Getting Lives ...

 Hello!

No, we are nowhere near done with negatives or the order of operations, but that work will be continued after spring break. I like to give it time to settle in and then revisit as we add the final (final?) pieces to that work. Meanwhile ...

We have started their new lives!

Assignment: Career Research

Due: Tuesday, April 1st (no foolin'!)

But also note ... career research turned in after break will have one point per day deducted. It's important for them to wrap their heads around their new job before moving on!

This assignment has them researching their new career, but it is important they remember a few things: 1) they are moving to take an entry level position, and 2) they will not be earning a great wage at this point. *While doing their research, one student noticed that they were making the bottom 2% of all people in that career. Correct. No one is at the top of their career. This is but one of the challenges. 

There are two parts to this assignment: The research side and the "how does this fit your goals," side. I am looking for thorough answers here!

So, what can you do to help?

LOTS! 

First, read the email I sent home earlier today. It should have come from TeacherEase

Second: Help them find the information. Some were relying on AI overviews which is not a reliable source for this information ... except perhaps in the job description. Talk with them and have them think about all of the qualities this worker would need. For example, a Bank Teller would perhaps need to be good with money, reliable, friendly, cautious, have keyboarding skills, enjoy working/sitting indoors, etc. Have them really think about this new career!

Third: On the goals side, ask them questions as related to this new job. Do you have those skills? Does this seem like a good wage for you? Are you going to enjoy this work? Etc. This side is about the "real" them and what they would think of this as a career. It's their chance to glow, gripe, notice that it's not a good match, etc. Have them talk about it.

They will eventually be writing their backstory, paying taxes, and making purchases ... the more they embrace this future version of themselves and run with it, the more they will learn from this adventure!

Enjoy it with them. ;-)

Homework for Monday, March 23

 Negative Addition, choice #2

Due Tuesday, March 24

We're still just adding! Today in class we had a friendly tournament with the pressure of "speed" factored in. The faster these totals come to mind, the easier the math homework with bigger numbers will be. Keep practicing!

So how can you help?

Find a deck of cards, take out the face cards, and practice! They can teach you the game. Soon we will add multiplication & division ...

Homework for Wednesday, March 18

Assignment: Battleship Gameboard

Due: Thursday, March 19

Today in class we prepared for our Battleship games. First, everyone made a color-coded key for the game setup. Then the class played together to guess my point on the grid. Tonight they are to plot their own point that classmates will guess using the same game rules. 

So, what can you do?

Game boards should have one identified point, and lines that extend at 45 degree angles from it making a giant X. All boxes along the lines will be bisected diagonally to be properly setup. 

Ask them about the game. See what they noticed as we played and they plotted the points by color. I was careful not to give them any strategies, so the question is: did they develop any? The more they play, the better they will get if they use the information they have to figure out what they know, then figure out what they need to know. 

Once we've played in class, you should try it! Having them explain the rules to you and see how many guesses it takes you to find their point will be fun. In fact, I will eventually make having you play them worth credit, so look forward to it! As someone in class said today, "This was my favorite game!"

Tuesday, St. Patrick's Day

 Assignment: Real Life Negatives A

Due: Wednesday, March 18

We are delving into negatives now, but just beginning. You will notice that I take a different approach to this, starting with thinking about the concept of what a negative is, and recognizing how much they already know about negatives while probably not understanding the equations. 

So, focus on the understandings. Our work with coordinate grids are meant to introduce what you can do with a coordinate grid. Yesterday's homework was just a simple plotting exercise, but thinking about how they represent negatives is pretty cool. Understanding how they work for plotting complex equations is big stuff, but just getting more exposure is our goal for now. 

As for "real life" negatives, the stories are fun and allow me to use ridiculous scenarios to see a variety of numbers that they will be using to make sense of the questions. Do I need to know that 2 + (-5) = -3, or can I just tell you that if I go up 2 stairs and down 5, I will be lower than I was when I started? See, they can do that. Learning the equations without context is the hard part. We'll get there. 

And one more thing: they should be using the commutative and associative properties for organizing their work. Please don't have them number-line hop, as in 3 - 5 + 9 - 20 + 4. It's a recipe for mistakes, especially when we throw decimals into the equation. 

*Do note there was a pre-algebra option tonight for anyone who wanted to write an equation, then commute and associate to reach the answer. 

So how can you help? 

Focus on understanding the situations. For example, if the temperature is 20 below zero and only rises 12 degrees, it still won't be over 0 degrees, so it's still below zero (negative). Have them make sure their answer makes sense! One of the 8th graders told me today that she remembers wondering why commuting the numbers worked, but now it makes sense, especially when you add in variables that need commuting and associating too!

Words to use: Difference (find the difference of the numbers, not "subtraction") and Value (will the answer have a positive or negative value?)

Update: March 11

 First, thanks to all of you who have given me feedback on this blog. I appreciate your thoughts. It's for you after all, so I will keep working to make it even more useful!

Homework for Wednesday, March 11

Juicy Foods Finish

We dehydrated foods last week, then today Mr. Campbell helped us weigh their final masses. What's left for tonight is to calculate the percentage loss of water, create bar graphs for each food, and write concluding thoughts and observations on the back. The data is all available online, and there are direction reminders in our Google Classroom. 

So what can you do?

Not much! The arithmetic is calculating percentages, calculators allowed, and observations are theirs. If they are having trouble thinking of sentences to write, have them tell you what the foods looked like, what they noticed about the differences in their masses, and anything that surprised them. Once they express those thoughts to you, help them put them into words on the page. Honest observations!

Next week we're back to normal! It's been great conferencing with y'all. ;-)

This week in math: March 2 - March 5

Greetings families!

You may be wondering ... what does this week look like as we finish up the winter trimester and prepare to begin the spring trimester on March 9.  

In math, we will have an assignment each day, all due (including ALL past due assignments and retests) by Thursday, March 9. 

Monday: Probability Practice - 

This is the "largest" assignment of the week. However, it is review and there are two options: a) basics with multiple choice and p) pre-algebra level. In both cases they need to show me their thinking, whether it is with an example or a written explanation, of how they reached their answer. I want to see them making those connections!

So how can you help?

Encourage them to use what they know to make connections to past assignments and work out the probability. Examples: When we did block probability they practiced drawing out the possibilities and determining the probability from those options. When we did Taking Chances they practiced drawing out the possibilities in a grid, then counting those to determine the part (yes) to the whole. Drawing the options will help! If they are stuck, ask them how many options there would be in total (the whole) and then determine the number of times that will happen out of the whole. In other words, have them illustrate that for you! They should NOT know these answers, but they should be able to determine them. We are working on thinking. ;-)

After that? Be aware of what is happening this week and help them stay on track!

Tuesday: 5 Ways to Get Investing Ideas - 

This will be an online assignment in our Stock Investment Game. It requires reading, then answering 5 multiple choice questions. This assignment cannot be redone and must be submitted by the end of the day on Thursday. 

Wednesday: Juicy Fruits #1

We will be doing the majority of this assignment in class as they work together to prepare food for dehydration. Today they will be predicting the percentage of water in each food (complete/incomplete) and copying down the beginning weights from each group (which will be linked online in their Google classroom). 

Thursday: Be prepared to diversify and build their stock portfolio! (no due date at this time)

Retests will be available through March 5, then we're on to the next trimester!

Homework for Wednesday, February 26

Assignment: Stock Purchases

Due Friday, February 27

Greetings!

We are still about a month away from when your child will "get a life," but we are starting our preparations for that moment. As a quick overview, they just got a new job and will be moving their family from wherever they are to someplace in Washington. To prepare for this move, they sold their house and earned $25,000 on the sale. Because we are doing this in math class, they also "decided" to invest that money in the stock market in anticipation of using that money as a down payment on their next house ... yes, they are all taking that risk. In a nutshell. More details will be coming in about a month.

But for now, you can help them by continuing a discussion about what the stock market actually is. While it's not critical they learn or understand everything, there is a base understanding that is good to have. And, for the students who are really curious about it, you can expand on it much more than I have the time (or knowledge) to do in class. In any case, we are having a fun competition to see who can earn the next money over the next two months, so feel free to help as much as they let you! ;-)

The website we are using is Howthemarketworks.com, which is free for us. It's a commonly used classroom resource and is pretty easy to navigate once you click around to see what it offers. They read about stocks the other day, we discussed them in class today, and we looked at some graphs and charts together that the website has, but it's a rudimentary start! 

Tonight: 

*They are to buy shares of stock from two, and only two, different companies. 

*They are to spend between $20,000 and $25,000 total for full credit. 

*The site will not let them spend more than half of their money on one company, so they will need to spend at least $10,000 on each. 

*They are to write this on the worksheet I made (also in their Google classroom) to record these first transactions (see below). The website does the math for them, but they need to copy those numbers into the worksheet to hand in to me. Stocks bought after the market closes will not technically own the stocks until the morning. 

NEXT Thursday, we will discuss diversifying, buying, selling, and other things to consider, but for NOW they must wait until then to buy or sell their stocks once they make these initial purchases. 

As an example, here is the top half of the worksheet filled in for the stock shares I bought:

Starting Investment:  $25,000

Company 1:	Symbol
Apple	Aapl
Current Price/Last Price	Number Purchased
$271.72	45
Total Spent for this Stock	Leftover Cash at this point
$12,200	$12,800

When they complete the second half, they should have less than $5,000 left as cash. 

Everyone NEEDS to buy their stocks by next Monday, March 2. It's just not fair to everyone else if they just sit on their money and aren't at the mercy of the market like the rest of us are ...

So feel free to give all of the advice you want, but also make sure the worksheet is complete!

Happy pretend investing to all. ;-)

Updates for Wednesday, February 25

Homework: Taking Chances

Due: Thursday, February 26

We have been playing around with probability again, from dice rolls to colored blocks. 

This assignment takes them through all of the possible dice rolls for two dice. We went over how to do this in class, but to be clear: 

*The chart must be filled in for credit. There is no particular order, but I recommend having a pattern! For example, you might write 1, 1 as your first roll, then 1, 2 as your second. Then maybe you list all of the options with 1 as your first die or maybe you list all of the rolls that add up to 3 next. Just have a plan and make a pattern to keep track of what has been used. 

*Rolls should be written as die 1, die 2. 

*For example: 2, 3 and 3, 2 are different rolls. 

*In the bottom section, probability is written part/whole: the number of times the given number can be rolled: the total number of rolls.  Simplifying is ideal!

How can you help?

Go over the above guidelines for the paper, help them to organize the chart, but please do not count the number of times the given challenge happens for them. If the chart is organized and they are methodical, it should be easy to accomplish!

And if you have any advice on stocks, they will be purchasing shares of two different stocks for tomorrow's homework!

SoEmo: Friday, February 13

Our SoEmo topic today was BIG WORDS, as in words that pack a punch and/or use a lot of emotional energy. This is what they have to say:

1) Favorite - This word has impact if you ask someone to select ONE thing. It makes other options feel less important. You can alleviate this by asking, "What is one of your favorite things?"  "Name a really good book you've read." or "What do you like to do when you get home?"

Favorite types of things listed that came to mind: pink, baseball, dogs, inclusivity, kindness.

2) Hate - It's important to know the energy this consumes and the feelings it stirs up. Hate should be used for things that you want to spend this type of big energy on. Do not toss it around lightly. You can dislike the taste of brocolli, you can find a piece of homework difficult, and it can be frustrating to be interrupted. Use the words you mean and save hate for hateful things.

Hateful things listed: bullying, animal cruelty, climate change, racism.

3) Mean - People are not mean when they are asking you to follow a rule or be respectful of other people. Be careful how you identify a leadership action or someone's intent. If the intention is mean, it's just mean. If someone identifies your action as mean, even if your intent was different, think about why it felt that way, apologize, and ask for clarification if you need to. However, just because you may not have liked something someone said, doesn't automatically make it mean. This one cuts both ways. 

Mean people can be discriminatory, rude, nihilistic, unforgiving, exclusive, and hurtful. 

Afterwards, we played Wits and Wagers, a game where teams try to come up with the closest answer to a question, then decide as a team which answer you actually think is closest. It's an older, fun, family game I just happen to own!

For example: one of today's questions was, "How many pages are in the hardcover version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone?" 

No answer here ... ask your child if they remember OR can come up with a close estimate!

Have a good weekend,

Mo ;-)

Homework for Wednesday, February 11

 Assignment: Flower Power

Due: Friday, February 12

This has been a big, important unit and we are wrapping it up next week. We learned a way of organizing data for ratio, proportions, and percents, and have gained understandings of what a percent represents. These skills will be used in many of their high school classes, so being proficient with them know gets them several steps ahead! It's a fun unit, but it's not over just because we will be taking a test ... stay tuned for the related projects!

Tonight they will be answering questions from a graph. These are identical to the problems we did in class together, but with different numbers. In fact, the problems we solved are shared in the actual document in our Google Classroom, so please have them use it as a reference as needed. 

So, how can you help?

Like I said yesterday, it's time to fill out their Notes Books with any reminders they will need for the test. There will be a section just like today's homework on the test ... with different numbers. There will be conversions, equivalent ratios, and verbal percentages. Help them to be independent thinkers, taking advantage of the resources and practicing the steps. 

I will post more practice resources this weekend! Please let me know if there are any additional resources you would appreciate.