Saturday, January 31, 2015

Review week 6

This week has gone surprisingly well. I understand the quadratic in the radical more than i do the combining of the two equations but I have been working on that. I'm sure that with a bit of hard work I can understand it.

Week 6

Once more, this week of studying and math was.. fun, to say the least. Unlike last week when everything was hectic in and out of school, a calmer week was something far better.

Of course, the ideas we learned this week were interesting too. learning how to use an equation to figure out the sides of a box? An equation from geometry would do the same thing- but not with an equation for the data given like that.

When I was called out in class on Friday, I admit I was sheepish, for I hadn't done the problem- sure, I did manage to do it about a minute later but the point was that I slacked off and I should have done it earlier- the one thing I do not want to become is someone who does all the work on they very last day its due.

Besides the concepts there was also the extra credit assignment I sent in on Friday- How to Survive High School. That was something quite awkward I can imagine, but the moment the idea came to mind the thoughts started to flow and I couldn't stop. If it is used to help new students in the long run, then I'm glad I could have helped.

Week 6

Well a reflection on this week is that not a lot happened. All I really need to remember is to plug the x in to find y instead of doing it the long way around. Other then this it was a really basic week for me.

Week 6

This week was good overall. I understood  most of the concepts. I had some trouble with the basic physics problems but I understand it now after I asked Mr. Jackson a question before school. I feel fairly confident for the quiz and I will continue to look over my work. 

Blog post

Feeling better about this week so far. The new material we just learned seems easier, and I am now understanding the importance of actually knowing what steps you are doing, not just how to do the math quickly. It really is important to understand the process of which you complete a problem. It really helps to know that, and it makes you feel like you know what the heck you're doing. Which in my case, is always great to feel. 

Friday, January 30, 2015

Week 5 Andre

My muddiest moment occurred when i encountered the terms and vocab. Once the questions were explained i began to know what i was being asked of. I'm still studying the vocab of expressing certain equations,but it will come!!

Week 5 - cool thing I've learn

        Something cool I learn today is that we could use parts of a quadratic function for 3D models. I never thought that we could use functions to create patterns and shapes that will help us model furnitures and other stuff. It is amazing how we could use math in almost every parts of our life.

Week 6 groovin'

I'm feeling pretty okay with what we learned this week. I'm still sort of struggling with completing the square, but I should be fine with a bit more practice. I am starting to really get the hang of factoring using the area model for factoring, which is making finding the domain of quadratic radicands pretty easy to understand. I'm glad that the test was move back, and I'm hoping that with some more review and practice I will be ready for the test next week!

Week 6

I'm finally starting to understand what we are doing in class. Factoring, to me, is easy and is one of the few things I actually know how to do. I also understand how to find the domain, which I've understood how to do from the beginning, but it's nice to go back to the material I understand. 

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Week 6

My muddiest point at this time is substituting different functions for one.  I understand that it allows you to have one variable, I just have trouble comprehending how to do it.  I am happy we are building on domain and range, I understand that well.  I am practicing substituting every night and it is getting better, but I am still having trouble with farmer problems.

week 6, retakes and writing quadratics

With one day of being sick and one snow day, this week has flown by. The new concept is difficult, writing quadratics to go through certain points. I don't quite understand it, and I was planning on asking for help, but all these days off are getting in the way. While Mr. Jackson repeatedly pushing back the end of this unit is helping, I still feel behind on concepts and homework. Retaking the quiz from a week ago should help my grade, but not as much as understanding this new material would. today I plan on Googling the new concept and hopefully learning it at my own pace than scrambling to catch up after a sick day. Friday probably won't be easy, assuming this snow doesn't keep us out of school another day.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Week 6 Blog Post

This week has been pretty difficult to understand. Now that we have a page full of formulas, I think that will help. A few times I have been struggling and I go to the answer key and see what i'm supposed to do and then go through it with myself and try to make sense of it. That seems to help a lot, especially on the assignments that have several problems that we have to do the same thing. Hopefully everything will start to click together.

Monday, January 26, 2015

week 6 the uphill battle continues

First day back to school from being sick for over a week. I met with Mr. Jackson early in the morning trying to get a grasp on everything I missed and forgot.  I liked today that I reviewed in the hall everything from two weeks ago, trying to get my head back into game.  I would like to do the same tomorrow until we can do some one on one and get me caught up.  Getting ready to view the video and notes and try to understand what i missed last week!  I know this week is going to be hard and exhausting so lets battle through it!  I really appreciate Mr. Jackson for helping me this whole trimester!

Absent last weeks blog

Things were going well for me in the class, I was getting the concept and was applying it to the work and everything was fine.  Then when we had the long weekend I thought I would come back rested and ready to learn more, but (BAM) I came down with a serious virus and was out of school for the whole last week.  Now my head is running at a pace that I really don't like right now, trying to figure everything out in all my classes and remember everything from two weeks ago that we were working on in this class.  I will try my hardest with studying and keep coming in for help before and after school and asking questions until I'm caught up.  Thanks for all your help Mr. Jackson!

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Reflection

For the first few weeks of the tri everything came rather easy for me. I did well on quizzes and understood what I was doing without ever really having to study that much. I figured since I didn't need to study that much for the other units, this one would be the same but applied functions changed my mind. I somewhat struggle with it as of right now but Im sure once i start studying more that will soon change.

Week 5 (I think?)

Holy moses thank god I remembered to do this just now. Anyways, the pace has picked up in this class and honestly, I'm kinda falling behind slightly. There were a few days when I was totally lost and had no idea what I was doing but I got some help and got a little caught up, but I wouldn't say I'm completely there yet. This is a pretty challenging class, but that's fine because nothing worth it is ever easy really. But I get what Vertex form is and I know how to convert it into Standard form and all of that smooth jazz. So there's that. I just need to go over the homework and study some more and it'll be all good in the hood. Peace out.

The 5th Week

I started off feeling quite well about this week, I could actually follow along and solve the problems. When we treaded into deeper water, however, I began to get rather confused. I believe that being behind in understanding a few things from before is tripping me up a bit.

Week 5

In the beginning of this week I felt lost and completely confused.  As the week went on it started to kind of click in my head but it still was not completely there yet.  On Friday I started to feel more confident about the applied problems.  I know how to complete the square pretty well with these problems but I still do not understand how to use the X intercepts to figure out the problems.  I know it is a faster way so I would like to figure out that instead of having to write so much when completing the square.

Week 5


This week started out good for me.  I felt comfortable at the beginning of the week with the new concept.  However once we started getting into the new content, I began to get stuck.  Trying to come up with new formulas by only using limited information is not easy for me.

week 5

so this week was a bit of a tornado. i had a collage visit Thursday and Friday 2 weeks ago so it made going into this week a bit of a hassle. I still need to do the quiz from last week and judging by the quiz scores that were given back i'm less than optimistic about my own. No the less i will still try my hardest to try and get a good grade. I'm also glad that i found a a few work a rounds for some of the new problems we started doing this week. all in all i'm confident that i will be prepared for the next test.

week 5





Muddiest point: Well this week started out rough because of getting a REALLY bad grade on the quiz.  But after staying after school I feel way more confident, also, thank you a lot for making us retake it.  Personally I was freaking out that that grade was going to stay in the grade book. The applied functions packet is pretty confusing. The problems seem really intimidating at first but once I get shown the right direction to go in I understand it without problem. The X-intercepts seems like an easier way for me to complete what I have to than completing the square. I feel like with more practice and a little more explanation it will get easier for me to understand.

Week 5

Well I wasn't really at school at all this week, so I am completely lost with this new concept. I know I'll get it eventually though by staying after school and practicing. Other concepts we learned in previous weeks are becoming much more clear with practice and time. I just feel like I'll never be caught up because as soon as I understand something, I need to stay after school and work on something else that we have just learned, and I don't understand. Hopefully it will all come together with time.

week 5

The hardest point for me this week is still completing  the square I am starting to figure it out just need little more help. I run into problems in the middle like finding the perfect c value.

Week 5

This week started out rough cause I didn't do well on the quiz.  Also I didn't understand what we were doing on Thursday but on Friday I was getting it a little but still need more practice. I hope I do better on my test this week

Week 5

The "muddiest points" right now are figuring out where to input the number if we are given one. Also where to input that number as well as how to combine the equations is still a bit of a struggle.

Week 5

This week was a muddy point. I had a bit of a struggling involving the newest things we have been learning where we need to create a formula with only one independent value. I believe I just get a bit confused as we need to know the formulas that we need to use for the given function and then put them together in one mixed formula. I believe I am getting a bit better though and hopefully with a little more practice, I can be prepared for the test in the upcoming week! That was my muddiest point this week.

Week 5 Muddiest Point

I have been struggling with the concepts that were featured in the Applied Functions worksheet that was given to us in class this week.  It just doesn't seem to be clicking in my head just yet.  I am hoping that I will be able to understand it more with some more practice at home and in class next week!  On another note, I like the idea of being called on randomly in class because knowing that there is a chance of being called on gives me the motivation I need to work through a challenging problem the best that I can, and if I'm wrong I will be able to remember my mistake and try not to make it again.

Muddiest point

My muddiest point this last week has been finding the maximum area. All the different ways that are floating around have confused me. Everything else that we've done this week has been really easy and I can do everything up to the point of the max area stuff. 

blog post #5

The beginning of this week started off pretty well. The new material was coming to me in an easy way. but about half way through the week I began to get lost. At first this freaked me out a little but I started to ask question and with the extra practice I was able to ketch back up and I believe I a ready for the next week to start. I was also glad to here about the make up blog post because the first who I missed really brought down my grade and I am hopping this will help out a lot.
My muddiest point this week is the applied functions packet. I Loki at it and read it and it's like I'm reading Latin. Once Jackson shows the answer I get so confused.

Week 5- Reflection

This past week, I have been confused while doing the applied functions problems. Whenever I went to work on the packet, I just became frustrated. However, going through multiple problems in class helped me to better understand and be more comfortable when working through the problems on my own. Although it stresses me out to be called on in class randomly, I do find it helpful to work through problems as a whole. This also helps me stay on task and focus on what I am working on. One suggestion would be giving us more time to work on problems in class. I find it helpful when I  work through problems with classmates and have people to consult with over the answers, rather then doing them on my own.

Week 5... First Hour

This past week has been frustrating. I am slowly understanding how to set up the equations and solve it, I am understanding to slow. Maybe explain a different way ?

week5

in past few weeks ,I don't know I have to post this every week ,I realized it on skyward 
For me ,my problem is the language , sometimes I just can't get what is question mean, so I am working on the mathematical language ,so I can understand the question better 
    Wei Du     

Week 5

The first four weeks were kind of a struggle.  Not fully understanding things was my main problem.  I now am understanding more fully.  Staying after with Mr. Jackson really helps.  If you do not understand things fully the first time, he does a very good job explaining it on a more personal one-on-one.  Keep grinding class, keep grinding!

week 5-reflection

I do not completely understand what we are doing.... and I don't know how to word what I'm not understanding. I think I'm kind of getting the hang of it, but then something else confuses me... I think maybe some more practices will help

Week 5

This week, my muddiest point was when we were going over the triangle problem in the Applied Functions packet. I knew what to start with, but I had no idea where to go from there. After going over the problem, I was more confident.

Week 5- Muddiest Point

My personal "muddiest point" is the new equations we have been working through about how to find the maximum area given the amount of fencing (perimeter). It is a very long and confusing process, possibly because there are so many ways to get the same final answer. I personally like the x-intercept way the most, yet I sometimes find myself struggling to find what equation we would use to then pick out what the x intercepts should be. I am slowly starting to understand how to work through the Applied Functions but it's not coming easy to me. I wish we spent more time working with the simple ones before we move on to more difficult ones, because even the simple ones are difficult to me. I haven't committed how to do these equations to memory, quite possibly because I only can do them with plenty of guidance. I am trying my very hardest though! I am pushing and working through them as best I can!

Week 5- my progress

I have been struggling on the concept of completing the square and finding the vertex form but last week it finally clicked. I have been looking at my notes a lot lately and that has helped. I also retook our latest quiz and did a lot better so I'm feeling pretty good. 

Muddiest point

I don't completely understand the guess and check strategy yet, finding the factors that multiply together to get the equation has been a large struggle for me. I need further help to understand factoring 

Blog post

I missed Friday so I'm probably going to be a little behind. I don't really like the new seating arrangement. I'm not the most outgoing person, so it's uncomfortable to have to go up in front of class. I understand completely why Jackson is doing it, however. I do. I just don't like it. Class material seems to be gaining up on me, and I'm not going to lie and say that it isn't stressing me out. Because it really is. Some serious focus is going to have to occur. 

Week whatever number :)

I have to admit when we got that physics question i thought id fail miserably at it :P but i actualy knew what i was doing... And now i feel more confident in my physics and math skills. :) Thanks for trying to make us think outside the box Jackson!

Week 4

I like the extensions and applying the things we're learning to real life. I remembered the distance equation from physics on one of the sheets but I don't really remember that much from last year, so that didn't help me very much. I feel like I'm understanding everything pretty well, and so far on most of the quizzes I keep making stupid mistakes like forgetting to put a square bracket on the range of a function.

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Week 5 - Reflection

This week was one of the most life interaction weeks so far. The things we have done this week were things that actually apply to our lives. In the beginning of the week I found it all to be pretty difficult. Just because it was a lot to wrap my mind around. However, by Friday it was a little easier. It is still a little confusing to me, but the more practice I so the better it will become. The only thing that I'm still trying to get used to from this week is you having us teach the class. I understand why you are doing it, it's the logical thing to do for more interaction. It just takes a while to get used to because learning other ways than the way you are used to is a little difficult at times. Hopefully from all of the interaction things will make more sense to everyone and having students teach the class will be one easier. Thank you for a great week. 

Week 5.


The example we did in class on Friday was kind of confusing using vertex form. We got the maximun area and after that we got to plug "x" and "A" into the area formula to get "y". Also we got really big numbers, that made it even harder. I personally like that process but sometimes it is better to use another method of solving.

week 5 reflection.

This week has actually been interesting to me. I think that the class is moving in the right direction for sure. Hopefully the test next week wont be too hard.

week 5

This solving quadratics quiz is a bit difficult... I don't fully understand questions 3 and 4. questions 1 and 2 I have down, I think when I go to retake it, I will have it down pat and I will ace the quiz. I just need to practice more, and study.

Week 4 - moment of clarity

I was surprised to learn that we could combine two functions about a shape and solve for the maximum area. Using only one variable to find other informations about a shape was first confusing to me, but after the explanation that Mr. Jackson gave us, I soon understood why and how to combine two formulas.

Week 4 Reflection

I really didn't understand what we did Thursday and Friday. I understand we need the two equation for the area and perimeter, then what ever one it asked to find. If in the question it say you need to have "x" in your finally equation, you first need to solve for "y". Then you can plug "y" into the equation you want in the end. So you have only "x" on the one side of the equals sign. So the equation your need in the end would be A= (x) (200-24x)  If you finding for area of a rectangle or square and y equals 200-24x. That is how I understand it. I don't know if that is helpful to anyone but it helped me to explain how I understand it and now more confident in the way to do it.

Week 5

Something in class that I thought was cool is how you can take a quadratic equation and find domain, range, and the vertex all from one equation. We've grown up being taught to draw a graph or look at a calculator. But now we know how to do it with one simple line of numbers. 

Week 5 precalc functions

We were introduced to applied problems of combining functions and quadratics this week. These problems are much more logic based. For the most part the concept makes sense, but some of the problems require a lot of thinking and checking. We also were handed back our quizzes from recently, which I did not do well on. It is frustrating that I messed up on a concept that I mostly understand the only time that it mattered. Retaking the quiz will improve the grade, but I think that entire quizzes built of two problems are unfair. One mistake lowers the overall grade from an A- to a failing grade. I would much prefer a large quiz with more questions that are not unfairly hard, allowing us to show that we understand the concept on the level that it was taught instead of being tricked by problems of ridiculous difficulty.

Friday, January 23, 2015

Week Five Reflection

This week was somewhat of a pickle for me in the beginning; the new concept of using another equation in a equation was something strange yet interesting. At the start of the week my understanding of it was muddled; it was confusing and somethings did not make sense. Then, Jackson went over it in class on Thursday, and it all clicked into place. Suddenly the things I looked at before made sense!

Of course, winding the area of certain things is new concept that will take a moment to adjust, but I believe it was well described enough for me to get through it.

Also, the new classroom set up was interesting- I've been used to the four person groups for so long and now they're shattered. I'm not sure which set up I like more, but I do enjoy this setting as well.

Week 5

This is the first time I've been introduced to this lesson and find it challenging but fun at the same time. I like the patterns that go along with these problems. I don't have any problems with the unit at the moment and believe I can work out any future problems I have with this unit with a little practice. 

week 5 reflection

This week I struggled so hard. Math usually comes to me but the paper applied functions isn't clicking for some reason. I understand how to use the equations we got and make mathematical sense out of them but getting those equations I don't understand. Can we review on Monday how to get the equations? In addition, I really like being randomly selected because normally I won't put myself in an uncomfortable situation but then I don't really participate in class and I can feel left out. This forces me to go out of my comfort zone and I know this sounds weird but I actually like it.

Week 5 post

I was having a difficult time understanding factoring and completing the square.  I finally figured it out! I was really proud of myself.  I was happy to know that I found out how to do it.  My "moment of clarity" was at about 8:00pm on Wednesday. I asked my father for help and it was very helpful.  I also watched about 6 videos from Khan Academy.

Blog Post week 5

This week we started to do more interactive activities. I really liked it, because it kept me engaged. When there was a possibility of being called on randomly, I was more likely to pay attention to the process of the problem that we were doing. I also liked when people went up to do the warm up on the board. Talking through how I complete a problem helps me to understand that problem fully. I think I'm starting to get the hang of applied functions so hopefully I continue to improve on that.

Week 5

I'm really confused with why I'm messing up completing the square when I do it for applied functions. It works every other time and I know the formula so I want to keep using it I just need to figure out why I am screwing it up, and I will have to come in and have it explained to me.

Week 5 Blog Post

This week has been a struggle for me more than the others.I know how to combine the 2 equations, but finding the maximum area is a struggle. I have to keep looking back at my notes and even then, it's confusing. I am going to keep doing the homework, and if I am still confused then I am going to come in early or stay after so I won't get behind and so I can understand again.

Muddiest point

I have no idea what is goin on with applied functions. I don't really understand where is it going and how to perform the problems in the packet. Are we just creating different problems, or how are we supposed to use these problems? I am going to come in and get help because I really need it.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Week 5

I really liked that it was interactive on Wednesday because I felt like people are actually learning stuff and Mr. Jackson can tell if we need to go over something more if students are struggling. Plus it can boast speaking-in-front-of-people skills

Week 4 Andre

I have a reflection upon this classroom,and its on the seating chart.I like the fact that their is change,but i enjoyed my excelled productivity in our groups. Hopefully after a few weeks we can change back. Also i like the idea of participation.

Monday, January 19, 2015

Well, factoring.

I went confidently into this unit only to be kicked in the teeth. Though seemingly simple, it turned around and slapped me in the face, then it called it's two friends in: Range and Converting to vertex form, to beat me about the room like a bag of potatoes. All joking aside, I felt as though I finally had something this week then felt ridiculously overwhelmed for some reason.

Reflection upon progress

I feel as if I've fallen behind. I don't seem to be able to comprehend all of the things I should be able to to be proficient in this unit, with factoring, solving, etc. I think my biggest hang up is factoring, and if I can get that down I should be able to move forward. 

week four




Factoring was really intimidating to me when we first started doing it because I remembered how bad i was at it in Algebra 2.  When you taught us the square diamond method it made it a lot easier and i actually knew what i was doing on the quiz.  The completing the square thing though is still pretty difficult to me. i need to spend more time studying how to do that out of class.  Also i felt like the problems you had on the quiz were a lot more difficult than you had on the practice so that threw me for a loop as well.

Week 4

Well a connection to the real world that happen was a couple days ago was in my ACT prep class. The connection went over our first few weeks of math when we were doing more of
f(g(x)) or (f•g)(x)
One of the math problems was like
Find f(g(6))
f(x) = (6x+7)/(4x+8)
g(x) = 3x-7
f(g(x)) = ~1.4
All I had to do was type it correctly in my calculator and it spits out an answer. Since I knew what it was asking I didn't gave to wonder what it meant. Saved me precious time for ACT testing.

well the internet seems to be my mortal enemy tonight

The internet has been very non-compliant with me over the past couple of days and tonight must have been its breaking point. it has been refusing to work or load up anything that i need.i have been wrestling with various connection problems for the last few hours and i think i may have fixed the problem, but in the more than likely chance that it breaks down again i want to seize this small window of opportunity i have been given to write as much as i can about last week in math. (hopefully this isn't all a cruel joke where the internet decides this weekly blog shouldn't upload.)

Last week in math was a very difficult one for me. I only had 3 days to work with since i was going up to LSSU for a collage visit and the material wasn't quite meshing with me. I hope to review a little bit more this week and get back on track by the end of it. this concept in math has been particularly difficult for me because there is no "set" way to do these problems. its a lot of guessing and then re-evaluating the numbers to try and figure out the answer. Wail this was very difficult for me in the beginning, i've started to form a better understanding of the small tips and tricks that are useful for these kinds of problems. all in all this math class has been one of the more difficult ones i've taken, but that doesn't make it un-conquerable and i'm sure that after these first few weeks, after being back from break, ill be much more proficient in math.

Jackson week 4

This week was mostly free time in class to work on papers and walking through problems with Mr Jackson. After incorrectly using decimals in the completing the square problems, I used the square and diamond method for the first time. It is surprisingly helpful and wasn't hard to learn. It is definitely a method I'll use in the future. 

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Week 4

This week went well and I felt like everything easily came to me. I am a little worried about what I got on my quiz but I am optimistic. If the rest of the trimester goes like this week I will enjoy the class and get a good grade in the class

Week 4

Due to the fact that I have decided to pay in class recently, I understand the current unit.  I have also done most of the home work from this unit and I know that has been helping out.  I am definitely going to continue to do all the work and pay attention.  This unit is actually somewhat enjoyable for me.

Week 4 - Reflection

This week was a little more confusing than others. At the beginning of the week, the factoring with an "a" value of one was quite easy. However, when it became something other than one, is when I started to get very confused. The square and diamond method was unique, but I did not understand how to use it until after the quick quiz. The only thing that confused me was the very last step to figure out the final solutions. A little more explanation would have helped, but it is kind of my fault because I did not ask. But with me now knowing what you are suppose to do helps so much. For some reason that was the only thing that I found to be difficult this week. Because when we did the "finding the vertex form" and "solve using completing the square" I found that to be so easy. It just came to me so easily. That is something that I know I did really well on the quick quiz. The only thing that I could ask for is maybe just one more practice problem on the square and diamond factoring method. Thank you for a great week. 

Week 4

I thought I understood what we learned this week quite well. When the quiz came I was very well mistaken. I guess I did not understand the concepts at all because the quiz was a mess and quite the struggle for me. I just need to stay after school even more and occasionally come in the morning. I really don't know what to do to improve other than that. Hopefully things start to shape up soon though.

muddiest point

My muddiest point so far in this unit is completing the squares when it involves fractions. I feel as tho mason doesn't do a very good job teaching about fractions so when it comes time to using them in solving it really confuses me. I usually like to just be able to round the decimal places but you like exact numbers so i can't really do that so i guess I'm just going to have to get used to using fractions and improve on it.

Week 4.


I think now we are going faster, and if I don't work at home every day for a little, I probably won't get what we are learning the following day. But in spite of that I get all the concepts that we worked on this week.

Week 4

My muddiest point(s) are the day after we learn something.  I feel good during class and when I am at home, but during the first part of class the next day I feel like I am reteaching/being retaught it.  Could just be the fact  that I am still waking up.

Week 4 Muddiest Point

Nothing super difficult is standing out to me at the moment, but keeping up with all the new things we learn is a little challenging. I've been struggling a bit, but then I do better once I review everything and go through it step by step.

Week 4

This week I was reintroduced to completing the square problems. I was a little confused when I first received the assignment, but as I began to work out the problem my algebra 2 knowledge came flooding back to me. Factoring was a little more difficult to understand since that was algebra 1. The square and diamond method was confusing, so I just used an old method from a previous math class that made sense to me. I was pretty confident when the test came although I struggled with the first problem for some time before figuring out a factor that would work. I was the last one finished I believe. I seem to be a slow test taker in all of my classes and that will be something I will have to work on for the SAT/ACT next year.

connection to another class

This last week we have been talking about completing the square and vertex form and I remember doing a lot of that in precalc coordinate geometry which I took last year. In coordinate geometry I remember completing the square was a little hard to figure out at first but eventually became very easy. Since I've taken that class I completely forgot how to do it but after this last week it's all coming back to me. I really enjoyed taking coordinate geometry last year and I hope that the rest of this year goes as well as that did.

Moment of clarity

I found my moment of clarity of factoring this week while taking the quiz. Factoring to me was quite hard espicially when there was a A vaule before the x. But then while taking the quiz/studying it all came together and factpring didnt seem hard at all and it felt amazing doing something you actually know what to do.

Andrew nguyen

Week 3 - Moment of Clarity

I really was not understanding completing the square. I am not good at factoring in the first place. So when Mr. Jackson showed us how to do the steps I could see how they got the #'s that factor after someone got them but did not understand how to do it myself. The next day Mr. Jackson show us to us the idea of actually drawing a square and diamond to find the factor pairs. This method really made sense to me. I can find the factor pairs easier now and it really makes sense to me. I am glad that he introduced that other method.

Week 3

I remembered how to factor pretty well this week. At first I didn't like the diamond method, since it was kind of hard to use with large numbers, but I found that most problems that I struggled with when I tried guessing and checking were easier with the diamond method, and vice versa. I didn't like factoring when completing the square, so I chose to divide for most of the problems, since I would forget to multiply the square number by whatever number was factored out.

week 4-reflection

This week has been pretty easy for me. I haven't had much trouble getting the hang of everything we learned and I feel pretty confident about the quiz

Muddiest point - Week 4

The concepts we learned this week were especially difficult compared to the ones learned previously. I felt like i knew all of them fairly well, but when it came time to take the test, I realized the factoring was not my best area of expertise.I think I might have to come in and get some extra help with that.

Week 4 Reflection

Throughout the week I was struggling with the new concepts that were being taught in class.  I had been confused with the concept factoring but I was even more confused on completing the square problems.  Throughout the week I worked on studying these problems and working them over.  Once the quiz rolled by I felt pretty confident on all the problems except for the last one.  I don't know what it was or how to even begin solving it and I regretfully left it blank.  All in all, it was a decent week to say the least, as I have said in previous blog posts, I need to come in and get some extra help!

Muddiest point

My muddiest point so far would have to be completing the square. When Jackson starts solving with it,  it sounds like he is talking in Latin.

Muddy moment-Week 4

I had a pretty muddy moment when working on some of those long complexe inverse equations... Until there was that moment of clarity when I understood when i found the method that worked for me. Cause Jackson told us that we all had to find our own method that works for us. Thanks Jackson! :) Its easier for me to understand math. :P

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Moment of Clarity - Week 4

I did not understand the difference between completing the square and finding the vertex, domain, and range. I found it very hard to understand the difference, but I finally (with help from my notes) understood that while finding the perfect square that all we were doing was trying to get x by itself, whereas finding the vertex seemed much more simple after putting the equation into vertex form. I loved knowing how to distinguish the difference and I loved finally understanding how they compare! It's such a great feeling to have, to know that I know what I am doing and having the confidence to complete more than one equation on each without notes! That moment of clarity is a relief and it makes life so much easier! :) 

Week 4

I decided to take Pre Calc while I finish up Algebra 2. I tend to have more advantages in Algebra 2 than in Pre Calc because of this. This week has been an example of the advantages I have in Algebra. We started a unit on Inverse Functions this week, and because we already went over Inverse Functions in Pre Calc last week, I felt like I understood the unit more than some of the other people in my class.

Week 4 post

The new concepts that we learned this week were challenging at the beginning. Factoring took me a long time to complete. When I did the homework I would have to have a previous problem or the notes in sight to help me. After doing a lot of the homework I found that I didn't need to depend on my notes as much. Things started to make more sense after practicing. Factoring has become easier and things are starting to make  more sense again.

Week 4

In Precalc I have been struggling with some of the newest terms we have learned recently. I thought they were difficult and I kept confusing completing the square and factoring. Eventually though I kept studying and have gotten much better at my note taking habits and looking back on my work a little bit every day. When we took the latest quiz on Friday, I was so happy that my hard work payed off as I felt very good on all of the questions and didn't need any of my notes. I can now say I am getting it and know how to prepare for this class!

Post 4

I want to talk about a particular  day in your class. One of the best days I had in your class was the day you told us about your list of "things students say". I thought it was a good idea and I hope that I get to get in your book haha. And I really hope that you can get your book published.

Muddiest point this week

My muddiest point this week has been completing the square. Most of the time, if I factor out the a value, I forget to distribute it to the perfect c value before adding it to the other side. Then it messes up the entire problem which is frustrating. I think taking some time to do extra problems and working step by step will definitely help me. 

Reflective comment

When we first started the trimester, I was very nervous because I had heard that the class was very hard. I believed it and I thought I would not get a good grade and the class and that I would not understand it. I have come to realize that if I actively learn and ask questions, I will be able to understand the content. I am happy with my progress in precalculus and I feel that I better understand math because of Mr. Jackson. 

Friday, January 16, 2015

Week 4 reflection

This week has been pretty okay.  I am starting to feel more confident with completing the square. I know that with more practice I will have down no problem. I felt pretty good about the quiz today, and I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing. I know I need to be studying a little bit more everyday. I'm feeling positive going into the next week. 

Week 4 Reflection

This week went really fast. Learning how to complete the square was taught very quickly but I understood it and completed the worksheet fairly quickly. Finding the perfect square felt like a really long process and I wished there was a faster way to do it. Also, I wish the process for factoring (ariel view thingy) was more simple because at first it really confused and I had to do it several times before I got it. I liked the speed of learning though because I am a fast learner, I just wish there was a faster way to do the work.

Completing the square

The whole idea of completing the square was a weird concept at first. I never realized that you could just add in a new variable, but it makes sense on why it works. Completing the square is pretty simple so far and i like doing the problems asociated with it. The only thing that I'm never quite sure of is weither I should divide or factor out the a value. 

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Week Four

To be completely honest, I believe after several weeks of doing math, getting it wrong and re-checking and getting it right is finally hammering something into me. The squaring of an equation was difficult to me at first, along with the small distributions that I'm starting to remember now.

I think, finally, I'm getting into the swing of how things work- how to study, how to do equations properly, how to pay attention and ask question and check answers by comparing with group members.

Now let's get to business.

3rd blog post week 4

I would have to say I did fall behind this week, mostly because I did not keep up with the work I was given. however I just sat down and caught up with everything I needed to and seem to understand things a lot better than before. the extra credit that was given this week was very challenging but made my day when I finally finished it without any help. I an hoping that this class continues to challenge me but in away I will be able to figure out.

Week 3, Cool/Connection

This past Monday, I enjoyed the Watermelon example. I think this tool will be very helpful when it comes to remembering "whatever you add to one side of the equation, you must add to the other side". I find it a lot easier to remember certain information when you have little tricks such as that one to help you. I also made a connection during class to one of my past classes. In my Pre-calc Coordinate Geometry class that I took last year, we touched on the concept of completing the square which is what we are currently learning right now. Although I vaguely remember it from last year, I am finding that it is slowly coming back to me and so far it is pretty easy.

Week 3 andre

I was absent thursday which may be the cause of my early confusion, but at first the content was difficult to understand.After a day of reviewing iunderstand the content. Still working on vocabulary.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Blog 4

I always forget to do my blog post and believe that everyone should get 1 free one to miss.  In class I understand what we are doing but I can't remember how to do some of steps in the completing the square.

Week 3

I always forget to distribute the "a" value when I need to make the c value a perfect square, but the you complete me assignment helped a lot when i keep practicing it. I wish we can go over some general rules about fractions in class.

week 4 - reflection

The material that we are doing in class right now is a little struggling for me to understand.  Coming in today early, because I missed yesterday was really helpful for me. I like how one on one you are with your students it really helps me understand more when I need help on the material.  I'm still having a little trouble of what to do with the material right now when "a" isn't equal to one.  I believe it's the extra steps in between you have to do when "a" isn't one which are making me struggle.  But coming in and getting help is helping me more and more, which is good and I believe I'm getting better every day!

Week 3 reflection

Today in Mr. Jackson's class I learned where the quadratic formula comes from.  Mr. Jackson put on the board the problem ax^2 + bx + c = 0.  After much confusion, he told us that the answer is the quadratic formula.  I finally understood where it came from. This will help my understanding of factoring and the quadratic formula.

Monday, January 12, 2015

Week 3 Reflection

I am still struggling in this class but I am trying to stay after school as much as possible for help. Staying after has boosted my confidence little by little and I know that I can start to understand everything better with the help of Mr.Jackson. The new stuff that we are learning I seem to understand better than past weeks.

Week 3

It's been a while since I have factored and I was a little rusty but I quickly got the hang of it until we added a number not equal to 1 for the a value. I was having a hard time trying to understand how to factor it. The aerial view squares where helpful at first but when I tried to do it on my own I wasn't sure what I was doing. I tried really hard to understand what I was doing wrong so I took a break from trying to solve and thought it over in my head. I realized that I wasn't making sure the x value numbers in the diamond need to multiply to equal the a*c and add up to equal the b value.

Cool

Something rather cool that I learned was the watermelon trick.  Even though it is quite simplistic, I really feel that it will stick in my head.  I doubt I will ever forget it actually.  I will look back at it when I have kids of my own and tell them about Mr. Jackson's weird watermelon trick :)

Week 3 Reflection

I feel that this week went OK.  It was productive for the most part.  However I feel that I need to adjust my studying habits and get more help fast before it's too late and I get left in the dust.

Week 3 reflection.

This week is going pretty well so far I understand mostly everything which is better than past weeks. Factoring seems pretty simple for the most part thanks to the square method.

Week 4- something that was hard to understand

When we first started the new unit with factoring I was a little annoyed because I knew I learned it before but I couldn't recall how to do it. But with practice and going over it in class I remember how to do factor. Factoring is the material I have learned the fastest and it feels good to have something click so early on in the unit, as opposed to understanding it half way through the unit. 
Week 2.

I didn't know we could factor when the "a" was not equal to 1 without solving it. Learning a new method was kind of cool. At the beginning it made me confused but I just got it and now it is pretty easy to find the solutions.

Week 3-reflective progress in class

Starting off this trimester I forgot all things math related. So in the beginning of this class it was hard to start new units that was based on units I already learned but couldn't remember. However, in this unit especially, I understand the material a lot better and all the math related things I forgot are slowly coming back to me. 

Week-3

Something that I thought was very handy that I learned for this week was the factoring grid. This method greatly reduced my confusion and for me, simplified factoring all together. I will use this regularly from now on and I hope that it will help me improve on my work.

Week 2 Blog Post

Something cool I learned today is the watermelon principle and the diamond dimension. I think it's a great way to remember how to factor with different "a" values and the watermelon principle will always be in my mind.

Week 3

This week has been ok, I am now understanding factoring and how to do the diamond thing which helps a lot! Plus I did better than I expexted on my quiz.

Week Three-Reflection

Over this week, I believe that the concepts and ideas we have been currently working with have become, to me easier to understand as time goes on. It appears this way to me as I have come to believe overtime that this is how my way if learning works- through gaining multiple concept and unit ideas which can overlap and improve understanding of a previously learned idea or help re-awaken knowledge which I've pushed to the back of my mind.


Sunday, January 11, 2015

week three




This week went really well for me. the whole factoring thing is really hard and i do not like doing the process of guess and check so I'm really glad that you taught us the square and diamond thing. i did really well on the quiz which was great. i feel last week went really great

Week 3

Something that I thought was pretty dandy that I learned this past week...
The cool little thing for factoring that we learned with the square and the diamond.  That definitely would have helped a long time ago.

progress report week 3

Coming back from break was a little rough. It took me a while to get back in the swing of things. I couldn't remember anything that we had been working on the week before break. Eventually I got my bearings and figured it out. The guys at my group helped with that. Together we were able to do everything. Now, I'm looking forward to what's coming next.

week 3

I would say that this week went pretty well in understanding the material. The hard part will be trying to remember and still understand material for past math classes

week 3 post

the week went rater well in my opinion. inverse functions were easy enough to pick up but learning all the small things from previous math classes to help with inverse functions was harder. the square diamond method was useful but i don't see myself using it to much unless i come across a problem that has really stumped me. all in all week 3 went pretty well and i'm ready to start learning what we can expand upon from last week in week 4

Week 3 Progress

I felt like at first when we started to learn about inverse functions I had no idea what was going on.  But after we went over some problems in class it all started to come back to me again.  The hardest part for me was the factoring.  And after doing some problems by myself I realized that factoring wasn't the toughest thing in the world even though it still takes me some time to get a problem done.  But all in all I feel like I have made a huge step from when we started learning about inverses.

Week 3 reflections

Last week was the best I've had in the class. Inverse functions came quite naturally to me and I was actually excited.  When we started learning I was a bit confused on how they worked but once we learned how to write the inverse function it all became much easier. I am starting to enjoy being in class more and the work is actually making sense. Last week was just the right click to make me more confident in this class.

week 2connections

My sister is a freshman, and sometimes comes home and asks me for help on math. She is in Algebra 1B and learned about the algebra tiles. I had never hard of them beofre a, but she asked me for help. So I looked at some of the ones she did before and figured out the gist of them and helped her with the other ones. When Mr. Jackson showed us them That is what I thought of, the only difference is she only used the diamond part, not the square. So I just made that connection.

Week 2

I found inverse functions to be pretty easy, and the problems didn't seem to take very long to finish. I had a hard time remembering how to factor at first, but factoring is pretty easy, so I relearned it quickly. I didn't like using the square/diamond method, since it seemed a lot faster and simpler to do the problems in my head. That method also seemed to be really hard to figure which factor pair to use when I tried it on some of the problems with bigger answers.

progress

When i first signed up for this class i thought it would be terrible from all of the horror stories and that i would not understand anything. However, so far it is not that bad. I seem to understand everything fairly well up to this point and am glad that i kept this class in my schedule and like being able to challenge myself.

Week 2, Reflection

At the beginning of this trimester, I was a little nervous about taking this class. I was worried I would have trouble understanding some concepts and struggle. As of right now, I am feeling pretty good. I have done many practice problems and have been trying my best to review daily. Some concepts I have struggled with, such as the domain and range of all the different functions, but overall I believe I am doing a lot better than I expected to. I am glad I decided to take this class and am enjoying challenging myself with new material.

Understanding Inverses Dawg

At first when we started the whole "inverses" thing I was so confused. I had no idea what Mr.Jackson was talking about and I was pretty worried that I wasn't gonna be able to follow or that I was going to fall behind. But then something in my head just snapped and one thing led to another, and now I totally get it and know exactly what I'm doing. It's funny because that's usually what happens to me. I don't get it at all for the first half of class and then, "KAPLOOEY!", I understand and I'm all revved up and ready to go. Also factoring is something that has recently came up that I've learned (or re-learned) to do well. Mr.Jackson is great at explaining things when the way to go about something is muddy or un clear. So thank you for continuing to teach me math skills, props to you my friend.

Progress

Overall, I believe that inverse functions were easier than I thought they would be. I don't think I struggled, and I did well on the quiz. This class isn't nearly as hard as I thought it'd be, and I enjoy it. 

Week 3

We started the week by learning about inverse functions. I found inverse functions to be pretty easy. But I missed the quiz, I'm still nervous about that. We started factoring but after the snow day on Friday don't remember much. Excited for another week of math.

second blog week three.

This week was actually pretty relaxing. I feel that most of what we learned was easy to comprehend and remember. I feel I did great on the quiz we had, I just need to take my time and make sure I watch the little things. Other then that this was a good week and just waiting to see how I did on my test to see how the first week really went.

Week 3

This week went well. I understood everything eventually. Inverses were were a good refresher from algebra 2 and factoring is always good to practice. It was good to learn a new way to factor, but I probably won't use it very often. I learned to factor a different way at my old school and that way works for me. A hard point for me was trying to remember how to factor while learning new ways at the same time. I thought about it at home and picked my favorite way to factor. 

Week 3 reflection

Something cool that i learned in jackson class was the diamond and 4 sqaure factors method. It was really hard for some reason and a little bit diffulcult to comprehand at the moment but it became more simpler later on and i thought that was something really cool that i learn in class and with a little more practice i think it will be easy

Andrew nguyen

Week 2- Something I thought was "cool"

Something I found very interesting/cool was the many different ways you explained that you could factor. Sometimes some ways worked better for specific problems. There was the "guess and check" method which is what I've always done, but when I was introduced to the Square and Diamond method, I found that that method could help me out much more efficiently than going through all the possible outcomes and sorting through which were correct. I was very enlightened because I had never seen that before and actually could comprehend it. You explained it in a very understandable format and I thought it was a neat trick to get the job done. Thank you so much!

Thought was "cool"

The other day when Jackson showed the diamond/square factoring thing. I have always had trouble with factoring and these few steps just made it so much easy for me....so I think that is really cool!

week 3 reflection

           Things are going well so far for me in class. I'm having a little trouble with understanding the answers on the answer key on the factoring packet you just assigned, however. I am not the best at factoring, but everything else we have learned I understand. After coming back from break, understanding things like inverse functions are really simple and I'm feeling confident with my knowledge of the class. Yet, that confidence could be much improved with some practice or explanations about the factoring packet.

week 3 - reflection

This week, after being back from break, I found the work to be fairly easy.  When we were learning about inverses, I found this to be pretty easy to understand for the most part.  Coming in and getting help, enabled me to understand the topics that were being discussed in class.  As for the quadratics unit that we are on right now, I feel that I'm getting the swing of things for part of the work.  However, I'm not the greatest at factoring and the diamond and square thing, I feel that it was kind of rushed at the end of class so I didn't really get to understand that to the fullest extent.  Furthermore, in class when we are learning something new or going over something as a review, that we've been doing for a couple days, I think it would be more beneficial if the whole class were engaged instead of working in groups or independently.  My progress in the class right now is getting better. I believe with more work and coming in for help, I should pass this class with a high grade.

Week 3

After two weeks off, I did forget a few things but getting back into my routine wasn't too hard. Inverse functions was pretty easy to me, so starting with that made the transition a little more easy. The quadratics packet was a little more difficult, but after learning the square/diamond method I was  more confident.

Week 3 after 3 weeks

This week back wasn't that difficult. Inverse functions are rather easy to pick up on and the diamond/square method helped me understand it a lot more :) Im glad it was an easy transition especially when I got the quiz score that I did. Keep being amazing Mr. Jackson! 

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Week Three- Reflection

Coming back from break was pretty easy, to me anyway. It all seemed to make sense. Inverse functions seem to be easy to me because that is what we have been doing sine we were in elementary school, just a little more complex. Going into the quiz I was very confident on what my outcome was going to be, and it happened! However, after the quiz when we started to learn about quadratics is when I got a little lost. I'm still not sure as to if I'm doing things right. I don't want to just go to the answer key and try to learn that way, but I'm just not so sure on the way Mr. Jackson explained some of the things to the class. Maybe the practice that we will be doing within the next couple days will help so much. Hopefully anyways. It's all a part of learning, and it will all make sense eventually. Just takes some time. 

Week 3 Precalc Functions

After two weeks of winter break, returning to Mr. Jackson's class was difficult. I forgot some of the material, and readjusting to a normal schedule is always hard. However, the new material was easy to pick up. Factoring out a quadratic isn't anything new, and the coefficients and cubed values are interesting twists on old problems. I didn't see any use for the squares in factoring, but the generally slow week was ended perfectly with a nice, cold day off.

Week 2 - Refection

At the beginning of this week we had inverse functions. I wasn't every confident I could do any problem Mr. Jackson gave us. I could do the easy ones but anything more than just looking at the functions given, I couldn't do. Mr. Jackson said in class that if we know the process then we can do any of the problems. So when I went home I tried to understand the process. Why we did them in the order we did. When I realized that all we were really doing was solving for X and getting both on the same side it made a lot more sense to me. I couldn't see this in class that we just kept doing the same thing. I went home and changed some of the numbers in the problems we had and solved them. it took a whole page of changing the numbers to realize I was doing the exact same thing. For me personally, I didn't see it until I looked back at my page of practice problems. So if I understand the steps I don't need a lot of practice problems but if I don't know the steps the repetition helps.

Week three

My improvement in the class has been very good. I think it got a little harder for me the last week before break but, I am feeling good now. One of the only things o have trouble with is making stupid mistakes. And another thing is trying to figure out when to do certin things and when to not do certin things. For example, sometimes in class there are peoblems you would be able to distribute. But ou don't do that because it would make the problem more complicated and I need to learn how to be able to see that.

Friday, January 9, 2015

Blog Post #3

I thought the test was pretty easy, which makes me wonder if I did something wrong. I did really good on the little quiz we had. Factoring takes me a while to do each problem. hopefully with practice, it will become easier and won't take me as long. The box and diamond method helped me more than the trial and error method. When the numbers are really big it makes it harder though. But hopefully after factoring more it will become easier.

Week 3

Factoring has always been confusing and time consuming, but the new way we learned how to do it yesterday made a lot of sense and it was really helpful. I wish we would've learned it earlier. 

Blog post

This week was nice for me. We started learning about quadratics. I happen to really like quadratics so this will hopefully be an easy unit for me. I'm anxious about getting the first test back though. It felt too easy!

Blog #3

On Tuesday I was feeling hopeless and didn't understand what was happening. I didn't do any homework we had been assigned Monday or Tuesday. But then on Wednesday, I really paid attention in class and asked questions and it paid off.  I began working on the homework I had not completed and finished it by lunch. It felt really good to know that I knew what was going on. That day in class really helped a lot. 

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Blog Post #3-Muddiest Point

So yesterday we started working on factoring quadrilaterals when the "a" value is not 1. I don't really know what I'm doing at all. I am good at factoring so I know I will figure it out, but it is just not clicking for me at the moment. I've been trying to do the box and diamond method, but sometimes it doesn't work. I might be doing it wrong. Hopefully I'll figure it all out next week! For now I will enjoy the three day weekend.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

2nd week post andre

On tuesday after break things wern`t that clear. Once we got the packet for homework thing started to clarify. Now inverse functions are started to get easier.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Blog week 3



             Today, in first hour pre-calc functions, we talked mainly about one to one functions and inverses.  We learned that you find a function's inverse by putting it in as "F" of "G" of "X" and solving for "X".  You find a function to be one - to - one by solving it.  If the function equals "X" then it is a one to one function.  I was a little fuzzy on these points and doing the homework yesterday made it very clear. 

Monday, January 5, 2015

Blog 2 reflection

When I first took the exam day one I thought that this class was going to be the end of me and my GPA. This seemed to be true when I got a lower grade on the first quiz however, I decided that in order for me to do well in this class I actually had to try, hard. I studied for hours which I know Jackson told us was not needed but I needed to catch up since I had no idea what he was talking about in class. I still don't know how I did on the test but I am confident that it is better than my quiz score. I feel like mr. Jackson must realize that we are not as smart as he is and he needs to baby us for a while till we get it. I understand most of the stuff being taught now but that first week was really tough for me. I have been brought up on practice problems and I feel like we need some more of them preferably not in tiny print and maybe even some optional challenge problems for extra credit.

Week 2 Reflection

I have been finding certain parts particularly easy in Pre-Calc while I'm doing homework, but as soon as I take the test or quizzes I tend to not remember others. I had probably only looked over my notes once or twice before the test, but they were for longer periods of time than recommended by Mr. Jackson. I now understand what he meant by building on by just glancing over notes every day for 30 seconds to 5 minutes.

Week 2 reflection

Compositions seemed like an easy concept to me until, there where multiples of equations. This made it hard for me because I'm used to one set equation. It still is a little tricky for my brain to comprehend but I think I'm starting to understand it. Also the worksheet we worked on, Composition of Functions - Graphically & Algebraically, using the graph to find our answers was also stumped me. I had to think and write out the entire process of what was happening to the f(g(7)) and I didn't get it right the first couple of times; however, it finally clicked in my brain and I was able to do the equations without having to write out each individual step. That made me feel really good; I don't like being confused in math because it's one of my favorite classes. In all I was having some trouble at the beginning of the week but at the end, I final was able to make sense of it.

Week 1

I found composition and combination of functions pretty easy. Actually, the hardest part seemed to be that I would make small mistakes in order of operations or subtract incorrectly. I seemed to remember everything on the test, which is good since it means I'm retaining information, but I need to work on studying a little bit each night instead of waiting for right before the test.

Week 2

At the beginning of the week, I looked over all of my notes and realized that I definetly needed help to prepare for the upcoming quiz.  I did everything I could to get one-on-one time with Mr. Jackson, going so far as to come in to the school at 6:00 in the morning.  The extra time with Mr. Jackson definetly helped, as I started to get a grasp on the concepts of this unit.  I feel that I didn't do too terrible on the test, and if so, I'll just have to keep filling in the blanks in order to be successful in class.  Overall, a very productive week!

-Jacob Spencer

Blog post 2

I have not been doing well with this class for 2 reasons.
1.I have not studied enough
2. The class has been moving really fast
I try to pay attention in this class and usually do but still am puzzled with what we are doing.  

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Week 2 muddiest point

So far the muddiest point for me has been the difference of a function, expression, and equation. I don't really understand when you would use each one. The only difference that I really understand is that an expression doesn't have an equal sign, and a fungi on is just a specific kind of equation. 

Week 2

I have been struggling in Functions.  The primary reason is that I did not take Mr. Jacksons advice and study a little ever night.  I had a very hard time on the recent test due to the fact that I have hardly studied.  I know that when I do finally decide I need to study, that it will help me out alot.  So hopefully I can get it together and start studying.

week 2 reflection



Right now in the class I feel pretty alright other than being late pretty often. I understand the concepts that you're teaching but at the same time I don't feel as though I understand them 100%.  I definitely will be looking over my notes more often than I had previously to get to 100% of understanding.

Week 2 - Progress

At first I was really struggling to figure things out in this class and I felt like I was going to fail the class for sure.  But after taking Mr. Jackson's advice and studying things a little bit every night things have started to click again and so far I have been able to understand things some what well.  But what is funny is that I'm in AP World right now and this is still my hardest class by far.  I know this class is going to be challenging but I feel like I'm moving in a good direction and hopefully I can keep this up for the rest of this class.

Muddiest point

I think that I'm fairly good in math so i don't have that many muddy points but if i had to pick a muddiest point it would probably be when finding the domain for combined functions. Knowing when to use the numbers that overlap in the domain and when not to is probably the most confusing part of this course so far.

Week 1- Personal Muddy Point

My personal muddy point was remembering all the domain and ranges of the different functions. Since I was gone on the day that we filled out the packet and learned all of them, I felt it was very difficult to catch up. I tried my best to look it all over and memorize but I continually got confused. Even though we were using them everyday in class, and on homework I still found myself going back to the packet to double check that I was doing it correctly. Going into the test I felt quite good, but after taking it, I am not sure.

Progress

My progress in this class is awful. I understand some concepts but mostly everything else is a different language to me. I am not at all confident in this class and I am really struggling. Missing multiple days this trimester does not help the situation. Hopefully I start to understand it more, very soon.

Progress

I feel as if I'm doing exceptionally well in the course. The test felt easy, and the concepts I seem to grasp. At the beginning it felt as if the course was too fast paced or difficult, but all the concepts seemed to relate and come together and further my understanding. Overall I throughly enjoy the class and hope things continue to go this way for me and others. -Kris Kristofferson 

Week 2

Math comes pretty easy to me.  So I don't have a noticeable muddy point so far or a lightbulb moment. My biggest struggle though is being on time.  It sucks.  No matter what time I leave my house I'm always a minute late.  Other than me being late I'm really digging this math class.

Week 1- Progress

I think that I have made okay progress in this class but not as quickly as I could be some of the concepts are harder to understand then others but what I do understand I feel I can do well. It is nice however to have to push my brain in understanding math.

week 1-moment of clarity

In algebra 2 I was confused with the domain and range process, but I am now starting to understand it a lot more and it's feels awesome!!! Although, with finding domain and range for radicals and rationals, I still kind of get slightly confused on whether or not to use the greater than/equal to or just greater than inequality

Progress in the class

Right now I feel as if I'm doing well in this class. Sometimes I don't understand what is going on because the lectures are not how I learn although the homework then makes up for it as long as my notes are out. I need extra studying time at night to get where I want to be but I'm getting along well enough.

Reflection

With being gone for a week and missing very important parts of what we were learning had me feeling like this class was going to be horrid.  With studying a little bit at a time each night to try and catch up, I found myself still not fully understanding what it was that we were learning.  It was after I sat down with Mr. Jackson and we went over everything one on one that I began to feel confident. Now everything is slowly coming together and I have positive vibes about this class.

Progress in the class

Honestly I couldn't find any of the blog ideas that fit me so I'll try my best to do this one. So far I haven't made much progress in the class, nothing has really changed. I took pre-calc coordinate geometry last year so I understand all of the things that we have done already. However, this class has refreshed my memory on a lot of that stuff and has helped me to organize all of that knowledge. I hope that later in the trimester I will get to learn something new.

progress in the class and school

This class right now is going fairly well for me, but I think I will need to study more do to the work load being harder than most others.  This year has been difficult for me, I feel more overwhelmed with school work, staying up later than usual studying.  Math has always been my best subject, I've always been able to get whatever unit we were working on pretty fast.  But this year it has been on and off, I can't explain why this is but, it's probably because they say junior year is your hardest and all my problems with my AP level classes don't help with the situation either.  I believe with hard work and extra studying every night I should be able to get a good grade in this class including my other classes as well!

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Reflection on a particular day

I remember feeling very stressed out the day before we took our test. I felt like I was drowning in papers with confusing problems that I didn't know how to do. We started with the warm up, and got a new paper and then had time to work on the new paper along with the review guide that we had received the day before. I began to regret not starting the review guide the previous night. I was afraid to take the test, because I am a maniac and hold myself to very high standards. I left the room feeling completely overwhelmed. I then realized that Jackson is usually available to help students out after school. Knowing that, I was completely reassured and decided to stay after. I ended up completing all of my unfinished work. Going into the test the next day, I felt confident about my knowledge of the material. I realize now that I had no reason to feel so frazzled that day in class. I still haven't looked to see if the the test grades are in, but I know that I tried my best which is what's most important to me. 

Week 1 - Progress


For the first unit I feel my understanding at the beginning of the week was not very good. I feel with the discussions in class are good for learning the new stuff but I really needed to go home and practice or make sure I could do it on my own. I think the homework is very helpful for this. For me personally, the inequality and interval notation came to me easily. As the week went on we got into domain and range, that's where I really needed to go home and make sure I could do it alone. The combining and composition was a little fuzzy at first, my main problem was finding out how to rewrite the "f o g." I did not understand how to rewrite it but by saying "f following g" and that made a lot more sense. Then putting it in f(g(x)). I feel by the end of the week when we had our test, I was confident about the general problems but got a little tripped up on 2 or 3 of the more challenging problems. Overall I feel this first unit went well and I learned what I personally need to do to stay on top of this class.

Weekly Blog Post Week 2 #3

At the beginning of the unit, everything was kind of confusing and didn't make much sense to me. However, pushing through and keeping up on my homework made things way easier. Personally I found the interval and inequality notation to be very easy to me. But the domain and range for me was the most difficult part. It was just hard for me to personally grasp the concept and remember the equations for the different types of graphs, because I did not remember then from previous years of math classes. But by the time the test came it all made more sense to me, and wasn't as confusing as it was at the beginning of the unit; even the beginning of the week. 

Friday, January 2, 2015

week 2

Early in the week the concepts were fuzzy and difficult to understand. Through out the week I was starting to understand the basics of all the concepts but still struggled with the more difficult problems. when it came to the test day I felt fairly confident with everything we learned throughout the week but, on the test I felt like I had a hard time with some  of the test. I'm worried to see what I got on the test. 
Week 2- Progress in the course

In general this class is going well for me, I got all the concepts but the last few days before break, I was confused about operating functions inside of functions, but after practicing at home I totally got it.  I really want to know how I did on the test before Christmas break.