Dear Eighth Grade Families,
 
Today's homework is on page 371 (#36-40 even), and is due tomorrow, 3/3/2010.
 
Today we studied how to graph linear inequalities in two variables. Such inequalities look like this: 3x + 4y < 2. We'll continue to review inequalities for the next few days in preparation for a quiz on Tuesday.
 

Dear Eighth Grade Families,
 
Today we continued studying absolute-value inequalities. These problems that contain two answers and can be charted on a number line in the AND or OR form. Here's an example:
 
If a stream of water rises from a fountain straight up with an initial velocity of 96 feet per second, find the time (t) for which the speed of water is greater than 20 feet per second. The equation for this would look like this:
s = | -32t + 96 | > 20

More great progress today. We built on Monday's work by studying how to simplify inequalities using multiplication and division. We also looked at compound inequalities in the forms AND and OR, and analyzed the differences between them in equations and on graphs.
Homework due on Feb 24:

• Page 352, #21-28 (all), #29-32 (all)
• Main lesson book page on linear equations (if not already turned in)

Tomorrow we will study: 

We are off to a good start following last week's break. The students worked hard today and we are motivated to move forward fast. We have set a goal for ourselves of catching up to the original schedule so that we are back on track by the start of Spring Break.
Today's homework is pages 326-328, problems 42-54 (even) and 56-60 (all).
Today I ran across an article at the New York Times that may interest you. It makes many of the points I try to make in class. If you were taught to hate math, the article might interest you. Then again, you might just hate it.

Dear Friends,
We are currently finishing a fast review of the topics we studied before the Winter Break. Three students did excellently on last week's quiz. All others need more review and will retake the quiz this Tuesday. Many students continue to struggle with the following topics:

The class is working hard and we are on schedule. Last week we covered:

Topics Studied This Week

This week we covered graphing lines given various coordinate points, graphing horizontal and vertical lines, and graphing lines using x- and y-intercepts. Throughout we have been deriving the slope-intercept formula from various forms of the linear equation. Despite many recent sicknesses and absences, students are doing a good job keeping up with our studies.

Pre-Algebra Assessment

This weekend I completed detailed, individualized Pre-Algebra evaluations for each student. They will receive letters listing the exact areas they need to review. You can see a summary of the review topics on the progress report. They are marked as 'Credit' if no further review is needed, otherwise as 'Review Needed'. I'll work with students to put together individual study plans which I hope they can make good progress on over the Thanksgiving break.

 
Dear Parents,

If you did not get my earlier progress reports, please excuse my long silence. I recently discovered that SPAM filters are blocking most reports sent from the grading program. With this email, I'm switching to my regular email program. I hope the following lengthy report makes up for any you may have missed. I'd also appreciate it if you could reply to this message letting me know if you received it.