Happy Holidays!

Well, school was canceled once again, due to snow and ice. Classes will resume on Tuesday, January 6th. Enjoy your break from school. Take time to enjoy your family, and do something nice for your parents and/or siblings. Most of all, be safe in all you do.

Homework over the Break: Complete the concept 8 and concept 9 practice tests. Complete the Linear Equation worksheet (both sides). Be ready for a quiz over linear equations--take 10 minutes to review the 10 problems on the pre-assessment worksheet (the one where the class average was 10%).

Slope, Intercepts, and Equations of Lines, Oh My!

Much to our surprise, school was in session again today. This being the case, we continued to review for the Concept 8 and 9 tests, which will be given in the first week of January. The purple and white practice tests will both be due on Tuesday, January 6th.

Today, students reviewed how to determine slopes of lines, y-intercepts, and graph linear equations.

Tonight's Homework: Complete both sides of the worksheet you received today. It is due on the next school day (Dec. 19th or Jan. 6th). There will be a quiz over this material on the next school day. You should review the questions on your pre-test, as these are very similar to those you'll find on the quiz.

Note to parents: If you missed this week's grade slip, rest assured that you'll see them weekly, beginning on January 6th. With the crazy weather we've had this week, I've chosen to forgo printing them this week. Sorry if this has caused you any angst. Happy Holidays!!

Getting Ready for Concept Test 8

What a crazy week this is turning out to be! This may be the only day of school we have this week, so I've revamped my plans a bit. Today, we used the handheld computers to use a formula to determine the slope of a line given two points on that line. We also struggled to come up with a formula to use to determine the y-intercept of the line passing through the two given points.

Students received a lilac practice test for Concept 8. The worksheet will be due on Tuesday, January 6th. Please know the concept test will be given during the first week back from winter break.

Tonight's Homework: None, but many of you will need to complete late and/or missing work that didn't come in today.

Another Day Off Due to Weather

School has been canceled again today, due to the icy roads. Enjoy the sunshine, and be safe as you play outdoors. I hope to see you in class on Wednesday!

Snow Day!!

The snow we've all been hoping for finally arrived, canceling school for the day. The quiz originally scheduled for Tuesday will be delayed until at least Wednesday, depending on the weather.

Take care, be safe, and enjoy the snow!

Putting All the Parts Together

Today, we attempted to review the following things related to linear functions:
• x and y-intercepts
• slope
• slope-intercept equations
• standard form equations
• graph of the information
• equations of parallel lines

All of these concepts will be important to understand fully as we move into next week, as we will be taking a quiz over these topics on Tuesday (weather permitting, of course). In addition, students will see all of these things on the Concepts 8 and 9 tests, which will be given early in January.

Tonight's Homework: Complete both sides of Palm Worksheet #5. Be sure to put your answers in acceptable forms ( equations for the slope; ordered pairs to show the name of the point representing the y-intercept).

Using the Slope Formula on the Handheld Computer To Determine Slope

Students used the spreadsheet program on the handheld computers to help them determine the slope of a line. First, students entered the slope formula into one of the cells, and then entered the x and y values of 2 different points on a given line into cells A2, B2, C2, and D2. We will do more with this tomorrow in class.

Tonight's Homework: Complete Palm Worksheet 4 (both sides). Then read lesson 5.6

Finding the Slope of a Line Given Two Points

Today we talked about how to determine the slope of three types of lines: horizontal lines, vertical lines and lines that are neither horizontal or vertical. To be concise, horizontal lines always have a slope of zero. Vertical lines have no slope, which means their slope is undefined. To find the slope of all other types of lines, use the formula found on page of the book. Be sure to substitute carefully, so you don't make any silly errors.

Tonight's Homework: Read Lesson 5.3, and then do 5.3 ( 12 - 35 odd) and page 291 ( 1 - 3 ).

Wow, even more of you are gone today. Take care of yourselves, and get well!

Standard Form and Slope-Intercept Form

After this afternoon's fire drill, we looked at how equations are written. Those written in the form of y = 2x + 6 are said to be written in slope-intercept form. Mathematicians call this y = mx + b, where m stands for the slope of the line and b indicates where the y-intercept will be. When reporting the slope, write it as "m = " some number. When reporting the y-intercept, report this as an ordered pair (point).

Sometimes equations are written in the form of Ax + By = C or Ax + By + C = 0. This form of an equation is called the standard form of an equation. We explored how to change an equation from one form to another.

Tonight's Homework: Page 276 ( 12 - 25 all)

Boy, there must be a bad illness going around--lots of absences today. Take care, and try to complete what you can, so you don't get too far behind!

Graphing Using X and Y Intercepts

We used the Palms to graph equations assigned in last night's homework. Students quickly discovered that it is not possible to vertical lines using our function-based programs. We discussed what the equation of a vertical line looks like ( x = some number) and what a horizontal line looks like ( y = some number). Because it only takes two points to determine how to place a line on the coordinate grid, we learned that determining the x and y intercepts of an equation can be a speedy way to complete this type of task.

Tonight's Homework: Complete both sides of Palm WS 3, and do page 221 ( 15 - 39, odd). Be sure to list all intercepts as points (using a coordinate pair) and not as single numbers, like the book does.

Graphing Linear Equations

Linear equations can come in a number of forms. We have been using the function form of equations recently and so we reviewed how to take an equation written in standard form and change it to function form. We then reviewed how to come up with a variety of points that would fall on a particular line by creating an x-y table (also known as an input-output table). We used the handheld computers to graph a variety of equations quickly, and after the graphs were recorded on paper, students were asked to analyze the graphs and equations.

Tonight's Homework: Complete both sides of Palm Worksheet 2, and do page 215 ( 30 - 50, even).

Starting the Linear Equation Unit

We spent time pulling together the similarities between the licorice-eating, lemonade-drinking and cup stacking activities that we've done in the last week or two. All activities describe linear functions. We then talked about how these activities were similar to the Candy Combination activity. Zap It worksheets take these activities to an abstract level, where students deduce the function given input and output data, both in chart and graph form.

Students took a 10 minute pretest on linear equations. The rest of the period was devoted to completing tonight's homework.

Tonight's Homework: Complete Palm Worksheet #1 and Zap It #3 for tomorrow.

Food Drive Assembly Shortens Class

Students turned in Candy Combinations and other recent assignments related to eating and drinking in math. Zap-It 1 worksheets were also collected.

Because so many students were missing today (due to the assembly), we watched Wesley's video and then worked on Zap-It 2 worksheets.

Tonight's Homework: Complete all parts of each problem on the Zap It 2 worksheet, so you'll be ready to turn it in on Wednesday. Getting your grade slip signed would be a great way to start the new trimester!