SOLs Covered: 7.PFA.2 Expressions
Math Topic: 05 Simplifying Expressions
Daily Agenda: October 19-23, 2026
Upcoming Assessments: Topic 5 Expressions (Thurs. 10/29; Term 2 grade); Unit 3 Exp. & Equations (TBD)
Important Note: Grade for my class close/lock at midnight Mon. 10/26
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Good morning! I'm trying to get this update out early since I have to get to my nephew's football game tonight and have a few errands to knock out after school before that. This week has "full speed ahead" for our first dose of algebra for the year and I'm very proud of how seriously the vast majority of the kids have taken this. We've spent a lot of time modeling expressions using algebra tiles and some of the comments I've heard the kids making have really warmed my teacher heart.
Comments like "oh, this is so much easier than I thought" and "I wish we'd gotten to use these tiles last year" along with the resulting answers have shown that giving them the extra time to practice and model the expressions is paying off. Some students are struggling a little more with some of the questions that cannot be so easily modeled, such as some of those containing fractions or decimals, but even with those I'm finding they have a solid understanding of the process and it's more the basic computation that is holding them back. For this reason, I wanted to let families know about some sites students could be using to improve some of those more elementary skills that they might not have fully mastered. Both Khan Academy and Duolingo (which does offer a math program in addition to all of their language programs) are both great resources for boosting/reinforcing math skills. The county requires we use Mathspace (another resource they can use outside of school), so I'm not using either of the others in class, but both are amazing resources, especially for reinforcing those basic skills.
With the term winding down, I'm wrapping up grades for the marking period with this week's work. This means that any new grades for next weeks assignments will go onto the second marking period. Because of this, you'll see due dates on Canvas that won't match the due dates given in class, but it's a digital requirement to ensure the grades sync correctly from Canvas to StudentVUE/ParentVUE. I generally always put the grades from the last week of a term onto the following marking period to ensure that all students have enough time to complete the work if absent and then make corrections to improve their grades. That being said, many students haven't submitted the final assignment from this term (5.14), which is a completely digital assignment on Canvas and some still have outstanding assignments they should wrap up before grades close completely for this term, which will be on Monday, October 26th. Again I ask that all parents/guardians look over grades and encourage the students to do what they can to finish the term with the best grade possible.
I think that covers all the major things and it's almost time to get the kids from lunch, so I'm going to close things out here. As always, please feel free to email if you have any questions. I hope everyone has an amazing weekend!