Chapter 2 Review (Days 59-62)

THE SLOPE SONG

Delta-y over delta-x,
Rise over run and,

y equals mx plus b.

Slope-intercept form, you see!

Calculator,
Use it if you need, but,
Try in head just for me.

y minus y all over,
x minus x, and,

Keep, change, change, yes you see.

That's how to subtract, you see!
Calculator,
Use it if you need, but,
Try in head just for me.

This is the second song that I'm writing in 12EDL, our main scale for November and December. And like yesterday's song, this is one that I've previously written on the blog and performed in classes.

https://www.haplessgenius.com/mocha/

10 N=8
20 FOR X=1 TO 35
30 READ A,T
40 SOUND 261-N*A,T
50 NEXT X
60 DATA 10,4,12,2,8,2,9,4,11,1
70 DATA 12,2,11,1,7,2,8,2,11,4
80 DATA 9,6,10,2,7,2,6,1,7,1
90 DATA 6,4,7,4,7,4,9,16,8,4
100 DATA 12,4,7,4,8,4,8,2,8,2
110 DATA 12,2,9,2,10,6,9,2,6,4
120 DATA 6,4,6,4,8,3,7,1,6,16

As usual, click on Sound before you RUN the program.

The first time I performed this song was about a week before the pandemic. Just like "x's and y's," I composed it for a multi-day subbing assignment in a math class. Of course, that performance was vocal, since I didn't bring my guitar to school during such subbing days.

The next time I performed it was during the long-term subbing assignment in a Math 8 class. This time, I had my guitar, and I played a simple riff through the entire song -- Am-D. As we already know, A minor is the tonic chord for our 12EDL scale. So naturally, that's how I perform the song today.

Again, this song was written with fast sixteenth notes. This time though, after having performed the tune a few times before, I believe that these 16th notes already fit the lyrics.

Notice that when I first wrote this song, I didn't label the section starting with "Calculator" as a chorus, even though it serves as one. I don't quite remember why not, but it could have been because I wanted to rhyme "see" in the verses with "me" -- it's awkward to rhyme a "verse word" with a "chorus word," and so the rhyme establishes the last three lines as still part of the verse.

As we continue through Chapter 2 in our Math I classes, it's time to make some tough decisions. You might notice that according to the blog calendar, we're approaching Day 60 -- in other words, the end of the second "hexter" and progress reports. Then again, as I mentioned ahead of the first progress report, our hexters end a bit later than mathematically indicated. Progress reports aren't due on Day 60, but they do go out during the 60's.

Anyway, there are three chapters to cover during the first semester, and at this point, the chapters correspond nicely to the hexters. Thus this week and next week will be just like the penultimate week of the first hexter -- give a quiz this week, and then the chapter test on DeltaMath Test next week.

And also like the first hexter, I'm grading my Math I notebooks this weekend and then the Math III notebooks next week. Considering that Math III Chapter 3 ends this week -- we're supposed to start the new Chapter 5 tomorrow (after skipping Chapter 4) -- it would seem more logical to collect Math III notebooks this weekend and Math I next weekend. But I like the idea of giving the freshman an extra week to turn in their notebooks -- that is, a grace period between the due date and the progress report date -- while the older students have less need for a grace period.

And so today in fourth period Math I ended up being just a review day for the quiz (which will also serve as a review for the Chapter 2 Test next week). Another teacher recently informed me that on our new upgraded version of DeltaMath, we can print out pages of questions to give the students -- and it even generates an answer key for us. So I have the students glue these into their notebooks as the last pages to be graded.

At any rate, between grading Math I notebooks and Math III Benchmarks, the next few weeks will prove to be busy indeed.