Calculus 45S

The Adventure Continues ...

2006-06-29T15:51:00.000-05:00

Our adventures in blogging continue....

Watch for 3 new blogs going live September 6, 2006 ...

Pre-Cal 30S (Fall '06) (Grade 11)
Pre-Cal 40S (Fall '06) (Grade 12)
AP Calculus AB 2006-07 (Grade 12)

So Long ...

2006-06-28T18:24:00.000-05:00

We had our graduation exercises today. A gentle push into the world for you. I hope you're leaving with the keys to your future in your hand.

I'm so glad we've had this time together,

Just to have a laugh or learn some math,

Seems we've just got started and before you know it,

Comes the time we have to say, "So Long!"

So long everybody! Watch this space in the fall for pointers to new blogs for each of my classes.

Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu, and all those good bye things. ;-)

The end or the beginning?

2006-06-09T19:36:00.000-05:00

As the school year comes to a close, do you view it as an end or a beginning ?

Critical Values

2006-05-24T13:55:00.000-05:00

Optimization Skill Building

2006-05-24T09:52:00.000-05:00

Here are two games I'd like you to spend some time playing to build your spatial visualization skills:

3D Tic Tac Toe

Can You Build It? Yes You Can!
(Click on the [+] next to the word Explorations. Use the tools to build the illustrated solid.)

Also spend some time refamiliarizing yourself with the properties and formulas for various geomteric shapes and solids.

An Interactive Course on Shapes

Interactive Solid Geometry

Finally, some reviews and quizzes on solving optimization problems.

Max and Min of a Function Problems Tutorial

Distance-time Optimization Problems Tutorial

Area Optimization Problems Tutorial

Using Derivatives to Graph Functions Tutorial

Problem Solving Quiz
(Do only questions 1-3.)

Optimization Problems with Solutions and Animations
(The animations are great! They'll really help you to understand what's going on.)

Email me if you hit any snags. ;-)

Cheers!
Mr. K.

Maxima and Minima

2006-05-16T20:07:00.000-05:00

Starting Over--

2006-05-13T20:11:00.000-05:00

It's been pretty quiet on this blog. I'm afraid that perhaps in my enthusiasm to join your blog and learn what I could of calculus, I burst into your space instead of entering unobtrusively. Maybe the best analogy is that I was too much like a young kid running into a room excited to share what was going on. I never introduced myself, just started right in. But I'm not a young kid, and a 60 year old woman should know much better! :) I hope you'll let me start over again--

Hi! My name is Lani. My former students called me Mrs. Hall or Ms. Ritter. I hope you might feel comfortable using my first name.

Who am I: I live in Ohio. I am a former classroom teacher; I taught for 33 years in the United States and two years in Ontario, Canada. (My mother was Canadian and I have many relatives in Ontario.) I design online courses for teachers now, working from home on my computer. I cherish the memories of those 35 years and I keep in touch with many of my students. I love to cook, garden, read and walk with my husband and our German shepherd, Harley, in the park.

How did I get here: I learned about your blog from Mr. K . I had emailed him to let him know that I hoped I might become a mentor for some of his students (I miss the interaction with students). Mr. K. agreed that I might become a mentor (even when he learned that I am not strong in math!) and I chose your class!

Why am I here: I hoped to learn some calculus AND I wanted an opportunity to engage young people again in conversations about learning and life.

Now that I think about it, we do a lot of starting over in school and life don't we? I remember when I was young, before computers, I used to start over a lot so my homework would be just right. Thank goodness computers now make it easier to fix those mistakes! I started over when my family moved when I was in the fifth grade; we left New York for Michigan. I started over when I went away to college in Indiana. I started over when I moved to Ontario to teach for two years. I start over a lot when I write, trying to get just the right word that captures what I mean. I start over often when I speak, for the same reason. My list could go on and on. Do you think you'll have a long list too, by the time you get to 60? I wonder if this whole notion of starting over, has to do with learning all our lives?. Do you think?

And so I start over again here, hoping that you'll share some of what you are learning with me. If you're willing, can you explain some of the basic calculus concepts you've learned with me and also what you know of starting over?

Perseverance

2006-04-26T18:50:00.000-05:00

Would you agree? Have you had lots of perseverance lately?

The DaVinci Code Quest Sunday

2006-04-23T15:42:00.000-05:00

It started last week. Google releases one puzzle each day for 24 days until the movie "The Da Vinci Code" is released in May. So far 7 puzzles have been released. You have to solve the puzzle to reveal a clue. Then you have to answer the clue question(s) to advance to the next puzzle. You can win a prize for solving all 24 puzzles. Now I realize this is all about marketing and they're really just trying to get as many of us as possible to go see the movie but the puzzles are really cool! Google searching often helps to find the answers. One of the puzzle questions can be answered using The Fundamental Principle of Counting and the very first (sudoku-like) puzzle uses a couple of mathematical symbols.

Challenge 1: What is the question that can be solved using The Fundamental Principle of Counting and how do you use the counting principle to find the answer?

Challenge 2: What mathematical symbol is used in the very first puzzle and what number does it represent? (Not the "delta," in a later puzzle it has a different meaning.)

You have to sign up for a Google Homepage in order to play, but that's a free and very useful service. After that you can begin the game. Click on the US button to start 24 days of fun! (Actually, 17 because you could work through the first eight today.) Don't forget to also find the answers to the Challenge Questions above!. ;-)

Higher Order Derivatives

2006-04-18T19:11:00.000-05:00

doing-- understanding---

2006-04-13T18:31:00.000-05:00

Thank you so much for sharing what you are learning. I’ve been carefully reading your scribes trying to learn along with you, knowing that I’d probably understand better if I was on the “doing” end as you are when you are scribing. I remember this old saying:

What I hear, I forget.
What I see, I remember.
What I do, I understand. - Kung Fu Tzu (Confucius)

I’ve found this is very true for me, especially when I am learning something new on the computer, trying to understand how a teaching strategy might work, or teaching myself a new recipe.

I wondered--- have you found this is true for you also? How do you find your scribes help you understand all that you learn in calculus? Does “doing” help you understand in your other courses too? Or may be not?

Best,
Lani

The derivative of a constant times a function and the derivative of a power function

2006-04-11T20:59:00.000-05:00

The derivative of a power function

Four Colour Sunday!

2006-04-09T14:05:00.000-05:00

You may have heard that any map can be coloured with four colours in such a way that neighbouring countries receive different colours. That it can be always done is one thing. How to do it is another. Are you ready to start colouring?

(Thanks again to Think Again!)

Scribe! The Chain Rule, and song

2006-04-05T16:32:00.000-05:00

Hi this is Van, and doing the weekly scribe. So, let's get this started. Yay!, no pictures to put in or make!, I love my job, anyways onto the scribe.

So, we started the class off with our 4 question, multiple choice quiz. 8 minutes long. Then we did practice questions. Which were:

a f(x) = 4x³- 1x²+5x - 7

b g(x) = (2x² - 1) ( x³ - 4x + 3)

c h(x) = 2x - 3
x² - 4

This is our first class after spring break, so I completely forgot about the Product rule and Quotient rule. So Mr. K teaches us a song that helps us remember them both. Here it goes.

The quotient rule you wish to know is lowdy high minus highdy low.
Put a line and down below
Denominator squared will go
The product rule you have in rhyme
Is one prime two plus one two prime

You sing it in a way, that makes it sound like twinkle twinkle little star.

So after the questions we are given a question that looks like this

x²-3x

We've never dealt with a problem like this before. So, we apply Function DeComposition and it looks like this.

f(x) = x
g(x) = x²-3x

We are then given a rule. For situations like this. It's called the Chain Rule. And the chain rule says this:

F(x) = f(g(x))
F'(x) = f'(g(x)) - g'(x)

So we implement this new found rule onto our question.

F(x) = x² - 3x
= (x²-3x)^½

f(x) = x^½
g(x) = x² - 3x
f'(x) = ½ x^½
g'(x) = 2x - 3

F'(x) = ½(x² - 3x)^-½ ٠ 2x - 3

So, after we went through our first example, we did another one

h(x) = (x³ - 3x)²
h(x) = f(g(x))
h'(x) = 2(x³ - 3x)(3x²-3)
= 2[3x^5 - 12x³ + 9x
= 6x^5 - 24x³ + 18x

That was using our chain rule. Here's if we do it manually without the chain rule.

h(x) = (x³ - 3x)(x³ - 3x)
= x^6 - 6x^4 + 9x²
h'(x) = 6x^5 - 24x³ + 18x

It may look easier, but Mr. K says, use the chain rule. It will be much more efficient when you advance further into Calculus.

Homework in the white and orange book is... all questions up to and including Page 77 and in the blue book is page 20.

Thank you, and next scribe can only be one other person... Temesgen. (2 person class, wee)

once again, I don't know how to place square roots over things. Annoying

derivative of a quotient rule and derivative of a product rule

2006-04-04T22:10:00.000-05:00

Roboclaw Sunday!

2006-04-02T14:43:00.000-05:00

Move the robot arm to pick up the ball. Clean, simple design. I got to level 19. I died. It's a doozy!

Scribing once a week? Possibilities?

2006-04-02T10:41:00.000-05:00

Van noted scribing once a week is a lot of work. Yes it is! How might an “idealist” confront the possibilities of those scribes?

A del.icio.us idea ...

2006-03-25T09:58:00.000-06:00

We talked about this in class on Thursday. Students often find more, and better, sites than I do. You're better websurfers than I am. ;-) That got me thinking .....

I spend a lot of time looking for good websites that help us learn in this class. But what if we all spent a little time doing that? What if there was an easy way for us to both save our bookmarks (without cluttering up our favourites list) and share them with the whole class with the click of a single button? And what if we could access those bookmarks not just from home, but from any computer in the world? Hmmm .....

Well, there is an easy way to do that! Instead of saving bookmarks on your home computer sign up for a free account at a site called del.icio.us. You can then access them from any computer in the world. You can easily install a little button/bookmark that allows you to save any webpage you're looking at without interupting your surfing. Now we can all make recommendations to each other learning resources with the click of a single button in our del.icio.us accounts! Tag it using this tag:

cal45s

You should also tag each entry with several other words that indicate what it is about; things like: trig graphing stats circles etc. Also, include a brief descriptive clipping from the site (or type one in yourself).

As soon as someone starts saving links I'll add a del.icio.us box to the bottom of the sidebar of our blog. It will show the 10 most recently saved links automatically as you find them. There is will also be a link to the entire archive that you can browse at your leisure.

You can read this tutorial on how to get started with del.icio.us. You might also be interested in watching this screencast that illustrates just how powerful this web tool is.

Remember, this is part of your homework for Spring Break. You must save at least two links for each unit we have studied so far. Try not to post a link that someone else has already found. You can see what's already been posted by looking in our archive.

Derivatives of, and Definitions of a derivative

2006-03-23T22:35:00.000-06:00

So, I'll start my scribe now, since it involves no pictures, it should be quick n' easy. Woohoo! Anyways, here I go, Enjoy!

I came late to Calculus (oh no!) by 15 minutes (a big oh no!), so I missed the quiz. Alarm didn't go off, mom did. Boy that wasn't fun. Anywho, we wrote in our math dictionaries. The notes looked like this:

Derivative of:

A constant function

f(x) = k f'(x) = lim f(x+h) - f(x)
h->0 h

The Derivative of a = lim k-h
constant funcion h->0 h
is ZERO.
= lim 0
h->0 h

= 0

A linear function

f(x) = mx+b f'(x) = lim f(x+h) - f(x)
h->0 h

The limit of a = lim [m(x+h)+h] - [mx+b]
linear function h->0 h
is the slope of
the line. = lim mx + mh + b - mx - b
h->0

= lim mh
h->0 h

= lim m = m
h->0

So, after all those notes, Mr.K said, we are to do something different, but are going to go back to that stuff up there in future classes. He needs to pay attention to these things first he says. So, different notes, but related, are appearing on the board.

The Definition Of A Derivative

f'(x) = lim f(x+h) - f(x)
h->0 h

A derivative is:

The slope of a tangent line
A rate of change

A summary of derivative rules.

Constant function : f(x) = k f'(x) = 0
Power function : f(x) = x^n f'(x) = nx^(n-1)
Constant times a function : f(x) = kg(x) f'(x) = kg'(x)
A sum or difference of a function(s) : f(x) = g(x) +/- h(x) f'(x) = g'(x) +/- h'(x)

*note the +/- is the + over the - , so we're not dividing here. I couldn't find that character on the character map. Sorry for the incovinience.

Ex. Find the derivative of :

f(x) = 3x² - 2x + √x - 5
f'(x) = 3▪2x - 2 + (1/2)^x^-1/2
= 6x - 2 + 1/2√x

*note the √ is square root, and the ^'s are to the power of. Since I've never done a proper scribe, tell me all those commands that give it the oh so nice look.

I hope this helps. Next scribe will be Temesgen.

But now, there's only 2 of us, Calvin dropped, so, we have to work something out. Scribing once a week is a lot of work!

Enjoy!

Derivative

2006-03-21T17:12:00.000-06:00

In todays class we started with a quiz as usual. And Mr.k wrote 4 question on the board which's similar to the question below:

And if you were ask to write the equation of the line tangent to f(x) first thing to do:

find the slope of the tangent
(1,y) find the y value by substituting the 1 into the equation
which in this case is y value = 15
(1,15) and slope m=8
Use the y-y=m(x-x) to write the equation

Page 30-36 was assigned for homework and page 16 in the blue booklet. Next scribe is calvinw.

Scribe

2006-03-19T21:56:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the delay in the post. Just been busy for the weekend. This scribe post will be for Thursday, March 16, 2006. So here I go.

We started class with a small multiple choice quiz. It consisted of 4 questions and the quiz lasts 8 minutes, and begins at the start of class.

So we discussed a tangent line.

ex. f(x) = x² @ x=3

f(3) = (3)²

= 9

f(3+h) = (3+h)²

= 9 + 6h + h²

d y = lim f(3+h) - f(3)
d x h-> 0 h

= lim 9 + 6h + h² - 9
h ->0 h

= lim 6h + h²
h ->0 h

= lim 6+h
h->0

= lim 6
h->0

There, revised. That's what I originally wanted it to look like. Sorry if it still doesn't help.

Next scribe is Temesgen

Box Up Sunday!

2006-03-19T12:54:00.000-06:00

This is a clever little game. You've got to get the small blue box inside the large red box. You can only push a box from the inside. The black boxes, if used cleverly, can help you get the blue box inside the red one. But sometimes they're just in the way. I made it to level 4 pretty quickly, but then it starts getting tough. How far can you go? ;-)

Have fun with this!

Challenge

2006-03-18T19:07:00.000-06:00

challenge
Originally uploaded by laniritterhall.

I'm wondering if this challenge has anything to do with calculus? Can you help me out?

Best,
Lani

The "New" Guy

2006-03-15T00:43:00.000-06:00

Now I bet you guys have been wondering who this Gerald (M) character is under the contributors list for a while now. While I did mean to introduce myself earlier, now is better than never. I, Gerald (M), am a member of Mr. K's mentorship project, and while I don't claim to have all the answers, you can rest assured that I will try my absolute best you help out any way possible (and hopefully not make things any worse, as I am also just a student).

"Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."

- Albert Einstein

Seek and ye shal find ....

2006-03-14T16:37:00.000-06:00

The Coin Hunt has officially begun as of 12:30 this afternoon. The race is on! Who will be the first to find the coin? Will the students find their coin before the teachers find theirs? Who will win the pizza party? Which charity will benefit from this year's hunt?

Check the walls of the building as you walk into school in the morning for hints to figuring out the puzzles.

Happy π Day!!
Have fun with it. ;-)

Sunday Knight

2006-03-12T09:29:00.000-06:00

How far can you go? Play here! ;-)

scribe.

2006-03-09T21:50:00.000-06:00

sorry about the late scribe, didnt know that i was yesterdays. well yeah, we did a quiz and then we did review on the limits. test tommorw. van your next after the test.

The Mystery Coin Hunt!

2006-03-09T13:46:00.000-06:00

π Day is around the corner .. it's five days away! Soon, soon, the hunt will be on!

Somewhere on the property of DMCI a coin will be hidden. Hidden so carefully and cleverly that it cannot be discovered by chance or simply by looking for it. On March 14, π Day, the coin's location will be revealed buried in a series of riddles and puzzles. Until it is discovered the coin's location will remain a mystery....

Limits

2006-03-07T18:50:00.000-06:00

March 6
In today’s class we did a pretest on Limits and a review for unit of Limits was giving for homework. The next scribe is calvinw.

Sunday Gridlock

2006-03-05T01:29:00.000-06:00

In this game you have to move the blocks (vertical blocks move only vertically and horizontal blocks move only horizontally) out of the way so that the blue block can slide out the "door" on the right. Although this game can sometimes get frustrating there is always a way out. Remember Sisyphus!

So far I've made it to level 6, how far can you get?

Scribe for March 2

2006-03-04T13:09:00.000-06:00

In today's class we just work on the exercise booklet. The next scribe will be Me again.

It's Coming ....

2006-03-02T23:55:00.000-06:00

π
Watch it grow.

Scribe for tuesday Feb 28

2006-03-02T20:58:00.000-06:00

Sorry for such a huge delay, I didn't know I was scribe for this day. CALVIN didn't TELL me, so I never knew. Some help he was. Anyways, on to the scribe.

So, for that day, we started off the class by having Mr.K tell Calvin and I about how homework is important, and that, you will fail if we don't do it. We nod and agree and so on. So, we sketch graphs, 3 different graphs, and they all have 3 kinds of something. (sorry I forgot that word)
(I may have to edit this later, I need to talk to Mr. K about this at lunch)

1. continuous
2. jump
3.

I'll continue this after I ask Mr. K about it at Precal-40 tomorrow. Sorry for the delay everyone.
Next scribe will be Temesgen

scribe

2006-02-26T19:18:00.000-06:00

well this time we had a sub, threw a quiz at us, and assigned up to page 54. next person is van

Let It Grow Sunday!

2006-02-26T10:26:00.000-06:00

This week's game is called Grow.

Draw each item to the center of the ball to Grow it. If you drag them in the right order you will reach the maximum growth level for each object -- that's the challenge and it's not easy. ;-) Lots of trial and error. The number of different ways to play this game is 479 001 600. Can you find the winning strategy?

The Applied Math class will learn how to figure this out this week. Pre-Cal will learn it in about two more months and you folks should remember from your Pre-Cal class. Do you?

Have Fun!

scribe

2006-02-22T23:08:00.000-06:00

we didnt do any calculus, we spent our time showing the jr high children a good time =)

next is myself again

Quiz and assignment

2006-02-21T23:21:00.000-06:00

So, at the start of class, we started out by doing a small homework check. Except, Mr. K didn't want to do it. So he pushed it off for the next class. Instead, he proposed we have a homework QUIZ. 6 questions copied STRAIGHT from the homework book. I forgot the 1st question. 2nd, 3rd and 4th (2. A,B and C) were all factoring questions. 5th and 6th question I also forgot. Sorry Mr. K. So, after a "10 minute" quiz (it was really 40 minutes), Mr. K handed out a sheet that has 2 graphs involved. Evaluating Limits as they reach a certain coordinate. 18 questions. We didn't finish by the end of class, so we continue to work on it the next day. Sorry for the short entry, I didn't realize I was still supposed to do the post. Just hit me now =P that's why I forgot the questions. Sorry Mr. K!

Also the next Scribe will be Calvin

Tell Your Parents the Blog is Multilingual!

2006-02-21T18:32:00.000-06:00

You'll notice that all posts on our blog now have a series of flags automatically added to the bottom. Click on a contry flag to have the blog translated into that country's language. You can choose from:

French, German, Italian, Portugese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Filipino

If you speak any of these languages, let me know if they work well enough to be understood. And tell your parents all about it! ;-) Encourage them to leave comments on the blog as well.

Scribing Guidelines ...

2006-02-20T16:18:00.000-06:00

These are the instructions for how to write a scribe post:

Write a brief summary of what we learned in class today. Include enough detail so that someone who was away sick, or missed class for any other reason, can catch up on what they missed. Over the course of the semester, the scribe posts will grow into the textbook for the course; written by students for students. Remember that as each of you write your scribe posts. Ask yourself: "Is this good enough for our textbook? Would a graphic or other example(s) help illustrate what we learned?" And remember, you have a global audience, impress them.

Yes, you do have an audience that spans the globe. Click on Our Visitor Map over in the right hand sidebar to see what I mean. ;-)

Evaluating Special types of Limits

2006-02-19T20:38:00.000-06:00

In today’s class February 16 we learn that x–> infinity does not imply that somewhere far, far to the right on the x-axis there is a number–bigger than all other numbers– which is approaching. It does meant that x–> infinity is a shorthand way of saying that x gets larger and larger without bound. And page 55-66 was assigned for homework.
The next scribe will be van

Chinese? Checkers? Chess?

2006-02-19T13:41:00.000-06:00

Chinese Checkers it is called in England. Kinasjakk (Chinese Chess) in Norway. The truth is that it has nothing to do with neither checkers, chess, nor China.

'The Chinese Checkers game board is in the shape of a six pointed star and is playable with two up to six people at the same time. Each player uses pegs or markers of a different color placed within one of the points of the star. The object is to move all your ten pegs across the board (move one step at the time or jump over adjacent pegs) to occupy the star point directly opposite. The player getting all pegs across first wins.' - More.

You can play it here.

(Thanks again to Think Again!)

The Scribe List

2006-02-16T21:47:00.000-06:00

This is The Scribe List. Every possible scribe in our class is listed here. This list will be updated every day. If you see someone's name crossed off on this list then you CANNOT choose them as the scribe for the next class.

This post is can be quickly accesed from the [Links] list over there on the right hand sidebar. Check here before you choose a scribe for tomorrow's class when it is your turn to do so.

Cycle 7
~~Van~~
Temesgen

scribe for day #3

2006-02-15T00:05:00.000-06:00

hmm lets see we started off the day doing some questions dealing with limits, as we plowed through the questions, we were brought upon 6 limit forumlas. they're pretty pointless to know i agree strongly! and yet i still dont know why we will appreciate them later on.. =\ but they are as followed..

PG 39 in the Senior Four Calculus : Unit 1 Limits booklet.

next scribe is temesgan

Limits

2006-02-12T22:30:00.000-06:00

So, in today's class, February 10th, we started unit one which's limits.
We looked at three different graphs and we find the limit for each graph.
We learned that when substitution is used to evaluate a limit, if the numerator
is not zero and the denominator is zero, then the limit does not exist.

When evaluation the limit by direct substitution results in zero in the numerator, as well as zero in the denominator, the resulting limit is said to be of an Indeterminate form. The value of such a limit, if it converges on some real value, is not always obvious. This form requires algebraic manipulation to evaluate the limit correctly.

For example if u are given a question that says find the limiting value, as x approaches 2.

f(x)=2x3 What you do is substitution. f(2)=2(2)+3=7, therefore the limit is =7.

The next scribe maker will be Calvinw

Sunday Funday!

2006-02-12T13:54:00.000-06:00

Each Sunday, just for fun, I will post an online game or puzzle. This week it's a logic puzzle ... we look in on a prisoner with a problem ....

For the last trial, the king used not two, nor three, but nine rooms! The prisoner was told that one room contained a Lady and the other eight were either empty or filled with a tiger. The sign on the Lady's door was true, the signs on room with tigers were false, and empty rooms had signs that were either true or false.

These were the signs:

The lady is in an odd-numbered room.

This room is empty.

Either sign 5 is right or sign 7 is wrong.

Sign 1 is wrong.

Either sign 2 or sign 4 is right.

Sign 3 is wrong.

7. The lady is not in room 1.

This room contains a tiger and room 9 is empty.

This room contains a tiger and 6 is wrong.

The prisoner studied the nine signs for a while and came to the conclusion that the problem was unsolvable. The king admitted his mistake and told the poor prisoner if room eight was empty or not.

The prisoner needed no more help. He deduced where the Lady was. What about you?

Problem source: The Lady or the Tiger and other Logic Puzzles by Raymond Smullyan. (With thanks to Think Again!)

Sribe Day# 1

2006-02-08T16:07:00.000-06:00

Okays, this will be my second scribe because, I did one for precal40. Oh joy was that fun, but now I have a rough idea of how to start one off and keep going with it. So let's begin.

So, in today's class, (February 8th), we got the quiz back from Mr. K. We didn't do too great. Mr. K was disappointed, but told us "don't worry about what you got, just put your effort in". So, we went over a few questions, none of the material on that quiz was new. It was all review, and a test on algebra skills. So, we forgot everything. I failed and... I failed. Not fun, but after seeing the corrections, everything fell in place and started making sense all over again. So, we didn't really learn anything at all. Except the fact, we forget pretty fast and that, the thing Mr. K was talking about, the forgetting curve theory was proven. So, since nothing was learned, this scribe is only to say that, we learned nothing today, except review. Sorry for the short scribe, but I don't have really anything else to say.

The next scribe maker will be Temesgan.
Enjoy!
Van

Students Made This!

2006-02-06T15:26:00.000-06:00

Blogging is a very public activity. Anything that gets posted on the internet stays there. Forever. Deleting a post simply removes it from the blog it was posted to. Copies of the post may exist scattered all over the internet. I have come across posts from my students on blogs as far away as Sweden! That is why we are being so careful to respect your privacy and using first names only. We do not use pictures of ourselves. If you really want a graphic image associated with your posting use an avatar -- a picture of something that represents you but IS NOT of you.

Two teachers in the U.S.A. worked with their classes last year to come up with a list of guidelines for student bloggers.

One of them, Bud The Teacher, has these suggestions, among others:

Students using blogs are expected to treat blogspaces as classroom spaces. Speech that is inappropriate for class is not appropriate for our blog. While we encourage you to engage in debate and conversation with other bloggers, we also expect that you will conduct yourself in a manner reflective of a representative of this school.

Never EVER EVER give out or record personal information on our blog. Our blog exists as a public space on the Internet. Don’t share anything that you don’t want the world to know. For your safety, be careful what you say, too. Don’t give out your phone number or home address. This is particularly important to remember if you have a personal online journal or blog elsewhere.

Again, your blog is a public space. And if you put it on the Internet, odds are really good that it will stay on the Internet. Always. That means ten years from now when you are looking for a job, it might be possible for an employer to discover some really hateful and immature things you said when you were younger and more prone to foolish things. Be sure that anything you write you are proud of. It can come back to haunt you if you don’t.

Never link to something you haven’t read. While it isn’t your job to police the Internet, when you link to something, you should make sure it is something that you really want to be associated with. If a link contains material that might be creepy or make some people uncomfortable, you should probably try a different source.

Another teacher, Steve, developed a set of guidelines in consultation with his students. You can read them here.

Look over the guidelines and add the ones you like in the comments section below this post; either from one of Steve's students or one of your own. I think Bud's suggestions are excellent. We'll be using the one's I highlighted above as a basis for how we will use our blog.

Cheers,
Mr. K.

You're Here! Let's Begin ...

2006-02-06T11:00:00.000-06:00

Hi There! You found our blog! This is the place to talk about what's happening in class; to ask a question you didn't get a chance to ask in class; to get copies of a handout you didn't get in class (here's the course outline); for parents to find out "How Was School Today;" to share your knowledge with other students;.... Most importantly it's a place to reflect on what we're learning.

Remember what I said about the Forgetting Curve? Well a big part of Learning and Remembering involves working with and discussing new ideas with other people -- THIS is the place to do just that. Use the comment feature below each post, or make your own post, or make your own blog and link it to this one, or....the sky's the limit...let your imagination soar and lets get down to some serious blogging!

Here's your first online assignment:

Do you see the Links list in the side bar over there on the right? Follow the Study Skills Resources link. Browse through the sites until you find one that you think has excellent suggestions on how to study math; then, on a piece of loose leaf paper (or this worksheet) to be handed in on Wednesday:

Write the address and name of the site you most liked.

Rate the site out of 100; i.e. give it a grade!

Write a brief description (no more than 4 or 5 sentences) of the site.

Include a comment on what it was about this site that made it stand out for you (no more than 1 or 2 sentences).

Repeat this exercise for the second link that deals with Test Taking, i.e. how to write a test.

If you take this assignment seriously now and invest some real time and energy into it, you'll probably do real well in my class this semester...who knows, it might even help you in your other classes too! ;-)

Have Fun!

PS Don't forget to email me ASAP and get signed up as a contributor to our blog!! When you get your "invitation" to our blog, follow these directions to get yourself signed up at Blogger.