Outlook for the week of September 28 - October 2

Hello to All!

This week is a short one due to two holidays. We have no school on Monday and Friday.

For Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, my ideas are as follows:

For Precalculus:

The idea of two separate schedules for the class is not working as I'd hoped. On Tuesday, I will begin the last section in 2.7 and present it to the entire group. We will get back to one schedule, and begin Chapter 3 on Thursday.

For Algebra II:

We have mastered Chapter 2 and will be ready to move on to Chapter 3 on Tuesday. I hope to cover one section per day, so

Tuesday 3.1
Wednesday 3.2
Thursday 3.3

For 8th grade Algebra:

After grading quizzes from Friday, I realize we need to do quite a bit more review of both the distributive property and combining like terms. We'll work on these two concepts Tuesday and Wednesday and retest on Thursday.

For Physics:

Tuesday will be a review day of the first half of Chapter 4. The test will be Wednesday. Thursday we will begin the second half of Chapter 4 which covers force, mass, acceleration WITH friction.

I will post specific homework problems later today or tomorrow, but this should give you an idea of my vision for next week.

I hope everyone has a special holiday. See you on Tuesday.

Mrs. Little

Outlook for the week of September 21 - 25

Good Monday Morning!!

I hope to have a very exciting and productive week this week. We are really getting into the groove, and digging into our subjects.

Here are the summaries for the week. As usual, they are subject to minor changes (if we are moving more quickly or needing more time)

For Precalculus:

I handed out a diagnostic test last week, which is a wonderful test made up by Dr. Kennedy. I will count this for a grade for those of you who were not happy with the results of our diagnostic test. You may complete it for a grade. It is an excellent review of Algebra II graphing concepts.

We are trying something new, as you all know. We are differentiating our classroom into two groups and they will be called Group 11 and Group 12. I hope this will eliminate frustration for both the people who would like to move faster and do independent work, and those who need more time and a bit more instruction. I plan to work with each group for approximately 20 minutes, with the balance of the time you students working quietly and productively on your respective problems. This venture will take a great deal of cooperation from the whole class, but I know we can do it.

Group 11 began section 2.5 on Thursday of last week and began section 2.6 this morning. The problems are as follows:

Section 2.4: 11 - 45 odd
Section 2.5: 9 - 43 odd and 45 - 65 every other odd
Section 2.6: 7 - 18 all 19 - 67 every other odd
Section 2.7: 1 - 31 odd

Group 11 should plan on a Chapter 2 exam on Thursday AND Friday. I am giving you 1 1/2 periods because there is a lot of information to cover from Chapter 2 and I want you to have plenty of time to do a really good job.

After you complete the problems from 2.5 - 2.7, please do the Chapter Review and the Chapter Test. Similarily to Chapter 1, I will take the problems (mostly) from the Chapter 2 test in the text. This should help you know what to study!!!

Group 12: We are working on finishing up questions from 2.2 and 2.3 These sections are important and you should feel very comfortable with interpretation of functions before moving on.

We'll begin section 2.4 Tuesday and work through 2.5 by the end of the week. On Friday expect a quiz on the first half of Chapter 2.

Both sections will be introduced to polar coordinates, and I would still like to find some time to go over calculator utilization.

For Algebra II:

Today we continued 2.5 which is writing the equation of a line given slope and or coordinate points and or parallel or perpendicular lines. This is a very key concept for our future work this year.

We'll also begin 2.7 which is a section on special functions such as absolute value, horizontal and vertical lines, the step function and others.

Next will be 2.8 which focuses on graphing inequalities.

Section 2.5: 24 - 42 all
Section 2.7: 13 - 45 odd
Section 2.8: 13 - 41 odd

Friday you should plan on a quiz over sections 2.7 and 2.8

Time permitting, I would like you to do pp 100-101 College Entrance Exam Questions

Algebra I (Grade 8)

This afternoon we went over a quiz from Friday which included section 2.6 The Distributive Property, which some of you needed a bit of review on. The quiz also included adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing positive and negative real numbers. We need to practice these concepts over and over, so these operations come naturally.

We need to remember that although a calculator is a great tool, we should be able to perform these operations in our heads.

Tuesday we will begin section 2.7 which is Combining "Like" Terms. This is another key section in understanding the basic fundamentals of Algebra.

Section 2.7: 15 - 81 odd
Section 2.8 19 - 77 odd

I realize these are long section with a great deal of work, but it is important that you get very good at this chapter. The more practice you do, the better you will be at math. Remember, math DOES take PRACTICE!!!!!

On our short Friday I'll give you a practice worksheet to be turned in on Monday, and on Monday we will have a TEST ON CHAPTER 2!!!!!! (The second half of Chapter 2) Make sure you find time to study.

For Physics:

Today and Tuesday we will work on problems from the first half of Chapter 4 which deals with force, acceleration and motion without taking friction into account. We'll look at the relationship between Newton's Second Law and the Kinematic Equations we learned in Chapters 2 and 3. We will also include pulleys in this first half.

Chapter 4 (Part 1) recommended problems: 7, 9, 15, 17, 21*, 23, 27, 28, 30, 31, 35*, 36*

There will be no Physics class on Wednesday.

On Thursday we have a double block of Physics and this will be our first lab; we'll look at Kinematics and the force of friction on objects.

On Friday we'll wrap up Chapter 4 with any last questions. THERE WILL BE A TEST ON MONDAY on the first part of Chapter 4. STUDY HARD

I will give a "make up" test to students who were unhappy with their Kinematics Exam grade. It will be take home and I need to see every bit of you work and assumptions. As I said in class, there is to be NO sharing of information.

Have a great week! Its going to be a busy one!!!

Mrs. Little

Outlook for the week of September 14 - 18

Hello to All!

Because you all have a written syllabus for the week, this week's blog will summarize our goals.

For Pre Calculus:

This week we are working on 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4 These sections focus on functions, graphing them, understanding their behavior, and doing various calculations.

We have an exam tentatively scheduled for Thursday.

On Friday we'll begin section 2.5

For Algebra II:

We have discussed the material from 2.1, 2.2, 2.4 and 2.5 and we will continue to work on problems from these sections this week. These sections focus on functions and their definitiions, behavior of functions, graphing, and related calculations.

We will have a test over these sections on Thursday.

Friday we will begin section 2.5

For Algebra I (grade 8);

We are working on problems from 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4 These sections deal with adding and subtracting integers. Everyone is doing a great job with keeping up to date with their homework.

We don't have class on Tuesday, September 15. We will have a quiz over adding and subtracting and multiplying and dividing integers on Friday.


For Physics:

Monday and Tuesday will be a review (from an AP workbook) of Kinematics, which will hopefully prepare you for the exam on Wednesday.

Be sure to READ Chapter 4 (Newton's Laws) for Thursday, so you will be familiar with the concepts from this chapter.

Next week there will be a lab on Thursday, which is the double block of period 9 (Physics)

Have a great week.

Everyone is working hard and doing their problems, but never let yourself fall behind. It can be very difficult to catch up!!

Mrs. Little