Three weeks?? YIKES!

[hauntmeister]

We have word from downtown on when we should do finals. The city math final will be administered on-line for the first time this year, and it needs to be between the dates of June 7th to the 15th. That means ... YIKES! ... that I have three weeks (at most, four) to go between now and the city final. And I have three chapters still to cover!

Comments

[magid]

What's the topic of chapter 8?

[hauntmeister]

Rational expressions.
It depends on them being able to perform operations with exponents, which we've covered earlier in the year, but also collides with the hole in the middle-school curriculum concerning operations with fractions. These students simply can't find common denominators, or multiply fractions, so it takes forever to get through it.

I forget how many times I've heard the question, "Do we cross-multiply??" That seems to be the one and only thing which gets through. And it's almost never appropriate here.

[in_parentheses]

What on earth is the rationale of the city scheduling your final? I can almost understand them *writing* your final, since you're teaching for the MCAS anyway, but why schedule the final early and waste a week of school?

[hauntmeister]

The Math MCAS is for Sophomores and it's tomorrow and Tuesday. We lose two days of school for that, not counting the week or so of review beforehand. Algebra 2 is mostly for Juniors, but I get a few accelerated sophomores; I've been letting them spend class in another teacher's geometry class with other sophomores, where they're doing MCAS prep. So those poor kids are going to be a week behind when they join back in.

But yeah ... scheduling the test a week (or two, depending on when we give it!) before the end of school is a complete waste of time.