More on Lines

Over half of the class did not do their homework from Wednesday, which is so disappointing. We spent the class period looking at misconceptions about graphing lines, and tried to prepare for our upcoming chapter test over this material, which will be given on Thursday.

Tonight's Homework: Page 589 ( 1 - 9, all )

Not Much Math Going On Today!

With nearly half of the class gone today (field trip or track meet), we spent the day just hanging out and trying to get some more votes for Gavin's reusable bag.

Tonight's Homework: Nothing new. Just be sure to have last night's homework done for Monday. Enjoy the long weekend!

Car Race Activity Canceled Due to Poor Decisions

We reviewed some of the problems from last night's homework and I clarified the aspects of the slope intercept form of the equation for a line. Students now understand that the slope is a representation of the rise over the run, and the y-intercept is really a point on the coordinate grid, and not just a number.

We were going to do an activity with racing cars down a series of slopes, but three or four students made poor choices and caused me to cancel the activity. Maybe next week . . .

Tonight's Homework: Page 737 ( 16 - 37 ). This homework is not due until Monday, May 17th, due to tomorrow's track meet and choir field trip.

Talent Show Friday

Today's class was shortened due to the annual Talent Show Assembly. After reviewing homework, we used the handheld computers again to look at how the slope of a line changes the steepness of that line.

Tonight's Homework: None, other than to do something nice for your mother or grandmother this weekend!

Using the Slope Formula

Students discovered that the order in which you use the coordinates of the two points in the slope formula doesn't change the end result of the line's slope. Knowing this, students realized that they could do the problem one way and then check their work by doing the problem the opposite way. This proved to be a helpful tidbit when working on today's assignment. Students worked in groups to solve a series of slope problems.

Tonight's Homework: Complete the Challenge WS (the white one). Be sure the blue worksheet from yesterday is also completed.

The Slope Formula

Students learned how to use the slope formula today. The formula for slope is m = (y2 - y1 ) / (x2 - x1). This will give you another way to describe the rise over the run.

Tonight's Homework: Complete the blue worksheet you started in class today.

Graphing Parallel Lines

Students worked in pairs with handheld computers today. First, students learned how to manipulate the "Power One Graph" program, and once this was mastered, they tried to find equations of lines that were parallel to each other. This activity took up the entire class period, but students seemed to get the idea that the part of the equation that determined whether lines were parallel was the coefficient of the x term.

Tonight's Homework: Read Lesson 11.6, and then do problems 1-9.