Volume Formula Notes

Just Dance RVMS

Here it is...I'm sure you've seen it...but just had to include it on the blog!

http://www.youtube.com/v/B3vbiQM1Wec?version=3&autohide=1&autohide=1&autoplay=1&attribution_tag=cblt0MvRvVG94qRrCskHrw&showinfo=1&feature=share

Are We Being Totally Irrational?

In 8th grade math class we've been playing around with numbers.
Perfect squares.
Cubes.
Square roots.
Cube roots.
We've been ordering them and plotting them on number lines.
Today we sorted them into two groups,
And through close analysis discovered something else about these numbers we had been working with!

Ask your student...
1.  What is an irrational number?
2.  What is a rational number?
3.  How can you tell the difference between an irrational and rational number?
4.  Can a number be both irrational and rational?
5.  How did you learn the differences between irrational and rational numbers?
6.  What is the hardest thing to remember?

Pacman Precision

Check out the Tabs!

Notes Sections

The lesson this week on block day (Tuesday/Wednesday) in 8th grade math covered a lot of ground.
With so many kiddos gone to Band Day or sick, I made videos of the lesson.
The videos are found in the Math Notes tab.
The lesson is hands-on, so make sure you grab the worksheets, a ruler, and a protractor to follow along.

Homework Sections

Check out the link in either the Math or Algebra Assignment tabs.
The link will take you directly to the homework page.
You can also read what our learning target was for each day.
Use these learning targets to start a conversation about math!

Common Core 

I add to this tab any time I find good information about the Common Core.
Check it out!

Ropes Day...A School Day With A Twist

A day all about problem solving, teamwork, communication, listening, challenges, overcoming frustrations, finding solutions, learning from our mistakes, perseverance, thinking, questioning, applying past knowledge to new situations, and creating.  

Metacognition

Today was all about thinking about our thinking...a habit of mind that helps us "move our thinking"....which is our classroom goal!

Math Goals

Goals give us something to work towards.

The quote, "If we don't have high expectations, we have nothing to aim for" hangs from my east wall.  

I am a firm believer in setting goals.

So....today's learning target was all about setting two or more math goals for the six weeks, semester or year.  

What's Your Angle?

Eighth grade students have been super busy analyzing angle relationships in geometric and real life problems.  

Good questions to ask them...

What's the difference between complementary and supplementary angles?

Describe in your own words what vertical angles are.

Draw a picture to explain the relationship between corresponding angles?

All of these angle relationships were discovered from our very first miniature golf problem!  We've just taken a side trip to hone in on our angle skills so we can find missing angle measurements without the aid of a protractor!

Miniature Golf

Can it really be that we have been in school over a week?

Wow!

And this is only my first blog entry.  

Life in the math classroom has been crazy!

We started the week analyzing where to hit a golf ball to get a hole in one.

Students found the exact spot on the edge of a miniature golf course using their prior knowledge of angles.

In the middle of the week we pre-tested to give the students a glance of what we'll be learning and to give me a look at their math abilities.

Today we returned to the golf problem and started to dig deeper into angles.  Please check out the math and algebra assignment tabs at the top to see our learning targets for each day and homework assignments.

Help Our Afterschool Program!

Please help our afterschool program raise some MUCH needed funds to continue functioning as we have in the past. With the lack of grant funding, our nationally recognized program is in need of your help! With just a simple click of a button to vote, we can get some much needed funding to help our middle schoolers stay active, academically eligible, and safe after school. Please vote for RENO VALLEY MIDDLE SCHOOL. You can vote once per week until Sept. 21st.

https://apps.facebook.com/givewithtarget/school/22735

Thank you!!!

Welcome to 8th Grade Math!

Are you ready?

I am!

Are you excited?

I am!

This is going to be a GREAT year!
We are going to learn some AwEsOmE things in math!

We are going to MOVE our Thinking...

We will have the math practices to help us...

And the FISH Philosophy will guide our actions as we strive for success.

This blog will be your source of information for all things math...

Assignments

What we're learning 

Common core resources

Looking forward to seeing you August 14th (or the 15th)!

Mrs. McCabe

How's Your Summer?

How's your summer going?
If it's anything like mine, it's going way too fast!

I've been busy working on our math lessons for next year.
So many new and exciting concepts to learn!

Enjoy the rest of your summer and we'll see you in August!

Algebra How Toons

Check out all of the Algebra student's Howtoons!
These are the animated cartoon created on xtranormal.

And the HowToons created mostly with the website writecomics.com and Comic Life.

Where I Draw the Line!

"I'll do science, social studies, and English, but graphing is where I draw the line!"

Math humor.
It's the absolute best.

Students in my algebra class have been working on creating HowToons for solving systems of equations.
Using websites such as writecomics.com and xtranormal.com, students used humor to help engage students in the solving systems of equations either by graphing, substitution, or elimination.

Stay tuned for finished products.

Ariadne's String

The Pythagorean Theorem can be found in many places.  

Even in Greek mythology.

Theseus was going to slay the minotaur so Ariadne sent him with string to use so he could find his way back as we wove his way through the maze of columns.  

The challenge was that each time he went around a column, that length of string had to be greater than the time before.  How many pathways could he find?  Below is an example of 5 pathways that got longer with each turn.  

Students worked on this for the whole class period, finally finding that 8 pathways was the most that could be found in the 5x5 grid.

For those students with extra time, they worked on the 8x8 grid.  With this larger grid, they found that 14 pathways were possible.

We organized this data into a table of values and filled in the missing pieces.

We even connected it to Algebra and found the equation... 2g - 2 = p

Because of our limited time, I told the students that it would just take one counterexample to disprove our pattern.

Sure enough, today a student came in to class with 9 pathways.

Are 10 pathways possible?

So now, how many pathways could fit in the 8x8 grid?

Gotta love math!