Review: The Tourist

I don't recommend movies here often, and I'm fairly sure that your typical 9th grader will find it bit slow, and a bit too clever, and a little bit light on the explosions.

However, in it Johny Depp plays an American Math Teacher who is singled out by Angelia Jolie's International Woman of Intrique as a cover.  Wackiness ensues.  It's not a blockbuster but it will probably be the best movie I see over the break.

Holiday Gift Drive

Good on everyone who particpated!

http://www.wilx.com/home/headlines/Local_Students_Get_Holiday_Surprise_From_Santa_112098789.html

This Week on Car Talk

This weekend on NPR's Car Talk they had a math puzzler.  Here's a short retelling of the puzzle:

In a particulcar club you can get a free drink if you know the code.  The waitress gives you a number and if you give the right number back, you get a free coke.  Here's what you observe:

She says 6.  Someone says 3 and gets a free drink.
She says 12.  Someone says 6 and gets a free drink.
She says 14.  Someone says 8 (not 7) and gets a free drink.
She says 22.  What do you say to gedt a free coke?

Holiday Traditions

As we slide into the holiday break I thought I'd take some time to be personal and share some stuff about how this particular teacher spends some of his two weeks off.  Obviously there is the required "Call of Duty Online during Nap Time" that most of you probably already assume I do.  And Xander has developed a deep love for Bon Jovi and Journy by way of "playing" Rock Band 2.  Mostly it involves him jumping around holding a microphone and shouting "Shot through heart!  You blame.  You give wuv a baname, baname."

Friday Fun: Legos!

I was really struggling to come up with a good holiday themed Friday Fun since you won't get to see one of these until we slip into the new year.  So I thought about what I always asked for, as a kid, for Christmas:  Legos!  And that, with the help of the Mythbusters, lead me to these two videos:



Then the Mythbusters take it on:

Algebra Review One Stop

Below the cut are a series of vidoes that hit the following topics from the study guide.  They are ~not~ the study guide problems but rather ones we did when we covered those topics in class.  To see the vidoes, click on the "read more" below:

Late Live Review: Geometry

Feel free to post a question here and check back at 9:00pm for answers for tomorrow's BA test in Geometry covering chapter 5.

Tuesday Pre-algebra First Meeting on Thursday

To better help students move through the Algebra curriculum I am offering a once a week review/ reteach session on Pre-algebra skills.  We will be looking closely at the primary skills required for success in Algebra that were covered in the various Pre-algebra classes students took in middle school.

This review is not a tutoring session for Algebra.  We will not be discussing anything from the Algebra class during these weekly review sessions.  Students who want specific help in class are invited to seek tutoring mondays, or wednesdays through fridays, or by other arrangements.

We will, at the beginning be working through specific review of core variable concepts, expressions, evaluation, and subsistution.  As our group grows comfortable, we'll look to other areas that may need focus.

Thsi group is limited to 20 seats and if those seats are filled, students will be put on a waiting list.  Students who are absent from a session without a parent note of excuse will be dropped from the program.  We will meet every Tuesday from 2:30 till 3:30.  Tardiness is unacceptable.

Geometry: Commonly Missed

To help students prepare for tomorrow's BA, here are some of the more commonly missed problems from the last quiz and from the review. These are pulled off the YouTube channel to help you guys focus.

Finding the Perpendicular Bisector:


Also here are the answers to the Practice Test from class:
Quiz #1 1c 3a 8g #2 2g 5a 7c 8j 9a 10g 11b
Test:  1b 2h 8j 9c 11d 14g 15c 16j 17c 18g

100th Post!

Wow. This is the 100th post to this blog. That feels very active considering we are only in the 4th month of school. Now to be fair a ~lot~ of the posts here are "friday fun" and other off topic things but at the same time, it's good to have this milestone.

Here's to the school year continuing and brining success to everyone who seeks it.