Willink Week 4

I felt like I hit a little more of a groove this week. I've now finished 4 full block cycles, and due to the short week again this week, I'll complete the unit on the Pythagorean Theorem in the next block. Bottom line is that the content will be finished in block number 5, with the unit assessment during block 6. The unpalatable alternative is to give the unit test AFTER the spring break - not a good idea.

Since the students had a day off this past Friday due to grading of the math tests, Thursday was an "extra" odd block. My direction was to provide an enrichment day for the 2 classes I had that day. I signed out the smart board and we did a few interactive demos of the Pythagorean Theorem, played a game of math Jeopardy, and played some 3-d tic tac toe. Everyone had a chance to use the smartboard and get a feel for it, and most of the block had a math focus, so I felt it went well.

The challenge for this week is to complete the final standard in the current Math 7 unit - the converse of the Pythagorean Theorem. The students seem to be really with it as far as calculating the lengths of sides, so I'm expecting the converse will click right away.

In the accelerated class we've really pulled things together as far as the key algebraic idea of the unit - which concerns linear relationships, slope-intercept, graphing, patterns, and translating between all of the forms. This week we'll begin to look at the other aspects of the unit standards - the part about "telling a story", and what do particular relationships mean in words.