David Murphy; 7th Grade Mathematics & Social Studies

Sorry to all my peeps out there in posting-land.  I’ve been extremely busy and have forgot about posting these past two days.  Any-who, it’s been like a ride on the Oriental express around here.  Everything has been a blur lately.  THANKS to my avid posters.  It’s nice to have the responses, and I haven’t been ignoring any of you.

Social Studies: We have been “visiting” Vietnam this week.  We should test early next week on it.  Today we finished reading Chapter 22 and used the remainder of class time to begin answering the questions at the end of the chapter.  We will watch a video on Vietnam and continue answering the questions.

Math: I believe that the students are about to shoot me.  I am shoving so much at them that isn’t even funny.  However, they understand a great deal more than they realize.  I just have to help them put all of the pieces of this jigsaw puzzle together.  That is the main reason that we are doing so much at one time.  This way they get a visualization of what is and what is to come.  Otherwise, my experience has been that the fragmented learning remains fragmented and unclear.  The assignment for 2nd and 5th period is page 240; problems 1-13.  The assignment for 4th is functions 1-3 of the graphing project.

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Social Studies: The TEST is tomorrow over the economic systems and India in gerneral.  You should study your notes and the chapter review, because the test will come from those two resources.

Math: We are beginning a study of Patterns and Functions.  This will approach the algebra that we have been working on from a different angle.  I think that this study will fill some of the existing gaps for the students.

The Assignment for 2nd and 5th Period is Pgs. 226-227; Problems 13-36, 39-48 (36 problems).

The Assignment for 4th Period is Pgs, 226-227; Problems 13-36, Pgs. 230-231; Problems 7-14 a and b, Pgs. 234-235; Problems 5-8 a and b (42 problems).

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Today is a half-day for parent conferences. However, first and second periods will attend their nomal schedules.

Social Studies: We are reading Chapter 21 today and are going to start on the questions at the end.  There will be no homework over the weekend, but we will pick back up on Monday.  Also, I have moved the test to Tuesday.

Math: Second period is the only math class that I will see today, but we will continue with the Reworks, Make-ups, and Accelerated Math.

Everyone have a good and safe weekend!!

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Social Studies: We are just about through with the economy portion of the unit.  I believe that I may let anyone that responds to this post use their notebooks on the test.  Would that be acceptable?  The test will be on Monday.  However, I hate Monday tests, but we are behind the other classes by almost a week.

Math: We had our equations test today and the scores are still not what I had hoped for seeing.  The class averages for the test are as follows:  2nd period = 68.5;  4th period = 85;   and   5th period = 70.  Although the class averages are or almost are passing, some students made extremely low scores.  Then again, several students made A’s on the test.  We will be moving on next week into Chapter 4.  As for this week, we are redoing and making up assignments.

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Social Studies:

We pretty much did nothing except review the different types of economies.  It has been a week and a half since we went over this in class. Therefore, I wanted to review the content in class today, and we will continue tomorrow.  The slides covered today were #’s 79-89.

Math:

The equations test on the Thursday before fall break did not yield the results that I had hoped.  We spent the day correcting the original test and are now using it as a study guide for a REPEAT TEST on this Wednesday.  The test will be the same test with different numbers in the problems and the problems scrambled.

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I thank all of you that posted, but only a few got the extra points.  The cut-off was at 7:00 this morning.  However, keep an eye out for bonuses in the future.  I am not promising points for every test, but there will be rewards if you look for them from time to time.  All of them will have a cut-off time.  So, be diligent in using the resources that I am providing for you.

Social Studies: We continued with our study of economic systems today.  However, I am not attaching the pdf. of the PowerPoint, because we only got through 4 slides.  I will add these with the slides covered on our next class concerning economic systems. Tomorrow is the Gandhi movie.  I really like this movie, because it wraps up our study of S. Asia while covering an entire standard on Mohandus Gandhi.  Regardless of one’s theological view of the man, he was a man that lived a life of serving, loving, and helping others.  He was a man among men.

Math: Several people did not finish the TEST today.  Also, many of the ones that I graded were not as good as I had hoped.  We will probably be spending a little more time on this after FALL BREAK.

HAVE A GREAT FALL BREAK!!!!   There will be no blogging tomorrow.

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Social Studies: We began our study of various Economic Systems.  The students are supposed to be taking notes as we use the S. Asia PPT [Slides 79-85].

Math: Equations TEST Review. We will have an equations test tomorrow.  The test will be nothing but solving equations with integers. decimals, and fractions.  GOOD LUCK!

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Social Studies: Well, my hopes of doing better with a less volume of content didn’t work out.  This test had more students do well, but the students that did not do well at all.  In fact, the grades were either great or pitiful.  The class average on this test was a 75% and it was a 79%.  The students were very honest about whether or not they studied.  I am having a hard time convincing them that effort and grade are directly connected.

Math: Today was a day of fractions and equations.  We used the skills reviewed through last nights homework  to solve equations. The assignment is Pg. 206, Problems 9-39 (multiples of 3; (9, 12, 15, 18, …, 36, 39).  Also, any student that comments to this post will get an extra 5% added to the test on Thursday.  However, the cutoff time will be Thursday at 7:30 AM.

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Social Studies: Test Review.  We reviewed the  S. Asia PowerPoint [slides 65-78].  The test will be tomorrow over government systems.  I am giving a test over less content this time in hopes of students doing better.

Math: Fractions, fractions, fractions!  I am still trying to determine which “part” of fractions the students do not understand.  Every year that I have discussed fractions, the students act as if they are new and bewildering.  However, fractions have been a part of these students’ education  for several of the past years. I guess everyone that teaches this concept must hear the same murmurings.   We reviewed addition, subtraction (adding the opposite), multiplication, and division of fractions.  Tomorrow we will use them in equations.  The assignment is Pg. 208, problems 1-23 all.

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Social Studies: We are completing our study of South Asia religions and beginning the study of South Asia governments.  We will discuss the various forms of government and how POWER is distributed.  South Asia is rather diverse in its types of governments.  When students understand why people believe what they believe and what authority they possess, it is then that students can truly compare and contrast others to themselves.

Math: This week and next will end our study of rational numbers.  Our current focus is on using rational numbers in calculations and ultimately to use them to solve one-step equations.  I have placed the students in an Accelerated Math library to hopefully build a strong and continuous foundation.  Students at this age do not recognize the way that math builds on former learning.  Many of them want to learn the content for the test and then “dump” it when the test is completed.  I am trying to demonstrate what we are learning, why we are learning it, and how we will use it in the future.

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