If anyone lost their permission slip or forgot to bring it home, you can print it at home by clicking this link. Detroit Zoo Permission slip Students can still turn in their permission slip and money on the Monday after break (Monday, Feb. 24).

Thanks so much to all the parents that have volunteered to join us on our trip! (And, thanks to all the students that returned their permission slip and money today, as it has made my job of organizing this trip easier!) 

I will be working with the other teachers after break, as well as the students that had parents volunteer to chaperone, to create the groups for the trip. We should be able to keep the groups fairly small since we were so fortunate to have many parents volunteer to help us out. 

THANKS!! Enjoy the break!

Please return your permission slip and $15 tomorrow!!!

Who: 7th graders, 7th grade teachers, Parent Chaperones

What: Field Trip

Where: Detroit Zoo

When: Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Why: To have fun, to get some fresh air, to visit a place that some of our students have not been to before, and most importantly, to learn something new about some animals you may or may not be familiar with!

How: Cost is $15 for students (Chaperones attend for FREE!!) Please pack a lunch and drink. Students may bring money to purchase a snack during the day.

We are traveling by school bus. Chaperones will gather in the Bryant lobby around 8:45am. We will be leaving Bryant sometime between 9-9:30 (depending on when the buses arrive to pick us up). Before getting on the bus, chaperones will be given a group of about 10 students to supervise while we are at the zoo. More parent chaperones would mean smaller group sizes. This trip will take place rain or shine (or cold weather!) so bundle up, wear your cold weather gear or bring an umbrella. There are several buildings throughout the zoo to get some reprieve throughout the day if needed….the Reptile Conservation Center, the Amphibian Conservation Center, the Arctic Ring of Life, Butterfly House, etc.

Click Here to learn about the Detroit Zoo

• The district has been given the opportunity to pilot an online resource from Ready Common Core, called I-Ready, for the next few months. Therefore, students have been working to complete the “diagnostic” test on the computer all week. About half of the students have completed it and have already started working on their “Path”, which is skill practice at their level based on how they performed on the diagnostic test.  In January, on the district professional development afternoon, teachers got an overview of how I-Ready works and how we could use it to support our students. Teachers were asked to have their students take the diagnostic test and have them start working on their “Path” so everyone could get a feel for how I-Ready works. Now that many of us have results from the diagnostic test, we are going to work with our math instructional coaches, as well as have another professional development opportunity, to learn how we can use the results and reports to inform our small groups in class and provide support to students at their individual levels (which will in turn help them with our grade level material).

• Students were given the whole hour on Monday to complete the Lesson 11 quiz. Besides using a calculator, they were allowed to use their notes/flipbook and even their math books to help themselves. Anyone that did not complete the Lesson 11 quiz on Monday was offered the opportunity to come to my advisory class any day this week or to see me after school on Thursday or Friday to complete it. Unless your child was absent today or will be tomorrow, quizzes that do not get completed by tomorrow after school will be graded AS IS, with questions that are left blank marked as 0 points. (I’m working individually with students that were absent Thursday or Friday last week and/or Monday this week to get them caught up on the Lesson 11 book work before having them take the quiz. These students will take their quiz after break.)  

Homework
1) Lesson 11 math menu (if not already turned in)

Important Dates:
Monday, February 10-14 — SPIRIT WEEK at Bryant
Friday- Bryant Colors Day (7th grade wears White)
Monday, February 17-21 — NO SCHOOL (Break)

• In Lessons 10 and 11, students learned about proportional relationships, how to find the constant of proportionality (the unit rate), and how to decide if a table, equation, or graph shows a proportional relationship.

• The lesson 11 math menu was started in class yesterday (Thursday). For homework yesterday, students were asked to complete at least 2 tasks. Also, students had time to work on the math menu in class today. Answers to all book pages were posted in class so students could work at their own pace and check their answers when ready or make corrections to their work if needed. Tutoring Table was available to allow me to meet with students individually or in small groups to answer any questions they had or to help students that needed additional support to solve a particular problem or even to work on several problems together. When nobody needed my support I walked around the room to check on students and to see if they had any questions. Many students will have to complete their math menu over the weekend because they were not staying on task during class. Math Menu is due on Monday.

• Lesson 11 QUIZ Monday!

Homework
1) Finish Lesson 11 math menu

Important Dates:
Monday, February 10-14 — SPIRIT WEEK at Bryant
Monday- Pajama Day
Tuesday- Meme Day
Wednesday- Decade Day (Your Choice: 60s, 70s, 80s)
Thursday- Neon Day
Friday- Bryant Colors Day (7th grade wears White)
Monday, February 17-21 — NO SCHOOL (Break)

• Students have been solving unit rate problems involving complex fractions in lesson 9, which began the before break. Complex fractions have a fraction in the numerator, or denominator, or both. (example: Mrs. Furlow biked 3 1/4 miles in a 1/2 hour) The lesson 9 math menu was given to students Thursday before break if they wanted to get a jump start on it and students had time to work on it last night for homework and during class today. Answer keys for all assigned problems were posted in the room so kids could self-check their work. Also, students could meet with me (or Ms. Beydoun in 2nd and 4th hours) if they had questions or needed help or clarification with anything . Students that were not able to finish the math menu by the end of class today were asked to finish it tonight.

• Lesson 9 QUIZ tomorrow!

• Students were reminded yesterday that anyone that would like to retake one of their quizzes from marking period 2 can do so after school any day this week. Students need to pick up their quiz from me if they didn’t already keep it in order to complete quiz corrections. Corrections should be done on looseleaf. Students may work on the corrections on their own or with someone at home OR can come after school to get help from me. Once corrections are completed, a retake may be done (after school this week by Friday). 

• IXL Extra Credit for Unit 1 is due this Friday, 1/10

• Khan Academy “Summer Learning” minutes are due next Tuesday, 1/14. Per the district, this is a summative grade. 480 non-video minutes to get an A….I will basically take the student minutes and divide by 480 to assign points based on the percentage completed. Some examples: 350 minutes completed would earn a 73%….350 divided by 480 is 0.729 then x100 to get the percent or 288 minutes divided by 480 is 0.6 then x100 is 60%. There was a delay in entering the grade during marking period 1 due to Khan Academy doing an update and changing the algorithm for calculating minutes of practice on their site. When the update was finally completed in the fall, many students noticed they didn’t have as many minutes as they thought they did. Basically it’s harder to earn the minutes because only “active” practice doing  problems is now counted, not any time between questions, looking around for topics, etc.  Therefore, the 7th grade teachers decided to extend the “summer” Khan time to January 14. (This decision was made by us in early December, after discussion with the other Bryant math teachers at our December department meeting. So…I discussed it with all classes and have had it posted in the classroom since then.)  I have been updating students in class 1-2 times a week as to how many minutes they have. The time period is from June 1 2019 to January 14 2020…students should be sure to adust the “custom range” for the dates if checking their minutes at home. I believe they need to click the word “Progress” on the left side of their screen.

Homework
1) Finish Lesson 9 math menu
2) Review for Lesson 9 Quiz
3) Khan Academy- due 1/14
4) Catch up on any missing homework! – due 1/14

Important Dates:
Friday, January 17 — 1/2 Day AM (end of MP2/semester 1) 
Monday, January 20 — NO SCHOOL (Martin Luther King Jr. Day)
Tuesday, January 21 — 1/2 Day AM (beginning of MP3/semester 2)
Wednesday, January 22 — 1/2 Day AM (PM- Professional Development for Teachers) 

I hope everyone had a restful break and enjoyed time with family and friends!

• Students have been reviewing skills from Unit 1 (Lessons 1-7). They have completed more practice that applies the integer rules to adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing rational numbers (which includes integers, decimals and fractions). Also, they practiced converting fractions to decimals. I went over all the answers to the Unit 1 Review (assignment #5) today.

• Unit 1 Test will begin on Monday. It is going to take us two days of class to complete it, so about half will be done on Monday and the other half on Tuesday.

Homework
1) Review #5 (the Unit 1 Review/Study Guide)
2) Catch up on any missing homework!

Important Dates:
Wednesday, December 18 — Late Start
Monday, December 23-Friday, January 3 — Winter Break

Sorry that it’s been so long since my last classroom update!!

• Students have been working on Lesson 7 this week- Add and Subtract Rational Numbers, which means adding and subtracting positive and negative fractions and decimals.  They continue to use the resource they received from me in Lesson 3 (the rules for adding and subtracting integers) and work with number line models. Students also have several other resources that they were to put in their spiral notebook, but are also posted in the classroom. These include: rules for all 4 operations with decimals; rules for all 4 operations with fractions; how to write a mixed number as an improper fraction or write an improper fraction as a mixed number; a multiplication chart to help with finding the lowest common denominator; a factor list to help with simplifying fractions.

• Lesson 7 QUIZ on Monday

Homework
1) Math Menu for Lesson 7 – please complete 3 tasks tonight.

Important Dates:
Wednesday Nov. 27-Sunday Dec. 1 — Thanksgiving Break
Wednesday, December 18 — Late Start
Monday, December 23-Friday, January 3 — Winter Break

• Bryant Conferences run from 4-7pm this evening. However, I have a prior commitment and need to leave early (around 5:30). Therefore, I will be available to begin conferences at 3pm. If anyone is unable to meet me during the scheduled times, please contact me by email and we can arrange a time to discuss your child’s progress in math over the phone or you can make an appointment to meet me at another time. Thank you for understanding!

• Students have been working on Lesson 3 this week- Add and Subtract Positive and Negative Integers. They continue to rewrite subtraction problems as addition problems by adding the opposite. We have been using the saying, “Keep-Change-Change” or “Keep-Change-Opposite”. Students have been using number line models, the integer chip model, and many students have already memorized the rules for adding and subtracting integers. 

• Students have had about 2 1/2 class periods to complete their “Math Menu” of tasks related to the lesson. However, if anyone did not finish it in class they should finish it over the weekend.

• Lesson 3 QUIZ on Monday

Homework
1) Finish Math Menu
2) Review Lesson 3 pages in the Instruction Book and/or Practice & Problem Solving Book to prepare for the quiz.

Important Dates:
Friday, October 11 — 1/2 Day of School (11:05AM dismissal)
Wednesday, October 16 — Late Start