Monday December 11, 2011

REMINDER - Students brought home progress reports last week. I expect to see them all signed and returned when I arrive at school in the morning. Students were instructed to have them all in by Friday


I am excited to be back home after my long weekend and ready to see how much progress students made on their "real life" assignment while I was away. Students should have chosen roommates, selected a place to rent, calculated rent per person, utilities, phone plan and cable package. They should have subtracted all of these expenses from their checking account. I will be checking students folders to be sure they followed the directions of each day's worksheet.

I will also be grading the quiz from Friday. Quiz questions were very similar to the sample questions I posted last week. Students have had lots of practice converting and multiplying percents and decimals so I have high expectations for quiz grades.

Here is what we are looking at for the week ahead...

Monday - PAY DAY - students will add a paycheck to their account, then go out to eat with their roommates. They will decide on dinner choices, calculate a total, add tax, then add a tip and divide the total by the number of students at dinner.

Tuesday - Car payment - students will choose from a few selected vehicles. They will be responsible for a monthly car payment, taxes, weekly gas expenses, and insurance. They will calculate these values for each available vehicle (there are 4 diffent vehicles to choose from), then decide which vehicle makes the most sense to purchase.  Students will have to subtract these expenses from their checking account.

Wednesday - Grocery shopping - Computer lab - Students will be in the computer lab where they will use harris teeter's online shopping feature to shop for groceries. Students must select enough food to last for 7 days, 3 meals per day. There will be some guidelines to ensure they are making healthy decisions. They will total their shopping bill, add tax, and subtract the total from their checking account.

Thursday - Holiday Shopping - Students will use shopping ads to choose gifts to buy for friends and family. They will calculate a total, add sales tax, and subtract this expense from their checking account.

Friday - To Be Announced...

Wednesday December 7, 2011

Today in class students were introduced to their "Real Life" assignment. Today they were given their first paycheck in which they calculated income tax and health insurance, then deposited the rest into a checking and savings account. 

Tomorrow and Friday I will be out of town. Students each have their own folder (which is to stay in the classroom) and they have instructions for the next two days. They will get with a group of 3-4 and choose a house or apartment to rent. They will have to divide up rent, utilities, phone bills, etc.

On Friday, students will take a quick 10 question exit quiz so I can check their understanding of converting percents to decimals and decimals to percents. Below are some sample questions of what they will see on the quiz

The word percent means _____   _____   ___________ (3 words)

Answer: FOR EACH HUNDRED

Convert 87% to a decimal

Answer:  0.87

Convert 0.43 to a percent

Answer: 43%

What is 40% of 150?

Answer: 60

Monday December 5, 2011

Today students will be begining their benchmark assessment. This is a 2 day test that covers some material from 5th grade, some from concepts we have practiced this year, and a few questions on material that we have not yet covered. The assessment consists of 30 multiple choice questions. This test does not count toward their math grade.
Here is what the rest of the week is looking like

Monday - Day 1 benchmark
Tuesday - Day 2 benchmark - students should bring their library books in case they finish early
Wednesday - Day 1 "Real life" project - Introduction to vocabulary, paycheck, taxes, checking, savings accounts
Thursday - Day 2 "Real life" project - Find roommates, housing, calculate utilities, bills
Friday - Day 3 "Real life" project" - finish calculating utilities - Possible exit quiz on decimals and percents

I will be out of town visiting family on Thursday and Friday this week. I will leave detailed instructions for the substitute as well as give the students their directions for those days. They will each have a folder that does not leave the classroom for this assignment and instructions are very clear for each day.

Also, progress reports will be out on Tuesday. They must be signed and returned!

Friday December 2, 2011

Today I have planned an activity for students to practice what we have covered the last 2 days in class. Students will work in pairs to solve percent to decimal and multiplication problems. They will use their answers to find corresponding letters which they will then use to fill in the blanks in a quote that I have chosen for them. Below are the problems they will be working on in class.

Also, next week students will be taking a benchmark test. It is similar to an EOG type test to measure where students are at this point in the year. I have looked through the questions and some cover concepts we have not yet studied, so I do not expect perfect scores. It is simply a way to collect data for comparisons in the future. This is not a test that they need to study for and it will all be completed during class.

                                      Answer            Letter

1.)        25% of 120           ________       ________                                               26.4 = L

2.)        12% of 60             ________      ________                                                60% = M

3.)        142% of 14           ________       ________                                               0.4 = V

4.)        7/8 as a percent  ________       ________                                         30 =U             

5.)        6% of 200              ________       ________                                               0.02 = T

6.)        10% of 84             ________      ________                                                10.5 = F

7.)        20% of 132           ________      ________                                                 7.2 = A

8.)        35% of 30             ________      ________                                                 8 = C

9.)        25% of 22.5          ________      ________                                                 0.125 = S

10.)      95% of 250           ________      ________                                                 15 = D

11.)      1% of 2                 ________      ________                                                 39.56 = E

12.)      3/5 as a percent   ________      ________                                                 237.5 = Z

13.)      43% of 92              ________      ________                                                176 = O

14.)      88% of 200            ________      ________                                                6 = H

15.)      15% of 24.95         ________      ________                                                3.7425 = P

16.)      1/8 as a decimal   ________       ________                                               24 = W

17.)      75% of 8                ________       ________                                               87.5% = R

18.)      2/5 as a decimal   ________       ________                                   27.9=N                      

19.)      30% of 93              ________       ________                                               5.625 = I

20.)      6% of 400              ________       ________                                               19.88 = G

21.)      1/4 of 32               ________       ________                                               8.4 = B

22.)      1/8 of 120             ________       ________                                               12 = Y

Thursday December 1, 2011

Today we continued to use percents and decimals to figure different percents of a given number. Students should be comfortable with the following conversions

Decimal to Percent
       Move the decimal point 2 places to the right
       Add a % symbol
      Example:   0.84    move decimal right 2 places to get 84%

Percent to Decimal (opposite of above)
      Move decimal point 2 places to the left
      Drop the % symbol
     Example:    78%    move decimal 2 places to the left to get .78 and drop percent sign

Fraction to Decimal
       Divide the numerator by the denominator (top # divided by bottom #)
      Example:    1/4   = 0.25           (students must be familiar with adding a decimal point and zeros into the dividend in order to perform this operation)

We then practiced finding a percent of a given number. For example

Find 32% of 94

First step is to change 32% to a decimal by moving the decimal two places to the left and getting .32

Second step is to multiply this decimal by 94 to get 30.08

Homework tonight is page 61 in their workbook. Only the odd numbered problems 1-19


On another note, I have noticed that there are a few students that are struggling with long division. I will be making a hand out with step by step instructions that they should study and practice with. This is a skill they should have learned in 4th and 5th grade and we do not have time to spend a lot of time in class reviewing long division. Hopefully the worksheet will catch them up!

Wednesday November 30, 2011

Hopefully all students have turned in their graphing project by today. It was due yesterday, but some elected to take their project home and turn in today for a deduction in their overall score. If they do not turn it in today, they can still turn it in tomorrow but will be deducted another 5 points for a late graph and 5 points for a late paper.

Today we will introduce percentages. Students took a short pre assessment yesterday and it was clear that none of them have experienced dealing with percents yet. This may be the most practical topic they will learn in math class, so it is very important that they stay focused throughout this unit. Students will take notes today and practice converting decimals to percents and percents to decimals. I have prepared a "hundreds chart" that they will shade in and determine what percentage of the chart is colored. They will then convert that percent to a decimal. Homework tonight is page 59 #s 10-15 and page 60 #s 1-9 in their work books.

Tomorrow we will begin applying percents to real life scenarios. Friday will be an activity to practice using percents.

Next week students will be introduced to their upcoming in class project that will continue until Christmas break. Students will be given the opportunity to choose a career, find a place to live, pay bills, balance a checkbook, etc. Everyday they will be given a new task that will involve adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing by decimals and percents. The project is designed to keep students engaged in the skills they have learned over the past month and apply their knowledge to scenarios they will be faced with in their lives. More info to come....

Tuesday Nov 29, 2011

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving break!

Monday, students had a sub and their assignment was to complete the writing portion of their graphing project. Students all know that the assignment is due today, but I am going to give them time today in class to complete/ revise their writing and make sure they are hitting all of the required points from the grading rubric (it was given to them last week and posted on my wall, but it seems many have missed some of the requirements from what I have seen turned in so far). We will also be taking about 20 minutes to take a pre assessment for our percentage unit. The pre assessment is below. This unit will focus on comparing and ordering percents and decimals, turning decimals into percents and turning percents into decimals. Students will then have to add, subtract, multiply, and divide decimals to solve word problems like the ones below.

1)      Write 8% as a decimal.

2)     Write   5/8  as a percent.

3)      Write 1.47 as a percent.

4)      Which list shows the numbers in order from greatest to least?

a.      32.5%,   32.55,   32,   32

b.      32.55,   32,   32.5%,   32

c.       32 ,   32.55,   32,   32.5%

d.      32.5%,   32.55,   32 ,   32

5)      You go shopping for groceries and your total comes to $55.00. New Hanover County charges a tax of 8% on all sales. How much money will the tax cost you?

6)      When a brand new video game comes out at GameStop it usually costs about $59.00. One year GameStop decides to have a big Groundhog Day Celebration Sale, and sells everything for 20% off. What will the game cost after the discount?