Accelerated Math 7
The first technique we learn in factoring you could call “common factor” because if you called it "factoring polynomials whose terms have a common monomial factor”, your students would be asleep before the end of your first sentence. My Accelerated Math 7 class has done very well with this first technique. We have just finished discussing the second technique of factoring or "the difference of two perfect squares." I would say it went well but not as well as common factor. Fortunately, I get to review both techniques when I start giving my students problems which combine both types of factoring. Then we can move on to our third technique called backwards FOIL. After that we start to combine all three techniques. And then the real fun begins.

Accelerated Math 8
We are now at the halfway point in Accelerated Math 8 this year. It's true that every class is about to close their books on the second quarter but in Math 8, it is a turning point. I hope to spend at least some part of every remaining class on review for the Regents exam. This will involve solving problems from previous Integrated Algebra exams. There are only so many topics to study and the New York State Regents can be a little repetitive in the way they ask questions. So I am going to take advantage of that trait and practice until my students become familiar and comfortable with the tone and style of each question. Meanwhile we will continue our study of radicals. Soon, I hope, we will be able to re-examine problems involving circles and the Pythagorean theory only now the answers may not always come out nicely as they have in the past. Discussing application problems becomes so much more realistic once we finish discussing radicals.