Reflective

So far this course has been really easy unlike other classes pre-calc just makes sense the numbers all seem to work and it just seems natural. Really the only troubles I had during the quadratics unit was getting this blog done. Having finally figured out what I'm doing I'm looking forward to the rest of the unit.

My Muddiest Moment/ Unit observations

My Muddiest moment came in the few days when we had to complete the square.  The detail involved in trying to remember each step made it difficult to recall everything come test time.  while the process made sense, I needed a way to remeber the steps in order to complete this process.  Other than that, this unit ran pretty smoothly for me includeing the farmer ted problems.  I think a lot of the concepts. My comfort level was a lot higher for this unit in terms of concepts.  Hope you feel better Jackson.

B.o.B.

I think for me the hardest part was switching between the different forms and also trying to understand the x/y intercepts at first but overall most of it seemed and felt pretty easy.

B.O.B

What I found hard to do in this unit was finding the dimensions when given an equation. I got the concept but it seemed like I was always doing the problem wrong or I would miss a step. Became very frustrating. A lot of the time I'd get an outrageous number and assumed I was wrong but then I'd be right. Dimensions are annoying.

Muddy Point

The hardest part of this unit for me was remembering that I didn't need to complete the square for every problem and that I could use the -b/2a. To remember this I would write that formula at the top of every page of my worksheets.

B.O.B. 2 -Question #5

5. A comment about something that you found very hard to understand but now you get it! Describe what sparked that "moment of clarity" and what it felt like.

Throughout this unit I had certain times when I struggled. One time when I struggled was when I didn't understand how to complete the square. When we learned it I understood it but then we took a break from practicing it and learned something knew. I should of kept practicing it even though we weren't practicing it in class that is where I could of done better. But once I started comming in early I started to understand it more and more each time now you coul give me any completing the square problem and I could solve it. Now that I understand I feel alot better about doing it on the test. My moment of clarity was when I started comming in to ask questions and get help now I know that when I don't understand something I need to come in right away and get help. That was my moment of clarity and that is what I'm going to do next time I have a question I am going to go in and get help right away and not wait till the last minute to get help.

B.O.B. 2

The hardest part of this unit is when we had to switch between vertex, standard, and factored form. Finding the x-intercepts and the y- intercept was pretty easy but switching to vertex form stumped me. With some help from my friends that took this class before I figured out how to switch them without problems.

B.O.B. Number two

I have found a large majority of this class to be a review or extension of what i have learned in previous math classes.  I have found most the lessons easy to understand. Most of the homework is easily completed in class, although i find it quite repetitive.  That being said I have still learned a fair amount of new math skills and refreshed alot of what I have learned the past few years.

B.O.B no.2

Over all I enjoyed the unit, the creating applied functions was probably my favorite, "what's your function" in particular. I had a rough time understanding how to complete the square at first because I hadn't learned it before. After I learned the secrete though I quite enjoyed it, other than it being so time consuming. Thanks for being such a great teacher and keeping the unit interesting.

B.O.B. reflection

This unit was fairly good for me except for the test.  I did all of the homework for the unit, studied for the test, and still feel that I didn't do as well as I would have hoped.  I think in the future I will simply require more out of class time with Mr. Jackson to help me be more prepared for the test.

Something cool i learned

I thought that maximizing and minimizing areas and perimeters was cool because we learned what these equations apply to in the real world. I'm glad we learned where some of these equations apply in the real world because i don't like learning something and not seeing where it relates to the real world.

B.O.B. Muddiest Point

This unit was a lot easier than the last one, for me. I understood most of everything but the hardest part for me was probably completing the square when the a value wasn't 1. I had to get extra help from mr. Jackson and he gave me a separate handout to help. But overall this unit was way easier and I liked it a lot better.

A particular day in Jackson's class

Last Wednesday, January 16th, was the first day I had gotten back to school since I had been sick. I had missed two full days of school already and the class had started learning a new part of the unit. It was the portion about Extremes. I was expecting to understand it right away but I didn't. It was really hard for me to grasp because I hadn't seen it in class. I had to ask Afsheen and Colleen for help about ten times that day. It was really difficult but I think I understand it now.

Progress

This unit on quadratics I found was easier for me than the last unit. Quadratics is actually one of my favorite units. I like the fact that it deals just a lot with factors. I know my basic multiplication pretty well and so thinking of numbers that multiply to get "c" and add to get "bx" was pretty easy. I had no problem solving and  factoring the quadratics. For the most part I understood everything we were learning and things were pretty clear. The only thing that really had me confused was the extreme values section. When we were isolating certain variables and then plugging it into another equation. I understood what the question was asking but I didn't know what was supposed to go into what. I didn't understand why you had to isolate y and plug into a equation with x. As I worked on the assignments though, I think things began to better understand it. The first couple problems were hard, but as more and more problems came kept I found them not so challenging anymore. I think I really just needed an example to follow by.

Thu

B.O.B

In this unit I caught myself slipping behind.  I missed two days of school because I was sick and started not understanding what I was doing.  The papers "Applied Functions" and "Constructing Functions" became very difficult for me when it was not supposed to be hard.  I went into school in the morning on Wednesday and at ties to get help from Mr. Jackson.  After him explaining some of the problems and helping me with them I started understanding it.
We then went to the next paper "What's your function".  I had to really pay attention to what the wording was telling me to do or else I would not understand the problem at all.  But during all of those hard aches and tough problems for me something clicked and I started understanding it more and more.  I feel confident with this unit now and cannot wait to go to the next!

Progress

I think I have progressed a lot in this class. I felt a lot more comfortable with this unit. I felt like I understood it well and I actually enjoyed doing some of the problems.... Weird I know... I still needed help with some things but overall, I feel better about my test and understanding. I also like the fact that the tests are accumulative which will help with the exam.

B.O.B. Muddiest Point

Personally I think that this unit is not too bad. But domain and range I feel is everywhere in this class! It’s not that it is hard to find. But there are just so many ways to find them and I find myself at times not so sure which way to find it. I am freak out that I won’t remember a way or that some of the problems are similar to others that I will get the steps of one mixed up with another. But I just got to keep practicing and memorizing all the ways and it will be just fine……..I hope.

B.O.B. Muddiest Point

I understood this unit a lot better than the last one! But that doesn't mean I didn't have some downs...
The part that I struggled with the most was working with volumes. Now I look back and understand it a lot better, but I do know that was the part that I struggled the most it.

B.O.B

To me, the quadratics unit was much easier than the past one.. but that never fails to make me feel nervous about the test! I always feel so confident before tests, then just go blank during them. I think I got better at time managing when it came to the homework aspects. Also, while doing the homework I didn't have to use the answer keys as much! Overall, I think everything went okay.

B.O.B. Moment of Clarity

I was working on the extreme values worksheet and I could not figure out how to do it and what I was even supposed to do. My moment of clarity was simply asking Mr. Jackson how to do it. When he explained it I realized I was making it way more complicated than it really was!

A reflection on a particular day in Mr. Jackson's class

One day we were doing interdependent work. I wasn't understanding the concept we were working on and I went up to Mr. Jackson and he helped me step-by-step for each problem. That was very helpful because I work at a slow pace. Having days like that make it easy to go at the pace I need and seek help.

Quadratics: Things to know/Study Guide

Things to know & study guide from Steven Jackson

B.O.B. number 2

2. A reflection on a particular day in Mr. Jackson's class.

I enjoyed the day when we started learning about farmer Ted problems. I believe that the farmer Ted problems will be the easiest for me to understand because it is just equations and plugging in the correct numbers for the correct term. That is one particular day that I enjoyed. I know this might be short but you sold it doesn't matter the length just what is written in it.

2nd B.O.B.

Often I had trouble deciding if I should complete the square or just use the opposite b over 2a formula. I usually went with the latter, but only did so if I did not have the time. Also, when I was working on a Farmer Ted problem, I forgot to take away one side of the rectangle, and I had to do the entire problem again. Altogether, this unit seemed to be more of a trap of sorts, but it was not as difficult as I had presumed.

A reflection on a particular class

My Advanced Theatre class right now is going very very well. We started a play and myself along with two other students were chosen to direct it. This is my second time directing a play for Advanced Theatre and I'm super stoked about it. Last time I was only about half the class was in my play and the other half was in another play, but this time I (and the two other students) get to direct the whole class. We perform on Feb. 11, which means we have a lot of work to do! I'm excited to jump into it and work with a lot of new people. Theatre classes are always so fun because you get to watch people break out of their shells and let loose.

I hope this was what the prompt was asking for.

BOB Reflective

So far this course has been pretty easy, going in I had heard mixed reports of what it would be like most  not so good. I honestly thought at one point that this class was going to be my hardest yet. Although struggling to keep up with the homework was a little challenging, things ended up great in the end.  However I think it was a good relatively easy introduction to what this class will be like for the rest of this tri. In fact I think this may even end up being my favorite class.

I am very hard to understant transformation。because right and left i did not know is -or+on the function,now I get it。

B.O.B. A little late

      Looking back on this past unit, it was given a lot of hype. Everyone said it was hard and a lot of work. Yes it may have seemed like more busy work then other classes I have had in the passed. But overall it was still fairly start forward and easy. There was many times when I look at something and figure most of it out without much explanation. Hopefully most units all like this one just with a little less endless work that drive information into my skull, like a hot drill goes through butter.  

Moment of Clarity

Before this trimester, I heard about how confusing some of the work we would be doing would be, and they were right. when i first looked at adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing functions, my brain didnt know what to do about them, partly because I was gone the day you explained them, but after reading through the notes on them they started to make more sense. i could see how to find the domains of those functions, both when alone or combined. and these notes that you gave us provided that moment of clarity for me.

B.O.B. New understanding

When we had our first quiz i wasn't too concerned.  I had done the previous homework and had no real problems getting right answers.  However, when i had the quiz in front of me it might as well have been written in a foreign language.  So i started with one or two problems that i knew how to do and progressed to others, checking my worksheets to make sure i was doing the problems right.  By the end of the quiz i felt very confident that i understood how to do the problems correctly.  It was almost like a fog had lifted and i had been doing these problems for weeks (i had been).  When the test came around i felt confident that i knew what i was doing and did pretty well.  All together I am happy we had the quiz and were able to use our notes because i felt like it really cemented the knowledge that i had but was maybe unsure when or how to use it correctly.

Jason

B.O.B. Muddy Point

During the past unit I had a few "muddy" points but one that sticks out the most was when we were reviewing algebra and this was because I'm also taking algebra 2b this trimester too. Most of it clicked because I had just done it last trimester but when it came to review that I had never learned in the first place it was kind of a small problem. Everyone else is reviewing and I'm still learning! "Ahhhh" was the thought going through my head. The worst part of the reviewing for me was expanding a function to a multiple power, I thought I had had it but it turns out I forgot a few basics steps in there. As soon as I had that it was all simple again.

BOB Reflection

Going into this course, I knew it would be difficult, but not this difficult.  It is not that I didn't understand the material per say, but simply did not understand the amount of time it would take to do well.  Being a procrastinator, I put off most of the work that was due until the last day (contrary to your warnings) and it was not fun at all.  In fact, I wasn't able to complete all of the work even though I stayed up until 5:30am attempting to do so.  But, now we are in a new year, and I hope to have a fresh start to get on top of things and do a lot better in the following units.
~Moore

B.O.B- Corie

My personal "muddiest point" in the previous unit was during the course of finding the domain for two functions that were dividing. I was not there in class when we were taught that, so not only did I have to do that homework upon the new stuff I learned in class when I was there, but I had to try to figure it out. It was definitely the hardest part for me, though I think if I would've been in class it wouldn't have been so hard to understand.

                                                   
                                                       ^^^^^ My reaction to finding the domain.

B.O.B. "Real World Connection"

Being a senior I've already had the wonderful experience of taking the ACT. My first score was not at all what I had been predicting to score, so I had decided to take it again. Well my scheduled retake date was the weekend following the start of the new trimester. I had prepared as much as I thought I could possibly prepare. Reviewing my old practice tests and taking advantage of the free online tests, I thought I was good to go. I entered this class not having ever really seen or worked with intervals and interval notation, the only time I had seen it was on the first ACT test I took. Obviously having not ever seen it before that section of the test was not my strongest. That being said I felt a little bit more prepared taking the second ACT, but I seriously was so surprised at the amount of interval questions that were on this test. I am so grateful that I was exposed to intervals right before taking the ACT again, cause if I hadn't of had that exposure I would have bombed the math section. Thankfully though I was able to answer those questions confidentially and with my new scores in, math was my second strongest portion.

Unit 1 B.O.B.
In all of my other math classes before this I was never able to understand inequalities and why when you divide by a negative the inequality flips. I finally was able to understand how inequalities worked when we started interval notation. I was in class and was like "oh so that's why inequalities do that"

B.OB.#1: comment on my progress in the course.

I felt that this unit took skills from previous years of math and combined them.  From not having a negative number under the radical to remebering not to divide by zero, this unit made me go back and remember why some of these rules were in place.  I liked how we were able to get enough practice without having the homework turn into overkill.  The material seemed to progress from finding the domain of functions to combining functions and finding the domain of the big function.  I liked how it started out simple and gradually got harder. It helped from AP Stats that I already knew what union and intersection meant.  Overall, this was a unit that made go back and use a lot of skills I had already acquired by putting them together. 

My Muddiest Point

The hardest thing for me to understand this unit was finding the domain with functions that had radicals in the numerator and denominator. I didn't understand how to combine the two domains once i found them. I'm still not positive how to do that. Also, just the union symbol and the other one confused me because i wasn't exactly sure what it meant and when to use it.

B.O.B. Struggles

The main thing i had troubles with in this unit was combining functions and finding the domain.  Adding the functions together was easy but when it got to dividing and multiplying them together it became more confusing.  Once i got the hang of it I could finally figure out the domain of the function.

-Savannah

B.O.B. Progress

At first it was definitely hard to get back into the swing of having a math class since I haven't had one since last year. It's a lot more work than what I'm used to. This unit had a ton of homework to get done. So at first it was hard getting used to the work, and getting through the work itself since I barely remembered anything. After a week or so, though, I got back into the swing of things. The work was difficult, but not nearly as hard as people made it out to be. People I talked to who previously took the class said the first test was really hard, but I didn't think it was that bad. So either I'm too confident on how I did, or it really just wasn't as difficult for me as people said it would be. All in all, I progressed positively throughout the unit.

B.O.B #1

In accordance to the title, I figured I'd start my blog out by stating what I believe to be a cool part about the class. I enjoy our ability to access information and get additional help through technology and such things as a blog. Secondly I would like to cover my progression throughout the first unit. I had started out at a not so great pace, I was having some focusing troubles that I believe came to be from the variation in equations. We received many problems with a variety of differences and solving was a haste. Later on I became used to the daily grind that is school and was some what able to focus and learn solving types. Over all the section was... Bearable and I learned a few new tricks to help later on in the year.

B.O.B- Struggling

I have had quite a few "muddy points" in this unit. I have had ups and downs where I think I understood something, then my brain turned to mush whenever you threw in a hardball. I had the hardest time understanding how to combine functions. Every time I would think I was doing the problems correctly, I wouldn't be. I never went to check my answers either, because I tend to want to just copy down the answers instead of wanting to try and learn how to do the problems. I don't know how well I did on that part of the test. However, in the end, I did the review for the unit and felt pretty confident about the test, so I guess I will see when I get my score back.

I think that this unit was a bit of a struggle to me though, and I think it's because I need to get used to the way you teach. I had Geometry with you Freshman year, but I know that your teaching style is very different in Functions. Hopefully I can improve my understanding in the class and feel really clear about the content we learn throughout the rest of the Trimester.

Unit 1 B.O.B.

My personal muddiest point is when we were trying to solve for x when there was an x and a y in the denominator.  I like how relaxed the class is and that we can work with partners frequently.  This is one of the best ways that I learn and I appreciate that because not all classes have a relaxed atmosphere.  I believe I am doing rather well in this course right now.  At the beginning of the new trimester I told myself i'm going to have to do my homework ahead of time, and so far, this plan has worked out great. The amount of homework can be lengthy/frustrating at times, but if you do it, it helps you learn the material.

B.O.B reflective comment

So far this class has not been any harder than i expected.  The amount of homework can be finish inside of school if you include ties days.  I am not sure what my grade is but i am confident that it is good. The class is still challenging, but it isnt as hard as many people make it out to be.  Over all i think that this class will teach me something that will be useful in college and possibly after.  

B.O.B Moment of Clarity

Through the unit I had a little bit of trouble figuring out how to put f o g, g o f, f o f, g o g, and f o g o h together.  I started thinking that for the f o g you put the g equation first and then the f equation(so on) but it is the f equation and then g equation inside of that one.  Since this was more at the end of the unit I had to wrap my head around it soon or I would end up not getting it or the test.  My turning point was when I started doing more equations and then looking at the answers to see if I did it correctly.  If I did not then I would start all over and try it again.  I started to understand more when I had a lot of practice and just remembered that you put the first letter equation first and the next letter equation inside that one.  Once I figured it all out and remembered it then it was a piece of cake to me.  I started liking these problems and thats when I knew I understood it finally. 

My Muddiest Point

The most challenging part of this unit for me was actually when to use the union symbol.
I know that a lot of times, the problem will have an "or" used, but sometimes, the union symbol would still be used when "or" was not present in the problem. I think I understand it a little better than before, but it still isn't fully clear to me.

My Muddiest Point

The part of this unit that was the most difficult for me was finding domain of functions. To be specific, I had the most trouble with finding the domain of radical functions that were in fractions. It was mostly because I didn't understand how to make one domain out of two. That confused me quite a bit and still confuses me a little.