(ALSO WILL POST THIS BLOG LINK ON GOOGLE CLASSROOM)

Assignments: Khan Academy (listed below), IXL (listed below). We are NOT going to work on I-Ready for this week.

As of now, I have not scheduled a Gooogle Hangout for this week, as they were cancelled last week. The district is recommending an alternative for video chats, but I am not yet set up for that. I will keep you posted.

Grades for last week’s work will be updated today. If you completed the work and see that you didn’t earn full points, it is most likely that you did not earn the highest score or you are missing part of the Khan work or IXL work. You may improve any of your scores and/or get caught up on anything you did not finish and email me when you are ready or done so I can update your grade. Advisory teachers are going to be getting in touch with students/families each week to let them know if all work is (or is not) caught up.

These assignments are due THIS FRIDAY, May 1.

We are working on 2-step equations this week. They are called 2-step equations because they involve two operations. The operations will be either multiplication or division AND either addition or subtraction.

I suggest you use a notebook or looseleaf to show your work so that in the event you have a question, you are prepared to email your question to me with an example of a specific problem from IXL or Khan Academy.

The KHAN ASSIGNMENTS are:
* Video: Two-step equations intuition
* Video: Two-step equations
* Exercise: Worked example: Two-step equations 

The IXL assignments are:
6th grade skill * Z11 Solving equations involving integers
7th grade skill * S6 Solve two-step equations

For IXL your smart score AND Khan Academy points moving forward are:
75 – 100 = 5 pts
60 – 74 = 4 pts
40 – 59 = 3 pts
1 – 39 = 1 pt
0 = 0

**Reminders for logging in to Khan Academy and IXL: Be sure you go through CLEVER to get to Khan Academy or you will not see the assignments from me! The assignments will show on your home page or you can click the “Assignments” tab on the left. If you have other family members that have school accounts or that use Gmail AND use the same device as you, make sure they they are signed out of their account before you go into CLEVER, otherwise you will login to Khan with their account and not your own. Be sure you are logged in to IXL or your smart score will not be saved and I cannot see it to give you credit! You will be able to check the “Recommendations” to see the assignments from this week and the prior week or you can go to the 6th grade math page and 7th grade math page to scroll to the skills I listed above (you will see they are “starred”).

Due to the fact that we were not able to have our originally scheduled video meeting today, I posted one multiple choice question on Google Classroom about this week’s assignments for students to respond to. I thought it would be a very simple, quick check-in with everyone. Please check it out!

There have been a lot of issues with Meets/Hangouts today across the district, so all Meets/Hangouts with students tomorrow are not going to happen. Not sure about next week…we are waiting until the district gives us direction. Sorry about this inconvenience!

If anyone needs support for completing your math work, please email me and I can do my best to answer your question(s) via email. Your assignments for this week are due tomorrow (Friday 4/24).

Thank you in advance for your patience as the glitches get worked out! The district wants to make sure there are safeguards in place for both teachers and students.

The scheduled times for Tuesday, April 21 and Friday, April 22:
11-11:30am – 2nd hour and 4th hour together (with Ms. Beydoun- yeah!)
11:30am-12pm – 1st hour, 5th hour, and 6th hour together

Looking forward to meeting with everyone today! Please make sure that you login to Google Classroom a few minutes before we are scheduled to start to find the link/code needed to join the Meet (also known as a Hangout). Be sure you mute your mic when you join!

If your device allows you to see the link near the top, in the header area below the title of our classroom, you can just click the link to join. 

If you can’t locate the link, here is another way to join our Meet:

1. Get to https://meet.google.com.
2. Click Join a meeting.
3. Enter the nickname/session name that I post in Google Classroom.

There are some other ways for joining a Meet that depend on what kind of device you are using or whether you are using the Google Meet app (meaning, if you use your phone to access the website, if you use the Google Classroom app on a phone/iPad/tablet or if you use the Google Meet app on your phone/iPad/tablet, it would be slightly different, but just as easy to join). I can talk more about this during our time together on the chat if needed.

If, when you attempt to get on the Google Meet, nothing seems to happen, it is most likely because I haven’t started the meet yet. You will need to wait patiently until I get on, which “opens it” for students to get on. (This quite possibly will occur if your class is scheduled for the second time slot on any day, as I will need time to get off the first chat and to get on the second chat.)

During this first Meet we will, of course, take some time to “catch up” with each other! However, I definitely need to take time to go over questions you may have about the assigned work, how we will be using Google Classroom and what resources I included so far on Google Classroom that may help you with your math work. Also, I would like to briefly go over the expectations for when we are having a Meet/Hangout. Finally, I will attempt to give you an overview of what the rest of the year for math class may look like. If we run out of time, we can continue the discussion at our Meet on Friday.

Talk soon!!

(ALSO POSTED BLOG LINK ON GOOGLE CLASSROOM)

Assignments: Khan Academy (listed below), IXL (listed below). We are NOT going to work on I-Ready for this week.

These assignments are due THIS FRIDAY, April 24 (although you will notice the Khan ones say June 8….ignore that…I did that so they would never get moved to the “Past” assignments.) Before Friday, you may attempt each skill in IXL or on Khan as many times as you would like so that you can earn the highest grade/score possible. I suggest you use a notebook/looseleaf to show your work so that in the event you have questions, you are prepared to ask them during a Google Hangout with an example of a specific problem.

We are working on 1 step equations. This should be review from last year.

The KHAN ASSIGNMENTS are:
* Video: 1 step addition & subtraction equations
* Video: 1 step subtraction equations
* Exercise: 1 step addition & subtraction equations
* Video: 1 step addition & subtraction equations: fractions & decimals
* Exercise: 1 step addition & subtraction equations: fractions & decimals
* Video: 1 step division equations
* Video: 1 step multiplication equations
* Exercise: 1 step multiplication & division equations
* Video: 1 step multiplication & division equations: fractions & decimals
* Exercise: 1 step multiplication & division equations: fractions & decimals

The IXL assignments are:
6th grade skills:
* Z New! (Solve one-step addition and subtraction equations with whole numbers)
* Z New! (Solve one-step multiplication and division equations with whole numbers)
* Z6 (Solve one-step equations with whole numbers)

Points earned for each skill is based on IXL smart score or Khan Academy percent:
75 – 100 = 5 pts
60 – 74 = 4 pts
40 – 59 = 3 pts
1 – 39 = 1 pt
0 = 0 

**Reminders for logging in to Khan Academy and IXL: Be sure you go through CLEVER to get to Khan Academy or you will not see the assignments from me! If you have other family members that have school accounts or that use Gmail AND use the same device as you, make sure they they are signed out of their account before you go into CLEVER otherwise you will login to Khan with their account and not your own. Be sure you are logged in to IXL or your smart score will not be saved and I cannot see it to give you credit! If you don’t see the assignments in Khan Academy OR you don’t remember your login info for IXL please email me and I will help you out.

**More Reminders for Khan Academy: To show that you completed a video assignment, be sure you watch it from start to finish. Do not fast forward to skip parts…let it play to the end. Your goal for the practice assignments is to score 70% or higher. If you need to use the hints or watch the suggested videos that are below the practice problems to help you, take advantage of that support, then retry the practice again to try to earn 70%. If you have tried the practice 3-4 times and are still struggling to get 70%, be sure to join the Google Hangout to get your question(s) answered and get on the right track or email me to ask your questions about specific problems.

*Original Post 4/20 around 2am
*UPDATE 4/20 at 6:30pm.. A few revisions were made for clarity.

I hope everyone is doing well!

The weeks ahead will be something new for all of us. Please be understanding if things don’t flow as smoothly as we hope this first week. I’m sure we will make adjustments as needed along the way.

SCHEDULE
The weekly schedule of live classroom availability for all subjects is from 11am-1pm each day, with a focus on two classes per day. It does not mean you are not able to contact your other teachers those days, just that you want to make those two classes a priority…and the teachers of those two classes have priority for scheduling Google Hangouts between 11am-1pm. Per teacher discretion, there may be other Hangout sessions available for extra assistance (i.e. help sessions), but they would be at different times and/or on other days and be optional.

• Monday:  English Language Arts and Social Studies
• Tuesday:  Math and Science
• Wednesday:  Social Studies and Extended Core
• Thursday:  English Language Arts and Science
• Friday:  Math and Extended Core

7th grade math schedule will look something like this:

• Monday: Check Google Classroom page for the assignment(s) and possibly a video explanation.
• Tuesday: Google Hangout 11am-12pm*
• Wednesday: continue working on assignments; email teachers if needed; optional Hangout help sessions may be offered
• Thursday: continue working on assignments; email teachers if needed; optional Hangout help sessions may be offered
• Friday: Google Hangout 11am-12pm*

*Specific times for each hour to join a Google Hangout will be posted on Google Classroom/blog/Remind/email; Links/Codes will be posted on Google Classroom a few minutes before the start times. I will have more specifics tomorrow!

In addition to Google Hangout meetings with students, I will, of course, be checking my email throughout the week and supporting students to the best of my ability, whether it may be responding to questions by email, calling home to help resolve a question, or possibly scheduling a Google Hangout at an alternate/additional time if needed.

Regarding Assignments/Grades: 

The work in I-Ready and Khan Academy that you did over the last several weeks will be entered into the grade book this week, however anyone that was not able to get online before for any reason or did not complete the work still has the opportunity to get the full credit. Please let me know if you need support! Any work going forward will also be graded. If you still don’t have access to technology or have some other issue that will prevent you from participating in our Google Hangouts or completing the assigned work, please let me know via email, Google Classroom, Remind, or even call the school office and leave a voicemail so someone can pass the information on to me (and your other teachers) and we can provide you with an alternative solution to the online work. Parents, please encourage your son/daughter to complete their work to the best of their ability, to use the resources I provide, and to get in touch with me by email and participate in our Google Hangouts if they still have questions that you are not able to help answer.

Staying Organized with Your Work:

It would be helpful for students to have a notebook for the rest of the year for math, however even having looseleaf or plain paper would be sufficient. The notebook DOES NOT need to be brand new…if you even have a partially unused one or one that is smaller in size that would be perfect. Students can date any work done in the notebook or on looseleaf, including any notes taken while watching a video from me or one I suggest online, taking notes or writing down any examples during a Google Hangout, or even completing any assignments that you can’t print. The 7th grade math classes will be using Google Classroom, Google Hangouts (online chats), Khan Academy, and IXL, and Ms. Osak’s and Mrs. Furlow’s classes are still piloting I-Ready.  

Lessons/Standards We Will Be Working On:

Each week we will be focusing on one standard, or a couple of very similar standards. The 7th grade math teachers have a rough schedule figured out, but we are not going to share it all at this time in order to allow us flexibility in the event we need to change anything including our pacing. This week we are beginning the Expressions and Equations Unit, which is what we planned on doing had the school closure not occurred. This first week, the week of April 20, we will be focusing on SOLVING ONE STEP EQUATIONS. This was done in 6th grade, but now we are including integers (positive and negative numbers) and possibly fractions and decimals. Students need to be able to do these before week 2, as we plan on going into two step equations the week of April 27.

Any questions, please email me: furlowd@dearbornschools.org 

The next blog post will have your assignments for the week of April 20!

…for Google Classroom for our math class. I am going to start using this so that I am able to share resources with you, create assignments, and invite you to Google Hangouts. It would be helpful for you to get this done by Monday night so you can get the information you need for our FIRST Google Hangout that I’m going to schedule this week. To sign up, make sure that you are signed into Google Classroom. Near the upper right click on the “+” symbol, select “join a class” and enter the code for your hour below. If you don’t remember how to get to Google Classroom, here are a few different methods: type in the address bar classroom.google.com OR go to google.com, look near the upper right and click the icon (the 9 dot square) to show the list of all the Google Apps and click on Google Classroom OR you can choose to download the app to your iPad/tablet/phone.  

1ST Hour:  2mhdpx3

2ND Hour:  wxcjefx

4TH Hour:  ecsmhuv

5TH Hour:  ung35vi

6TH Hour:  pc6vcfy

I will be posting more information about math for this week in a separate blog post! Thanks in advance!

Hello everyone! Welcome back from Spring Break!

I hope all is going well with you and your family! I celebrated Easter with my family yesterday (just the 5 of us, of course), but wished we could have spent some time with my parents and my husband’s parents like we usually do for Easter. At least we talked over the phone!

If you have not had the opportunity to see the video that was shared by Mr. Denison last week from our Bryant staff, you can click the link below to watch it. All of us miss our students!

Video: Bryant MS Staff Misses You

Here are some updates for this week:

1) Online learning/Assignments– At this time I-Ready and Khan Academy will continue for math, the same work that I assigned each week before spring break (see below). Over the next few days I will update the grade book with the assignments from weeks 1-3 in order to provide some feedback to both students and parents.

WEEK 4 (April 13-17)
• I-Ready – Complete 45 minutes (about 2 lessons) on your Path
• Khan Academy – Complete a minimum of 30 minutes. Make sure you do the “assignments” in Khan Academy if you have not already completed them! To access the assignments, click “Assignments” (at the left side of your screen). When the page opens, be sure to click “Past” (near the upper right) since the assignments are “past due” at this point. Email me if you have trouble finding the assignments.

2) Advisory class– Teachers have been asked to send out an email containing a link to a technology survey to our advisory students (regarding internet access and whether you have a device at home to access the internet such as a tablet, iPad, computer, Chromebook…not including a phone). So, whether you are in my advisory or not, please check your district email and look for an email from your advisory teacher. Then click the link for the survey….it should only take you 1-2 minutes to complete!

3) Finally, the district “Continuity of Learning” plan is the topic of discussion at our staff meetings this week. The 7th grade math teachers will also be meeting with each other and our district math coach to decide what adjustments (if any) to our current weekly plans need to be made in order to support students. I expect that I will have more information by Monday, April 20th and will be sure to post it on the blog, as well as send it via email. 

Please do your best to stay on top of your online work or to get caught up on your work! Email me if you have any questions or concerns! Stay Safe! Stay Inside!

Mrs. Furlow