Gathering Real Life Data

Is it Strawberry Jam or a Centipede?
Licorice or Skunk Spray?
Juicy Pear or Booger?

What is the likelihood you'll get a good one?
One that tastes sweet and yummy and makes your heart sing.
Or...will it be one that makes you run to the trash can in an attempt to get the taste out of your mouth as soon as possible??

That was today's in-class assignment...to taste Bean Boozled Jelly Bellies.
Willing students selected a Jelly Belly and gave it a chew or two.
We will use the data for our Probability unit in November.

Here are the results...

It was Skunk Spray!!!  Yuck!!!

Thanks students...and some USD 309 staff...for helping make our data collection a Beanboozled success!

New This Year...Online Math Textbook!!!

It's a bird!
It's a plane!
No...not really.
But it is really cool!

This summer I have created our very own RVMS 8th Grade Math Textbook online!
You can access it ANYWHERE!
No more excuses that you forgot your book in your locker.
It has resources, assignments, and rubrics...
ALL at your fingertips.

It's organized like a notebook with tabs and everything!

Handy dandy websites are RIGHT THERE!
No more searching or trying to remember web addresses.

The only web address you need to remember is snipurl.com/mathtextbook.
It will get you there...
anytime,
anyplace,
anyhow,
anywho,
any which way but loose.

Check it out!!!

Homework Completion and ZAPS

Reno Valley students can be ZAPPED this year...
if they don't get their homework in on time.

In math, I feel I must explain how homework is handled.
I have TWO types of homework.
It can be a little confusing, so I'll explain.

First, there is the graded homework where students hand in an assignment for a grade.
These can be ZAPPED.
Students will need to stay after school to finish these assignments that same day.

HOWEVER...
Some of our homework is reviewed the next day.
We go over the answers and how to solve the problems in class.
There is no way these assignments can be ZAPPED.
Students already have the answers!

Sooooo.....
These are called Homework Completion.
I check to see if each student has completed the ENTIRE assignment and is ready for class.
I give a 100% grade each time a student finishes HW Completion assignments just for doing what is expected.
But, I have to give a 0% for those students that don't come to class prepared with a completed assignment.

If you have any questions, please let me know.  You can either comment on this post or zip me an email at tmccabe@usd309ks.org.

First Day...ALL 8th Graders

What a great great day!
Don't you just love the first day of school?
Everything is new and clean...
Friendships are reunited,
And it's a whole new year of learning new things!
LOVE IT!

Today we started with one of my favorite problems.
The Locker Problem.

There are 20 lockers in one hallway of Reno Valley Middle School.  In preparation for the beginning of school, the janitor closed all of the lockers and put a new coat of paint on the doors, which are numbered from 1 to 20.
When the 20 students from Mrs. McCabe's class returned from summer vacation, they decided to celebrate by working off some energy.  They came up with a plan:  The first student ran down the row of lockers and opened every door.  The second student started with locker #2 and closed every second door.  The third student started with locker #3 and changed the state of every third locker door.  The fourth student started with locker #4 and changed the state of every fourth locker door, the fifth student started with locker #5 and changed the state of every fifth locker door, and so on, until all 20 students had passed by the lockers.


Students worked on the problem together in their groups,

and some worked independently to find the answer.

We learned that...

1)  there are many methods to solving the same problem.

2)  it's okay to make mistakes.

3)  and that everyone learns in a different way.  Some are independent thinkers and need time on their own to think about the problem.  Some like to talk about the math and work together with others.

To extend this lesson at home, ask your student which lockers remained open (hint:  there are 4 open lockers).  What kind of patterns do you see in your answer?  How can this help you figure out which lockers will be open if there are 200 lockers in the hallway?

Have a great weekend!
See you Monday.

First Day...Take One!

Welcome back 8th graders!

What a great first day!
Met some new faces and had a good time playing Equate in math today.
Just look at that concentration.

Equate is basically the math version of Scrabble.
Using 9 number and operation tiles, students can make equations or expressions and connect them to those already on the board.

It takes a lot of thinking...
A lot of messing around with numbers
But when you find that perfect equation...
JACKPOT!
Big points!

Looking forward to seeing all the 8th graders tomorrow!

H - Here and Now...Tanganika One Last Time

S - Serve Others...Tanganika Again