The Number Devil Consumes...

The Number Devil... at least the fourth night, consumed a large part of our day!  Ha!

After our warm up, we read, and the kids got an assignment to complete tonight... a writing assignment. :)

They are to imagine that they have stumbled upon the gates of a town called Integerville (signed numbers) and write about what they see, hear, feel, talk to... the sky's the limit!  How much to write?  Eh... I've never been one for minimums or maximums. ;)  They should write as much as they need to write.

Can you tell our next review-unit? :)

Warm up

The Number Devil, Night 4 Part 2

A little writing...

So what is a test?

Today your children got back their OOOE Tests, after a decent sized conversation about what tests are, what they mean, why there are no "scores" and what they'll need to do with the ones that they've missed.  This is the "test" posting that I've yet to make that I have to swear to you I will post this afternoon. :)  But, I did want to let you know that they got their tests back today, homework is to complete test corrections, and we moved into the Fourth Night of the Number Devil... so that this gets in your inbox. ;)

The Number Devil... The Fourth Night ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Matthew Ross
ross.matthew@mac.com
919/414-1983

Sent from my iPhone

TEST DAY!

The kids completed their test on OOO & E Today!  They'll get feedback on their tests... on Monday. :)

The other piece that was completed today was their notebook checks.  Many kids did great; their notebooks were in order, nothing was missing, good to go.  A few others... are going to need to spend some time giving some TLC to their notebooks over the weekend.  I'll want to see them on Monday.

No other work over the weekend.

Answers from Packet...

More Order of Operations

1. 34

2. 17

3. 20

4. 22

5. 80

6. 11

7. 227

8. 15

9. 38

10. 81

11. 13

12. 32

13. 30

14. 87

PRACTICE: Order of Operations

1. 17

2. 16 

3. 10

4. 3

5. 10

6. 0

7. 6

8. 19

9. 7

10. 10

11. 12

12. 7

13. 18

14. 2

15. 38

16. 12

17. 2

18. 8

19. (3+2)

20. (14-6)

21. (8+12) then (4*5)

22. (3*2)^2

23. (2+3)^2

24. (3-2)

25.(16-4) then (2+1)

26. (5-2)

27. (2 / 2)

28. (40+10)-(2*9) = 32

29. (4+6)^2 / (50-30) = 5

Order of Operations Test (not for real!)

1. 35

2. 18

3. 2

4. 6

5. 2

6. 38

7. 13

8. 32

9. 30

10. 87

11. 29

12. 17

13. 76

14. 5

15. 17

16. 39

Review, review, review!

After a speedy warm up, we checked our homework and went our separate ways to get ready for our TEST TOMORROW on Order of Operations and Exponents.  The kids got a packet of more OOO problems that they can work on (I'm going to post answers to these tonight on the blog) and they can do always practice on their exponents. :)

Warm up

Back To School Night!

Reminder that Back to School Night is tomorrow (Thursday) night!
Please aim to be at the MS ready to go around 7:15 and come ready to
visit your child's morning classes, meet their advisors, and
experience some of our electives!

Here comes the test!

There are times when we have these longer block periods where I try to plan special activities that would really be that much better with having the extra time... but today was not one of those days. :)  My lessons tend to grow to fill a period... and as I suspected, this is what happened with today's 75 minute block.

After our warm up, we finished up the Third Night of the Number Devil and started creating a list of what will be on our first test on Order of Operations & Exponents... which will be on Friday.  (See earlier post)

And then, of course, some more practice. :)  I'd like them to get to #20 this evening... All in preparation for Friday!

Look soon for a posting on how tests fit into my math classes...

Warm up

The first 15 Prima Donnas

Number Devil's Third Night..

For the test on Friday...

No Post Today

Due to this week's block schedule, we didn't meet today... so no new news!

Okay, who changed the time on the clock??

Today started with our warm up... and then we checked up on our memorizing... STARTED to read the Third Night of The Number Devil... and then poof!  We were out of time only halfway through the chapter!  I swear, someone snuck up and turn the clock!

So, WEDNESDAY, we'll pick it up where we left up!  (Because of the block schedule. :))

Warm up...

Prima Donna chart

Prima Donna chart 2

Prima Donna chart 3

What have you guys been up to?!

Whew! It has been an intense past two days for me! I'm not sure if I've explained how blogging works for me, but I wanted to just let you know what it looks like in terms of my reliability. My afternoon schedule allows me three chunks of time to work on planning/blogging/checking papers/etc. These are M-F at lunch (provided there are no meetings that I have to attend and that I am not on lunch duty), M/W/F during 6th period (again, barring meetings), and T/H 7th period. For emails to be sent out to you on time (they should arrive to your inbox between 3 and 5p) I have to blog what I'm going to blog for the day by 3p. So, in a case like yesterday and today when I'm on lunch duty and have afternoon meetings until 3p... sitting down to blog becomes incredibly difficult! But, I try my best to keep to a schedule, thus insuring you get your daily update as regularly as possible. :)

With that being said, we've been busy moving forward towards completing our first unit on Order of Operations and Exponents.  That's meant spending some time yesterday and today engaged in working through order of operations problems and spending time working on memorizing our exponents/powers.  When we test on these two topics (which will fall at the end of next week), they will be tested together.  I have great expectations for their success! :)

We've also in the past two days started reading "The Number Devil" which Yael and her family have graciously let me borrow because my own personal copy is on loan to another middle school teacher. :)  Yesterday we read through the first "chapter" or night (ask your kids!) and today we read about the second night of Robert's adventure.  If you've never heard or read the book, I recommend checking it out the next time you are in a bookstore.  I've posted a picture of the book below. :)

Over the weekend the kids can be working on memorizing their exponents.  If they wanted to work on some order of operations problems... they are more than welcome to google "order of operations" -- there's some neat stuff out there. :)  Onward!

Warm up

The Number Devil attacks my board!!

The Number Devil!

Short Post

More on the specifics later, but homework is to finish the Order of OPerations, front and back... see the picture posted below.

HW

Warm up

Back to Exponents...

Today, after checking our homework and viewing his WAY COOL word cloud that Yael and her parents found and cread for us.... :) We worked some more on exponents, writing them and solving them.

Most everyone got pretty close to finishing this, but some may have a few more.

They can always be working on their memorizing!! :)

Division warm up

HW... With answers, No cheating!!

Exponent HW

Average warm up

Last night's HW answers

Factor Factory

T or F Answers

31. F

32. T

33. F

34. F

35. F

36. F

37. T

38. T

39. T

40. F

41. T 

42. T

43. F

44. F

Calculators Lie!

Today we talked about using calculators to help us solve OOO problems.  Much to our dismay, we found that calculators can LIE when solving order of operations problems.

Take, for example, 8 + 6 * 9.  Now, according to OOO you have to complete the problem in this order: 6*9 = 54 + 8 = 62.  62 is the right answer.

However, if you enter "8 + 6 * 9" in the calculator, the calculator will do EXACTLY what you say and give you this answer: 8 + 6 = 14 * 9 = 129.  THE WRONG ANSWER.  Thus, calculators LIE. :)

Now, you can use calculators... if you do the order of operations yourself and modify how you enter the problem into the calculator.

For homework, the kids have problems numbers 33-44 -- the true or false problems.  They should show their work on another sheet of paper to prove that their answer is true or false.

This sheet I do not have electronically, so I can't post it online yet. But I am going to try and remember to post answers. I've got to set a reminder for myself or something! (I was supposed to post answers last night... and that didn't happen! ;) )

HW

Harder integer warm up

Notes on why we can't use calculators...

Time to study!

We worked to finish #16 (bunches of OOO problems) during class today as well as starting making flash cards to help us learn/memorize our exponents.

SO... homework?  Finish both!  :)

Warmup

HW

OOOEeeeeee!

Some wonderful strategies discussed today with regards to memorizing our exponents!  Whoohoo!

We also got some good OOO practice in there with a few exponents thrown in.  

NO HOMEWORK!

Memorizing?!

After our decimal warm up we picked up where our notes left of yesterday and moved steadily into the land of exponents.  The kids received a sheet today of exponents that I will expect them to have memorized by sometime next week!  Ah!  No worries, because I promised I would help them. In fact, their homework tonight is to start thinking of strategies that will help them memorize these powers...

All of this exponent stuff is only pointing us back in the direction of Order of Operations... and OOO problems with exponents thrown in.  Expect to see more OOO homework tomorrow!

Warm up

Expo wrap up

OOO example with exponents

HW

Twist of the Day? Exponents!

We've now gotten our feet secured in the land of Order of Operations and I have to shake things up a little bit. :)  We introduced Exponents today, but just the basics.  We'll get to a more in depth conversation tomorrow... and their longer-term homework assignment of memorizing a set of exponents/powers. :)  (Shh! They don't know this yet!)

No homework!

OOO warm up

Matthews hard work

OOOE Notes

Workdays

This is a posting that I'm making for all of my morning class blogs:

Matthew... What the heck is a workday?

I am so glad you asked!

I call, at random, for workdays in each of my morning classes when I'm feeling like the kids are getting a bit antsy sitting in those desks day after day and/or they are tired of hearing me yap yap yap about math. A workday is exactly what it sounds like... a day of work, and nothing else. It usually begins with a brief meeting where I lay out the requirements and expectations for the day and the assignment they will be completing. Usually, they are allowed to leave my room and work anywhere in the middle school (including tutor rooms if available and sometimes outside, weather permitting). They are also allowed to work together, provided that the partnership/relationship is mutually beneficial and all parties complete and turn in their own
assignments. Finally, most work not completed during a workday is to be completed at night for homework.

I hope this helps with clarity on what a workday is! Have a great evening!

OOO Workday!

Today was a self-declared work day (which I'll post on this afternoon) where the kids got some much needed one-on-one time with just some math problems... without Matthew yappin' away all period. :)  What they did not finish during their workday should be done for homework--which should only take about 15-20 minutes.

We DID get to share our mnemonic devices for PEMDAS... which I'll list below! :)

Priscilla Eats Monkeys Ducks And Seals

Pink Ears Meet Dark Arnold Schwarzenegger

Purple Elephants Make Dung And Snot (Ew!)

Pink Emus Magically Devour Apollo SpaceShuttle

Please Explain Many Danish Ants Simply

Polly's Etiquette Makes Daddy A Slob

Pink Eggs Make Dorky Apple Sauce

Performing ETs Make Delightfully Awesome Sandwiches

Penguins Eat Many Disgusting Anchovie Salads

Purple Elephants Made Daisy A Skirt

Pink Elephants Mourn During A Sunset

Pigs Eat Men Dat Always Smoke

Quite a selection, eh? :)

HW worked out...

Warm up!

You lied, Matthew?!

Today I had to admit to the kids that when I first introduced PEMDAS and the Order of Operations, I lied just a teeeeeeeeny bit. :)

After our warm up I took up their homework (coming up with another mnemonic for PEMDAS) and showed them a few more examples, giving them one problem for homework (listed as Ex #3 from the board).

So the lie. :)  PEMDAS stands for Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiply, Divide, Add, and Subtract, right?  And you do these operations in this order... right?

Well, kind of.

OOO (Order of Operations) should look like this:

P

E

M/D (whichever comes first, left to right)

A/S (whichever comes first, left to right)

So I had to clear that up today. :)  I like them to grasp PEMDAS before I trip them up a bit.  I call it a mind-blowing experience... and confessed that I'll be blowing their minds many, many times this year!

So only one problem for homework!  And if they are wondering or you are wanting to see how they do?  The answer to the homework problem is 17.   ;)

Examples...

How PEMDAS should actually look...

ATFO and OOO!

We nailed down our subtracting integers today (we'll still need more practice, but we're getting there!) with our warm up and checking our homework.  Then we moved back a couple pages in our notebooks to hit OOO... the Order of Operations!  Whoohoo!  A few practice problems later and we assigned our homework.

Remember PEMDAS (Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiply, Divide, Add, Subtract) and the mnemonic Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally?  Their HW is to come up with their own!  And, preferably, it be quite funny. :)

I gave the example of Purple Elephants Must Drastically Attack Squirrels.... or something like that.  Ha!

OOO! Finally... ;)

Warm up

Adding the Opposite

Today's warm-up grew to be our entire lesson for the day!  Subtracting integers... and adding the opposite. :)  Tomorrow we'll pick back up with OOO... Order of Operations, with our newfound solidarity with integers. :)

See the posts below from class, but in particular here's what we talked about:

The Difference Between Minus and a Negative

Converting Subtraction Signs to Adding the Opposite [ IE 4 - 2 = 2 is now 4 + -2 = 2)

How this helps with subtracting integers problems [ IE -3 -(-2) is now -3 +(+2) ]

Homework is on subtracting integers!

The elusive warm-up

ATFO!

OoO!

What a day!  We did our warm-up (see later post), took a look at our class blog, and started out on the Order of Operations.  But, luckily for them, we ran out of time RIGHT before I revealed the final secret to the elusive PEMDAS... Mwhahahahahah!  No peeking!

No homework tonight, but expect some tomorrow!

Basic math

OOO!

Warm up

Getting Organized...

Today was all about getting organized! We got our notebooks in order, checked to make sure everyone had everything, and got our classroom  jobs down pat.

Most of our time was spent getting our notebooks in line.  Every sheet of paper that goes into your child's notebook is given a title and a number that is logged on their Checklist (an orange sheet of paper kept in a page protector in the front of their notebook).  We got to 4 items today!

More on jobs and homework/practice soon!  NO HW.

Checklist