We began with our assessment over Simplifying Radicals (key, pdf).
We then learned a bit about the Pythagorean Theorem (lesson, pdf).
Your homework is:
Check the portal
for the results of your assessments last week, fill out your student checklist
with your results, and make a plan for retake (if necessary),
including making an appointment.
One of the problems I think we have in schools is that we train students to fear failure, to avoid it at all costs. Now, to be clear, I'm not suggesting you go out and fail all your classes. But I am suggesting that you should take some risks in your learning. That instead of avoiding things that are hard (because you might fail), you challenge yourself to step up and take on things that are difficult.
I think sometimes students would rather not try (and fail) than try and fail. In the first option it's easy to say, "Oh, I just didn't try." But in the second option it's much harder, because you have to admit that you did try and still weren't successful. But here's the key - almost anyone who has done anything worthwhile has failed. Not just once, but multiple times. We often learn more from trying something and not succeeding than we do from trying something and succeeding, especially if we limit ourselves to only trying "easy" things that we know we'll be successful at.
Here are a couple of videos that illustrate this point that I think are worth your time. The first is from the TED Conference I attended, which speaker Brene Brown (who also has an excellent TED Talk) described this way:
You know what the big secret about TED is? . . . This is like the failure conference. No, it is. You know why this place is amazing? Because very few people here are afraid to fail. And no one who gets on stage, so far that I've seen, has not failed. I've failed miserably, many times.
The key is still to try hard things, even knowing that you might fail, but then learning from it. So the first video is from TED Fellow Myshkin Ingawale. It's a little over 6 minutes, so please take the time to watch it. The important point to realize is that he built this device - and it failed. So then he built it 32 more times until it worked. After watching this video, think how important his invention is and how many times he had to "fail" to get a working version.
The second video is designed to be motivational, but I still think it has a good message about "failure."
So, what are you willing to try (and perhaps fail) at?
We began with our assessment over Solving Quadratic Equations by Factoring (key, pdf).
We then reviewed simplifying radicals (lesson, pdf).
Your homework is:
Check the portal
for the results of your assessments last week, fill out your student checklist
with your results, and make a plan for retake (if necessary),
including making an appointment.
Prepare for the Simplifying Radicals Assessment on Friday.
Thought I'd share this to give you a taste of the conference I attended a couple of weeks ago. If you're curious, you can learn about many different things on TED's site.
Today is Pi Day. (March 14th. Which is 3-14. Which is sort of like 3.14. Which is sort of like Pi. Sort of.) Some folks thing Pi is overrated and think we should celebrate Tau Day.
Today was the midterm. I will post the key as soon as everyone has taken it.
Homework:
Check the portal
for the results of the midterm. There will not be any re-assessment on the midterm.
Make a plan for the rest of the semester. What are you doing well that you should continue doing well? What can you improve on so that you can be even more successful?
We then continued our review for the midterm (lesson, pdf). Our midterm is tomorrow.
Your homework is:
Review for the midterm. Look over your notes, work some problems from
Coolmath or from the textbook, revisit the Moodle and take any of the
pre-assessments we've done so far this semester, go over the review worksheets, or prepare some other
way you think will help you. Make sure you study and are prepared for the midterm, including bringing a 3 by 5 note card with whatever you think might help you on it and a calculator with you to the midterm. You can start as early as 7:10 am if you wish.
We then continued our review for the midterm (lesson, pdf). Our midterm will be on Tuesday, March 13th.
Your homework is:
Review for the midterm. Look over your notes, work some problems from
Coolmath or from the textbook, revisit the Moodle and take any of the
pre-assessments we've done so far this semester, go over the review worksheet, or prepare some other
way you think will help you.
Shortened class today due to TCAP. We began with our common assessment over exponents (key, pdf).
We then reviewed some more for the midterm (lesson, pdf). Our midterm will be on Tuesday, March 13th. Our next class will be on Friday of this week.
Your homework is:
Review for the midterm. Look over your notes, work some problems from Coolmath or from the textbook, revisit the Moodle and take any of the pre-assessments we've done so far this semester, or prepare some other way you think will help you.
Shortened class today due to TCAP. We began with this opener (pdf).
We then began our review for the midterm (lesson, pdf). Our midterm will be on Tuesday, March 13th.
We also talked about how we would have a common assessment tomorrow over exponents.
Your homework is:
Please prepare for the common assessment tomorrow over exponents. You can look over what we did today, your old notes, or go to the Moodle and retake the online pre-assessments we took earlier this semester over exponents.
Check the portal
for the results of your assessments last week, fill out your student checklist
with your results, and make a plan for retake (if necessary),
including making an appointment.
