Lesson 3.2.2: Slope-Intercept Form (Days 51-53)

The last week in October is typically observed as Red-Ribbon Week at schools. Last year, I subbed at a middle school that had the students dress up differently each day of the week -- the particular day I subbed there was Pajama Day.

This year, my new middle school is doing something similar, though it's modified for the hybrid schedule and the fact that students don't attend everyday. Yesterday and today are both Nerds Day. But unfortunately, not as many students dressed as nerds this year as wore pajamas last year.

In fact, the school is having a candy incentive for those who dress as nerds. I decide to combine this with my usual Halloween pencil incentive. But not that many students participate, and so I don't give away much candy or pencils today. The prizes are to be given during tutorial, which corresponds to third period (a Math 7 class) today.

Let's get back to the Math 8 lesson on slope-intercept form. I finish the Lesson 3.2.1 lecture on APEX, and so the students move on to Lessons 3.2.2, 3.2.3, and Quiz 3.2.5. While students score higher on this quiz than on Quiz 3.1.5, I still fear that students are struggling to understand slope.

While the students are working, I grade their slope worksheets. A few students do well on the worksheet -- getting only the "undefined" answers wrong (writing something like "1/0" instead). But many others are still confused and give answers that don't even look like slopes -- for example, writing (1, 0) or (-3, 2) instead.

And during the last few minutes, I set up the Desmos lesson on Marbleslides. The students seemed to enjoy it, and some of them seemed to understand how what effect changing m or b has on the graph of a linear function. But others remain confused.

I wonder how I could have taught this unit differently. Instead of making the slope worksheet a homework assignment, I could have made it classwork and have the entire class complete on it together (perhaps on Monday, when all students were online). This would have taken extra time and would have delayed the start of 3.2.1 to today. (Technically we need to be starting 3.3.1 now.) But it would have been worth it if I could get most students to understand slope.

Meanwhile, both seventh and eighth grade classes have Quizizz assignments listed on their agendas -- unfortunately, I was unable to access the Math 8 Quizizz assignment. I speak to the math department head, a Math 7 whose classroom is next door to mine. She helps me set up Quizizz for the seventh grade classes.

Since this is Halloween week, you know the song I perform for today. It is of course, Square One TV's "Ghost of a Chance." I should have posted the song yesterday and I didn't -- but then again, I've performed this song several times before, so there's not much need for me to post the song and discuss it in much detail again.

Instead, let me write about the Red-Ribbon Week video that we showed during tutorial (which is tied to third period Math 7 class). It's about a famous surfer, Kelly Slater:

In this video, Slater tells us that his grandfather is an alcoholic -- and of course, this immediately reminds me of my uncle who passed away this week. Since my uncle passed away during Red-Ribbon Week, I will use this opportunity to tell all of the tutorial classes the rest of the week about him. I remind the students that they should avoid excessive alcohol (and illegal drugs) if they wish to live the long, healthy life that my uncle didn't.

There will be a full moon on Halloween this year. Like any full moon on the 31st of a month, this will be a blue moon. The last blue moon was in March 2018. I often find it interesting that many Halloween specials depict a full moon in the background, and this is finally the year that there is a full moon on this holiday.

There is no school on Monday. While the other Orange County district closed for Yom Kippur, this district closes this Monday instead. Officially, the reason is for elementary parent conferences, but most likely, it's part of the trend to have school close on October 31st or November 1st, when attendance at some schools is low. (With Halloween on a Saturday this year, there's less need for this day off, but parent conferences don't disappear just because Halloween is on a Saturday.) This means that there is no full distance day next week -- only the usual hybrid schedule on Tuesday-Friday.

I will make my usual tweets on Thursday and Friday, including a tweet on the next chapter of Eugenia Cheng's book. Then I will skip Monday's blog post, since there's no school that day. So my next scheduled blog post will be on Tuesday, November 3rd.