Math: Week 26

MSM2 Blocks 1/2 & 7/8
SOLs Covered:  SOL 7.6 Similar Figures
Math Packet:  #19 Similar Figures
Upcoming Assessments:  Relations & Functions Quiz (Fri. 3/27/15)

7H Block 5/6
SOLs Covered:  SOL 8.7 Surface Area & Volume
Math Packet:  #19.1 Surface Area & Volume, Part 1: Prisms & Cylinders
Upcoming Assessments:  SA & Vol. Quiz (Part 2: Prisms, Pyramids, Cylinders, & Cones) (Fri. 3/27/15)

It's been an extremely busy week for me both inside and outside of school, so I fell a bit behind with my personal work goals.  The kids are used to getting their grades updated every day or two for my class and their papers back just as quickly, but it's taken a bit longer than that this time, not by much but still noticeable for the kids.
 I greatly appreciate the kids' patience and they'll be happy to know that I'm all caught up on grading at this point.  On that note, I'd like to give everyone a heads up that I'll be ending grades for the third term next week and setting the deadline for any "old work" (i.e. anything from today and back) for Wednesday, March 25.  Normally I would give a bit more time, however I've been summoned for jury duty again the following week and knowing how long it might take added to the fact that grades are due by the close of business that Friday (4/3), I need to ensure that I have everything covered before leaving school next Friday, March 27.  The grades taken on the 27th will go onto the final term along with anything from the week of March 30.  This will allow students to do corrections to the quizzes from that day.

Now onto this week's happenings.  The MSM2 students somewhat continued their work from the previous week (geometric transformations) as we covered similar figures.  Similar figures directly relates back to their work with dilations as both deal with figures that are the same in shape but proportional in size.  They are essentially "the same math" but in the SOL world, dilation problems are usually graphed on a coordinate plane or give a set of ordered pairs, similar figures typically have shapes not on a plane or give real world scenarios, often as word problems.  The 7H students did a basic review of surface area and volume of rectangular prisms and cylinders, which they covered last year in class.  While I gave them questions that were likely a bit harder than what they were given last year, this was just a lead in to introducing new shapes next week (triangular prisms, pyramids, and cones).  All classes took an assessment on their respective topics (a test for the MSM2 students and a quiz for the 7H students), though with the state assessments for chorus students taking some kids out of class today, there are a few who need to either complete or make-up the assessment next week.

Well, I'm wrapping things up here since I'm still at school at almost 6 PM Friday night and I still have to fight with the copier, which apparently does not feel like cooperating right now... it might be trying to tell me that it's time to go home!  I hope everyone enjoys their weekend, but kids should be on the lookout for one last extra credit opportunity that I'll be posting information about to Edmodo sometime this weekend.