12/21/2007- 1/4/2007 Happy Holidays!

The blog will be on break until we resume classes on January 7th.  Your test scores will be entered sometime between now and then.  Have a good, restful break.

12/21/2007 Applied Geometry - Semester Test

Semester Test today

12/20/2007 Algebra 1 & 2 - Semester Tests

Today Algebra 1 & 2 will be taking their semester tests.  Good luck and do well!

12/18/2007 Algebra 1 - Semester Test Study Guide

Today students will receive the semester test study guide, informing them of what will be on the test Thursday.  Students will work on them during class and I will give them the answers before class is over so they can direct their review before the test.

Semester Test on Thursday

12/18/2007 Algebra 2 - Semester Test Study Guide

Today students will receive the semester test study guide, informing them of what will be on the test Thursday.  Students will work on them during class and I will give them the answers before class is over so they can direct their review before the test.

Semester Test on Thursday

12/17/2007 Algebra 1 - Semester Review

Today I will give students the study guide for Wednesday afternoon's semester test.

Homework:

prepare for Wednesday's semester test

12/17/2007 Pre Algebra - Semester Review

Today students will review for Wednesday afternoon's semester test.  I will be handing out the previous chapter's tests to look over.

Homework:

prepare for Wednesday's final

12/17/2007 Applied Geometry - Chapter 6 Test & Begin Semester Review

Today students will take the Chapter 6 Test and begin to review for Friday mornings semester test.  I will give them last year's semester test today to begin review and we will play a review game on Wednesday.

Homework:

prepare for Friday's semester test

12/14/2007 Algebra 2 - Semester Review

We will grade our section 5 homework today (our last grade entered for first semester) and then begin our review for semester finals.  We will be taking a look at all the old chapter test today and on Tuesday students will receive a study guide that mimics the actual test, per our usual routine.  The semester final will be Thursday December 20th.

Homework:

review for semester test (collect,organize and review notes and example problems & complete review sheets)

12/13/2007 Algebra 1 - Semester Review

We will begin our review work for the semester test today.  The students received a packet of the old tests from 1st semester.  On Monday of next week, students will receive a study guide that will be similar to the test.  Wednesday afternoon we will have our 1st semester test.

Homework:

Complete review work

12/13/2007 Pre Algebra - Chapter 4 Test

Today students will take the Chapter 4 Test and begin review work for the semester final.  The review sheet that they pick up today after the test will be due on Monday.

Homework:

Review sheet

12/13/2007 Applied Geometry - Chapter 6 Review

Today we are going to review for the Chapter 6 Test.  On Monday, we will take the Chapter 6 Test, Wednesday we will review for the semester test and Friday morning we will take the semester test.

Homework:

Complete review sheets and begin preparing for semester test

12/12/2007 Algebra 1 - Chapter 6 Quiz & Begin Semester Review

Today we will go over our review assignment for Chaper 6, take a quiz and then begin our review for next Thursday's semester test.

12/12/2007 Algebra 2 - The Quadratic Formula

Today we learned the final method for solving a quadratic equation, the quadratic formula. I showed them how to use it to solve an equation. See some more examples here. We did some examples on the board, then they used the examples to help them with the homework. We will begin our review for next Thursday's semester test on Friday. Also, for extra credit, students can derive the quadratic formula from 0=ax^2+bx+c by completing the square.

Homework:
page 295 #'s 18-44 even

12/11/2007 - No School

We got iced out today, so we will resume B-day classes tomorrow and continue with the planned activities.

12/10 thru 12/16/2007 Extra Credit

Go here for this weeks extra credit.  It is worth 5 points and is due by Sunday evening.

12/10 Algebra 1 - Solving Compound Inequalities & Review

Today we will discuss solving compound inequalities. Students will be graphing them, writing them and then solving them. When finished, they will do a review exercise in preparation for the quiz over sections 1 through 3 on Wednesday. After the quiz Wednesday, I will distribute the first round of Semester Review materials.

Homework:
page 387 1-17 all (Quiz Wednesday)

12/10/2007 Algebra 2 - Completing the Square

Today we learned yet another method for solving a quadratic equation, called completing the square. This method involves changing the form of the equation by adding something to both sides, so we are able to take the square root of both sides to solve, as we did on Monday. This is the next to last method we will investigate for solving quadratic equations. After doing some examples on the board, students do a worksheet and some problems from the book. See some examples of completing the square here.

Homework:
page 286-287 #'s 48-60 even & worksheet
(Photo courtesy mathmistakes.info)

12/7/2007 Algebra 1 - Solving Multi Step Inequailites

Today we continued our work with inequalities, solving multi-step inequalities. We reviewed our work from section 1 on a worksheet, then did some examples from this section on the board. Students completed a worksheet in class, then worked on the assignment.

Homework:
page 343 15-35 all

12/7/2007 Pre Algebra - Chapter 4 Review

Today students will be reviewing for the Chapter 4 that will be on Tuesday, December 11th.

12/7/2007 Applied Geometry - Trapezoids & Kites

We will wrap up Chapter 6 today, moving away from parallelograms, but still studying quadrilaterals. Today's types of quadrilaterals are trapezoids & kites. Students began class by filling ot a sheet that contianed definitions and properties of our 2 figures. We then went through a chart of all our figures studied in Chapter 6, listing the properties for all. We did some worksheets together in class solving for parts of trapezoids & kites, then students worked onthe graded assignment.

Homework:
pages 433-434
14-18, 20-25, 27-36

12/6/2007 Algebra 1 - Solving Multi Step Inequailites

Today we continued our work with inequalities, solving multi-step inequalities. We reviewed our work from section 1 on a worksheet, then did some examples from this section on the board. Students completed a worksheet in class, then worked on the assignment.

Homework:
page 343 15-35 all

12/6/2007 Algebra 2 - Solving Quadratic Equations by Finding Square Roots

Today we worked on simplifying the square roots that are solutions to our quadratic equations. For example the square root of 18 can be simplified to be 3 times the square root of. 2. We will also be simplifying fractions that have square roots as the denominator.

Homework:
pages 267 - 268 #'s 52-68 even & worksheet

12/5/2007 Algebra 1 - Solving Inequalities

Today we will be solving linear inequalities (example: x - 5 < 12).

Homework:
page 337-8 #'s 22-60 even

12/5/2007 Pre Algebra - Scientific Notation

Today we reviewed the concept of scientific notation with the students. In addition to converting numbers from scientific notation to standard form (and vice versa), we also ordered and compared numbers that are in scientific notation and multiplied numbers that are in scientific notation. Students did a worksheet in class and then worked on their assignment for Friday.

Homework:
p. 207 13-33 all, 40-50 even

12/5/2007 Applied Geometry - Rectangles, Squares & Rhombuses

We will continue our study of parallelograms today, focusing on special parallelograms: rectangle, rhombus & square. Students will use the properties of these special parallelograms to find side lengths and angle measures. They will also show that a particular parallelogram is one of these by showing that one of the properties is true. We did some worksheets together in class, then students worked on the graded assignment.

Homework:
p. 412 10-16, 18-31

12/4/2007 Algebra 1 - Solving One Step Inequalities

Today we will be solving linear inequalities (example: x - 5 < style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Homework:
page 337-8 #'s 22-60 even

Extra Credit 12/3-12/9/2007

Here is the extra credit for this week. Must be submitted by hard copy or by email by Sunday night.

12/4/2007 Algebra 2 - More Factoring & Solving

Today we learned how to factor quadratic expressions (the reverse process of the FOIL method). We also learned that factoring can produce solutions to a quadratic equation. This will be our first method for solving. Demonstrations can be viewed here. We did some examples together in class, then students worked on a worksheet. The video below demonstrates how to factor to solve a quadratic equation.



Homework: worksheet 1-30 and page 260-1 #'s40,46,48,52,56,58,66,68,74,78

12/3/2007 Algebra 1 - Chapter 5 Test

Students took the Chapter 5 Test

12/3/2007 Pre Algebra - Zero & Negative Exponents

Today we introduced the rules for zero and negative exponents. Simply put, negative exponents change places in the fraction and become positive, for example three to the negative 2nd power on the top becomes three to the positive second power on the bottom. Also, any number or expression to the zero power becomes 1.

Homework:
page 202 #'s 16-39 and 43-50

12/3/2007 Applied Geometry - Conditions for Parallelograms

We will continue our work with parallelograms today, using the six conditions for parallelograms (the 5 from last week and a new one, if one pair of sides are both parallel and congruent) to decide if a given quadrilateral is a parallelogram. It will serve as a good review of the properties of parallelograms as well as some more algebra, setting up equations and solving.

Homework:
pages 402-403 1-7, 9-15, 17-23