Accelerated Math 7
The topic of circles is a large component of the Accelerated Math 7 curriculum. This week we began with a simple pizza problem using data from a local restaurant. Students were given the size and price of two different pizza selections. We began by simply calculating the area, in square inches, of each pizza. That immediately began a discussion about the nature of irrational numbers in the use of the number pi. After that we worked on a circle problem involving a Norwegian goat. If the goat was tied to the side of a barn using a 30 foot rope, then what is the area of land he can graze on? We finished our week with a short quiz consisting of questions similar to the problems we studied earlier this week.

Accelerated Math 8
We have reached a very interesting point in the Accelerated Math 8 curriculum. My students have completed about 75% of their preparation for the integrated algebra exam. It's appropriate at this point to begin reviewing material from last year or perhaps earlier this year. That is exactly what we did this week. Each day Math 8 students were given a question from a New York state Regents exam from years past. After a little discussion my students realized that they had not forgotten as much as they thought they had. We finished our week with the short quiz that coincidentally consisted of questions very similar to the questions we spent the week working on.