Welcome to a new school year!

  September 6, 2017

  Well, about 7 or 8 years have passed since my last post and, in the meantime, I have "retired". However, I have just come out of retirement and have this fantastic opportunity to work again at the school that I love.  My assignment this academic year will be Basic and Continuing Math in the afternoons (full year), Physics 30S on Tuesday and Thursday evenings (first semester), and Pre-Calculus 40S on Monday and Wednesdays in second semester.   

      Now that I know my assignment and have been thinking of the content of my lessons, it's important to see exactly who it is I'm planning the lessons for! Teaching is not a thing where you just rattle off a bunch of facts and formulas to people who are sitting at desks. Each person has their own story to tell, and I want to hear each one. We teach people, not things. When we get to know each other - our likes, dislikes, challenges, accomplishments, dreams, families, values, etc., it makes the experience much more positive. Not to brag too loudly about myself, but if I know you, and some of things you like to do, I will almost certainly be able to create examples just for you. So, lets get to know each other and quickly.

      What exactly is the purpose of this blog? That is a great question. Its purpose is to keep you 'in the loop' about what we've done in class. It may contain a very brief review, a link to one of my videos or videos that I have found valuable, scheduling information (tests, activities, class trips, holiday and year-end parties) and so on. It is not to take the place of being in the classroom but it will supplement (add to) what has been done in class.

       So here is what you can do. Log onto the blog and look at the most recent post. Scroll down to the heading that applies to you – Basic Math, Continuing Math, Physics 30S or Pre-Calculus 40S. The content of the blog will tell you what to do next.

       I will try my best to post something each Friday after our school week is through. I’m looking forward to chatting again. In the meantime, have a great week.

          

              Joe 

Test Talk

Hi All you Math People Out There:
Okay, here's what we've done in 40S Consumer Math so far this semester:

Note: 50% of the test will be comprised of the items with a '*' before them.

1) Tenant Insurance (standard, comprehensive, deductible)
2) Before and after taxes (prices)
3) Exchange rates (bank buying, bank selling)
4) % Grid (part, %, whole, 100)
5) Fuel Economy Grid (# of litres, 100 km, litres used, distance traveled), remember, less is better
6) Rounding Decimals
7) Simple Interest: I=Prt
8) Compound Interest: A=P(1 + r/n)^nt (use for interest, adjustment, and possession dates)
*9) Life Insurance (term, whole, cash surrender value)
*10) Mortgages

Recall that that the assigned homework questions (from your dark blue duo tang) were
page 22: # 1,2,3a,3b,4a,5a,5b,6,7
page 23: all
page 32: 1a,1b,1c,1d,2,3,7
Also I assigned questions 1,2 and 3 of the chapter review (dark blue duotang).

We also had some worksheets on simple and compound interest

Good luck studying! See you Monday!
Joe

Big Exam Hint

OK everyone - here is the big hint as promised. Here is the question word-for-word from the exam. You may write this answer on paper and bring it in, but you must not share it.

"Our front door has a hook andwe did a demonstration on it. A foam cup was hung from the hook and the length of the elastic was measured. With no pennies in the cup the elastic stretched 26 cm. The more pennies that were put into the cup the longer the elastic band would stretch. Finally, we had 130 pennies in the cup. The data points (0,26) and (130, 39) are shown on the graph below. Draw a line between these two points and answer the question that follow."

a) What kind of variation is this? Answer: Partial variation
b) What is the dependent variable and what does it represent? Answer: the dependent variable is S and it represents the amount of stretch in cm.
c) What is the slope of this line? (Include units) Answer: 0.1 cm per penny
d) Give a formula for this graph. Answer: S = 0.1n + 26
e) Approximately how far will the elastic stretch with 40 pennies? Answer: Approx. 30 cm

Answers to 20Sconsumer practice test

Hi Again Math People (20S Consumer- Joe's afternoon class, that is):

This entry is for C-L (you know who you are) and anyone else who may not have picked up the review sheet for test 1 or the answer key. Here are the answers.

Part A

1. 1404 2. 1701 3. 587 4. 133r2

5. 3 hrs,52 mins 6. 5.8

7. Sandy, 84%; Billy, 80%; Tommy-Joe, 86%

8. CPP, Federal Tax, Provincial Tax, E.I., possibly union dues

Part B

1. $106.92 2. $165.20 3. a) 7.5 hrs b) $108.75

4. do not do 5. $9.86

6. The job with 15% raise is better by $0.19

7. a) $468.75 weekly b) $2437.50 or 2437.76 (either are acceptable)

8. $34,424 9. $14.09 10. $15,868.50 11. $10.71

There is no number 12. 13. 21 hrs, 25 minutes

14. 3.35 hrs. 15. 8:43 or 8 hrs., 43 minutes

16. A pension for when you retire or if you become disabled and can't work

17. Both branches of government have their own expenses.

Part C

1. His income should read $804.80 bi-weekly, which is $10.06 per hour

2. $28.82 3. $520 4. $17.80 5. $7.80

Three-Week Update

Hi Math People Out There:

Well, three weeks of our 18-week courses are now in the books and I thought I'd give you an update on what's been happening in class – so, just scroll down to your class and get up to date.
40S Consumer (morning class):
Exploration 1 – Personal Finance (pages 22,23; # 1 – 8, (not 5(c)))
Exploration 2 – Mortgages (pages 32,33; # 1 – 8 all)
Simple Interest Formula Questions and Calculations
Exploration 4 – Gross Debt Service Ratio (page 53, # 1 – 3)
40S Consumer (evening class):
Exploration 1 – Personal Finance (pages 22,23; # 1 – 8, (not 5(c)))
Exploration 2 – Mortgages (pages 32,33; # 1 – 8 all)
Simple Interest Formula Questions and Calculations
Exploration 3 – Exploring Mortgage Payments – (just a discussion on this, no
questions were assigned – will touch on some possible questions later)
Assigned the first half of last year's Test 1 as homework.
Note: After class on Monday, Oct. 5, the morning class and the evening class will match again as they should.

20S Consumer (afternoon class): Here is an update of the last few classes.
- We've been calculating wages based on regular and overtime hours worked.
- Learning to tell time on the 24-hr. clock.
- Next we did payroll deductions and looked carefully at the examples on pages
56, 58, and 60.
- I introduced the % grid and we learned how to do questions that call for a 10%
or 12% raise.
The last assignment I gave was pages 73 – 75, # 1 – 11.

31G Math Essentials (evening class): Finished the “basics” and gave two quizzes. Gave the first quiz back to some and suggested that they finish the rest of the questions for more practice. If you are not getting 85 - 90% on the basics you need to keep practicing, because the first test is going to be all no calculator.
This Tuesday coming, Oct. 6, we will be starting into positive and negative numbers. I will also be doing some basics of algebra and geometry. If I stay true to my plan, I'll be combining the concepts where possible.
Your job is to get those basics of fractions, decimals and percents down as best you can.
See you in class,
Joe

Welcome To Math Class

Hello Math People!
OK, it's the first day of school for the 2009 Fall semester here at AEC's and I want to give you a heads up on what is going to happen over the next week. If you aren't feeling some kind of emotion (excitement, fear, anxiety, etc.) then . . . . We all get at least a bit nervous on the first day - teachers included. So here's hoping that your day is going / has gone well.
We need to think about what's going to happen over the next week, so here goes. The goldenrod coloured booklets that you were given have lots of important info but most important is the fact that there are some typical Consumer Math style questions in the back. After the first day pleasantries were over, we started into that set of mini lessons starting with Reading Charts Table 4: Tenants Package Policy. We will continue with the mini lessons on Wednesday up until our second tiny break.
At 8:17 or so, each student in the class will work on preparing an appropriate quiz in which they think best represents the lessons given up till that time. You'll then turn yours in and I'll choose the best one and that will be the Quiz on Monday, Sept. 21. If there is no best one, I'll simply pick and choose some good questions from several different students. The quiz should take the students 30 minutes at most to write on Monday. Of course, it may probably take longer than that to prepare.
So there you have it - our plan for the next week or so. See you soon.
Joe

The Promise

Hi everyone in Mathland:
OK, I promised that if you went to the blog you'd find the plan for Wednesday, June 3. Here it is in part.
Do the Chapter Review found on pages 345 - 348, # 1 - 8. Remember, this is all about types of variation, all four of which you should have thumbnail sketches in your formula booklets.
In addition to that, recall we started this unit off with plotting scatterplots and determining the slopes of lines. The slope stuff is contained in the direct and partial variation graphs, so I won't ask you any plain old "what is the slope of this line" style question. I'll just ask you to graph a few sets of data points and you try to come to a conclusion based on how the majority of the dots seem to appear. A good example was the physics versus math scores. Another example was the house number and an exam mark (I can't recall which exam :). There was no relationship at all in that one and you could not predict how well a person would do on a test just by knowing their house number.
So that's about it. The quiz should take about an hour or so, after which you can leave.
Have a great time studying!!
Talk to you soon.
Joe