in a few other areas.
That should cover all the big stuff from the week and as it's already nearly 2 hours since school let out, I'm going to wrap things up here. If you have any questions or concerns throughout the year, please feel free to email, though I'll warn/remind that I'm trying to build a better work/life balance, so I'm trying not to check email over the weekends and at night. I can promise though that I'll always respond within 24 working hours.
I hope everyone has an amazing weekend!