The week of Jan 9th-Jan 13th

Math IA

If you assume wisdom depends on age, and wisdom is a function of age.  This week we will begin studying the concept of graphs and functions.  This topic will help students build on their knowledge of equations by relating graph to the story it tells and to the equation whose solutions at pictures.  Students will read and use functional notation as a model function rules with tables and graphs.

Some of the assignments we will be completing this week include;

p254 1-10, 18-21

p259 1-23, 32-35

p266 1-9, 15-23, 27-35

p272 1-18, 27-29

The week of Jan. 3rd - Jan 6th, 2012

Math IA

After the Christmas break, we will begin our work with inequalities.  Until now all of our equations have been balanced.  Now we begin to solve unbalanced equations and the number of solutions becomes infinite.  This is going to be quite a change for most of my students.  The assignments we will be completing this week include;
p202 1-32
p208 4-19, 67-72
p215 1-28
p222 1-9, 13-21

The week of Nov.7th - Nov. 11th, 2011

Math IA

We have an odd week ahead of us due to a conference day on November 8th.  I've decided that the best use of our time might be to spend Monday's class reviewing last week's work on adding and subtracting rational numbers.  That is, adding and subtracting numbers with decimal points, positive or negative signs, or even fractions.  Then Wednesday through Friday I hope to introduce new material on multiplying and dividing rational numbers, the distributor property, and the properties of numbers in general.  For those of you who read these entries, I'd like to give you a little head start on next week’s assignments.  They are as follows;

Multiplying/Dividing Rational Numbers

p73 1-30, 32-57, 63-66

Distributive property

p82 15-46

Properties of Numbers

p88 1-15, 44

The week of Oct.17th - Oct. 21th, 2011

Math IA

Scatter plots and number types are the big topics this week.  I am predicting that we will spend most of our time multiplying, dividing, adding, and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers.  In my experience, this is often one of the most challenging topics for algebra students.  But, hopefully, if we prepare a good foundation now then later, when we introduce variables with fractional coefficients, they are more likely to be successful.   I am planning to give a large exam at the end of this week.  Any time you can spend practicing with your son or daughter would be helpful.

The week of Oct.12th - Oct. 14th, 2011

Math IA

We will spend a short week exploring real numbers.  Whenever we cover this topic, I am reminded of an old proverb…

Don't be like the frog at the bottom of the well who looks up at that small circle of stars and thinks that is all there is to heaven.  

My job this week is to expand my students’ sense of what is a number.  They know how to count, and they understand zero, but do they know where to put the square root of five on a number line? Can they tell a rational number from an irrational number? And if we have time, we might even discover complex numbers.

The week of Oct.3rd - Oct. 7th, 2011

Math IA
It has been said that mathematics is the study of patterns.  Next week, we will be focusing on patterns and functions.  We'll begin with some classic puzzles which I hope my students will find interesting and then move on to problems from their textbook.  The handouts we will begin with are entitled patterns 1-6 and links to them can be found in the sidebar.

first week 2011_2012

Math IA

The handouts we will be using this week are Area problems and Carpets and Stripping problems.