It's been around two years since I updated this site. During that time I retired. I am now considering how to repurpose that site to better reflect my interests today.
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There's a lot going on in a world where most of us are asked to stay at home. Let's start with the stimulus package the U.S. government has just passed. 2.3 Trillion dollars. That is, $2,300,000,000,000 dollars. Click here to visualize just how big a trillion actually is. Very Big. Some of that will be showing up in most of our bank accounts soon. Thank you, math! Educators everywhere have been working hard to figure out how to teach in this (temporary) new world. Shelby County Schools (SCS) has placed a packet of work for math students online to assist parents and students with continuing learning. I have organized the SCS packets, answer keys, helpful videos, and self-check assessments. Just visit jacronai.com and follow the links. Many of Ms. Lowrance and my students have been working on the Delta Math assignments and Mastery Connect quizzes (not quizzes). To get to these assignments go to jacronai.com and follow the links. For your artsy folk, here is a link to a page with cool math graphics to draw/color. If you can't print them, you can hold a sheet of paper up to your screen (bigger than a phone I think) and trace the graphics. Then color them up. Here is a sample graphic: The origins of April Fool's Day is a bit mysterious. But this year may be the first in centuries where pranks are off limits. On Facebook yesterday, someone posted, "if you say you have COVID-19 and then say 'ha ha' April Fool's!" I will permanently unfriend you." I think we all feel we've been pranked enough for one year.
Math puzzles are commonly provided as a "safe and fun" alternative to hurtful and embarrassing pranks. Here is a site that offers just those kind of fun puzzles. We were told today that grades are being finalized. I want to give a shout-out to those scholars that continued to engage in learning even though they know the work was optionals. Kudos to Yensi, Abigail, Mia P., Mario, Kariysy, Destiny, Paris, and Channing. Good job! Reply to this post and share what you and your family are up to! Return to home page of jacronai.com
Grades for Q3 are done for our Algebra 1 students. I Included any makeup work done through 3/26 (deltamath). I hope parents will encourage their scholars to continue to do the work teachers like Ms. Lowrance and myself are making available. Earlier today, I sent out a text to each parent giving them access to the answers (and video solutions) to the SCS math packet supplied for this week. I'll continue to do that as long as they continue to prepare packets. In other news: Did you go to any of the virtual museums I found and posted (see prior blog)? Some of these are amazing. In other other news: What's the news in your world? Reply to this post and let us know what's up with you. I'd love to hear from you about how "safer-at-home" has affected your lives. Parents, please encourage your scholar to look at the available assignments for math class. And have them check their current Quarter 3 grade. Until I am told otherwise, I am folding the work they do on Deltamath.com into their grade. This is an optional opportunity. Meanwhile, SCS may cut that opportunity off at any time (we are "officially" in Quarter 4 now).
In other news, I have collected links to a bunch of free online "virtual museums" that are being offered to us all at this time. Check them out. I sent a text out to the parents of my scholars, letting them know about work available for their child. Several replied with a thank you. I hope my scholars will take to home-learning. In other news: My wife and I sent our live-in 20-something daughter to Costco today. It was a surreal experience for her. She told us that people were very polite and kept "socially distant" even within the lines. Many of the shoppers had masks and/or gloves on. The shelves were fully stocked, she said, and there were a lot of employees around watching, helping, standing, but not a lot of people actually shopping inside the store. This was because Costco was only allowing a certain number of people in at a time and that there was a line waiting outside the door to get in. She said she felt pressured to "get in and get out." When she got back home, she brought in the groceries, ran upstairs, took a shower, and then tossed her clothes into the washing machine. Is this the New Normal? Wow. So here we are, with what may be a longest Spring Break ever. As I write this (on the morning of March 20th) I am thinking that it is quite possible that we will not be returning to school-as-usual on April 6th. So I have put together a two weeks of online assignments for my students and will work on more curriculum-appropriate lessons if we end up staying at home for additional weeks.
On a more personal note, I am encouraged by the efforts of almost everyone in helping reduce the severity of the situation by following all the health guidelines, and by our local, state, and federal governments who to be honest initially flailed around a bit before pulling their big-boy and big-girl pants up and getting on the business of keeping us safe and informed. I am not going to let the small group of selfish folk keep me from appreciating the vast majority of my fellow humans doing the right thing. Fall Break is coming to a close (sigh). I hope you and your scholars had a nice week. On October 9th each student was assigned a set of short assignments on Khan Academy, all due on Oct. 20th. Most of the assignments were watching videos, and there were also some exercises to do and a couple of short quizzes. As I write this, some students have completed the assignments and some are still working on it. Many have not begun - even though the assignments were given during class and time was provided for each student to start on the tasks. I sent a text to each parent around 1 PM on 10/20 containing the percent of the assignments their scholar had completed.
To get to these assignments, students should go to jacronai.com and click on the ASSIGNMENTS tab at the top of the page. A drop-down menu appears, and the student should click on the KHAN ACADEMY link. Each student will need to log on with their username and password. These were given out during class, and I've also sent them in a text to the parent contact phone number I have. Contact me if your scholar is having trouble getting onto Khan Academy. We also took the Shelby County district benchmark assessment during the week before Break. On average, student scored around 33% on the benchmark. A successful score on that assessment would have been above 50 percent. Please discuss your scholar's work habits and encourage them to apply themselves to both the work in class and to the homework assigned. I am supplying students with a journal to take notes in and pencils when they forget to bring one to class. I offer tutoring twice per week after school (Tuesdays and Thursdays) and there are other resources available for students to gain mastery of the class content. Quarter 2 of the year is about to begin and Ms. Lowrance and I have high expectations for our students. We will begin the Quarter reviewing graphing and then move on to learning about linear equations. Please remind your scholar of the importance of a strong work ethic and what it means to be respectful to other students in the classroom. This week we reviewed for a district-created assessment being administered on Tuesday, 9/24. The Standards we focused on were:
On Wednesday, 9/22, students were issued Progress Reports, and on Thursday afternoon and evening we had Parent Night. Thank you, parents and families who came and visited Ms. Lowrance and myself, and the other teachers. It means a lot that you came by. You, your child, and we teachers are a team working to ready the young student for adult opportunities. Friday was a half-day for students. While the students were there, the school ran some emergency safety drills. After the students were gone, the teachers and administrators worked on professional development activities. Coming Attractions: This coming week... The district assessment on Tuesday, new math Standards, and Homecoming on Friday. Thanks for stopping by to read this weekly update of our class! Remember that you can always reach me through this site by clicking on the Contact tab. |