May Office Hours

I will be visiting my favorite Fatburger restaurant location (3020 W. Manchester Blvd) every Monday from 3:00-5:00 for the month of May (with the exception of the May 2nd where I will only be staying 3:00-3:30).

Why?  You may ask?

Because I LOVE their fries!!  Why else???

Now, if someone were to enter the restaurant during that times and approach me for some math help, *ahem!* I would definitely help them.  Wouldn't you??

There's nothing like doing math while eating delicious fries!

Maybe I'll see you out there! :-)

Commercial Breaks

Happy Spring Break everyone!  You've made it!  (...and you thought you weren't going to make it.  Tsk, tsk)

In honor of this momentous mercy, I thought I'd post links to all of my commercial breaks that you may have, or may have not seen in my class.  Sit back, enjoy, eat popcorn:

ACTUAL COMMERCIALS
Airplane Picture 

Bank Interpretive Dance #1

Bank Interpretive Dance #2 (New!)

Car Ballet

Domino Effect

Engineering-- Train

Engineering-- Car

German Coastguard

Mr. T Snickers

RANDOM COOL STUFF

Origins of the Moonwalk

Books for Christmas (New)

Charlie Bit Me (Classic)

Classroom Slap (Yes, I'm posting this again)

Hey Jude

Jazz Dispute

Moving Company

One-legged Salsa Dancer

FUNNY ANIMALS

Bizkit the Sleepwalking Dog

Dramatic Chipmunk (Remember, there is no such thing as subtraction!)

Kitten Riding Turtle

Pinky the Cat

Sleeping Kitten (I know this one is your favorite! It sure is mine!)

Watch the baby panda

MORE TO COME!!!

(Okay, I'm tired and I've been posting all morning.  Revisit this blog entry to check for new commercial breaks)

Finals-- First Semester

Hey everyone,

The end of the semester is upon us.  It has been a crazy ride!  I wanted to let you know the most important things for you to know about grading and tests:

GRADING

Since I am gone longer than planned, you will only have two opportunities to make up your grades in either class.  All other assignments/work will be left "as is" and will not change for the report card. 

Fortunately, these opportunities are high in points so it should help out significantly.  You are to make this up through the current sub, Ms. Jones.  Be sure to speak to her first thing on Monday about how you can make stuff up.  It will be up to her whether it will be made up during class, or after school. 

The semester ends on Friday and this will be the last day to make up any grades!!! 

Assignments you can make up:

Math Support

• Drills (multiplication or division)-- 100 points each
• Midterm-- 700 points

Algebra

• Quiz 7-- 40 points
• Test 3-- 700 points

FINALS

Also, you have some tests coming up this week that are worth a lot of points.  You will not be able to make these tests up if you do poorly on them since it is the end of the semester!!  Work hard, and you will do well.  Study, study, study!!

  

Math Support

• Final Exam-- 700 points  (27 questions total)

Algebra

• Final Exam-- 700 points  (35 questions total)  (I've given Ms. Jones a study guide to give you.  It is due the day of the final)
• AND Benchmark Exam-- 200 points  (33 questions total)

STUDY GROUP

Ahem. 

I will be at the FATBURGER next to the school      (3020 West Manchester Boulevard, Inglewood, CA)
on Tuesday (January 11th)
from 3:00-5:00 pm
enjoying a burger and fries. 

If I happen to be approached *ahem* by anyone with burning math questions, I may feel inclined to help them out.

Anyone in the mood for Fatburger food????

I'd like to see each of you do well on your tests, and I'd like to help if I can.  You should have been given a study guide as a study tool.  Bring it and any other questions you may have, and we can work on it together as we munch on greasy fast food.  You are also more than welcome to stop by and say hello.  I would love to see lots of people at this "chance" encounter.  (Be sure you don't get GUIDED STUDY!!)

PS  You must pay for your own food!!!!  (I'm not rich, silly.)  You are NOT required to order any food to get math tutoring.  The math help is free!!

And, of course, what would be a proper blog entry without something interesting to watch?!?!  Consider what you can learn about answering questions from this classic clip from MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL.

Slope of a Line Song

Here is the Slope of a Line song being performed.  I never got to finish teaching it.  As you can see in the video, it gets any sort of audience pumped up!  Of course, the lady doesn't do the Camel Walk in the video, but she does a lot of other cool things in it.

Learn it well, my young ones, learn it well.

The Slope of a Line

(Eye of the Tiger)

Rising up, as you look left to right

Yeah, that slope must be positive!

Vertical lines rise but never do run,

So that slope it must be undefined. ___

Parallel lines have the same slope,

So they never intersect.

(Spoken) You know it!

Slopes are opp-osite reciprocals;

Perpendicular lines have arrived.

It’s the slope of a line, a trick that I’ve been devised

Ra-tio of the rise to the run!

Take the difference of y over the difference of x,

And you’ve got it’s what we call slope___ of a line!!

Here is the link to the karaoke version, just in case you ever want to bus out in song:  ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgWedWvi22s&feature=fvst

30 day leave

Dearest students,

            I wish I could be there in person to tell you that I will be gone for 30 days (up until Christmas break).  I’m so sad that I can’t be there to explain, and to tell  you how much I love each of you!  I’m sad to think about the awesome times I’m going to miss out on.  You are such a dear class to me!  It’s been such a pleasure to work with you.  You have been so dedicated, and smart, and positive.  Working with you has brought me more joy than I’ve had in a long time.  I’m honored to have been your teacher. 

            Of course, you are lucky to be at this school when we have two 9^th grade math teachers!  Even though one of us has had to drop out of the race for a bit (I’m talking about myself, just in case you are confused), the other is still there able to support you.  Many of you have me for two periods, but I’d like to encourage you to use Mr. Mendez as a resource.  He is very knowledgable and has taught across the spectrum in math, from Math Support to Calculus.  He's a genius!!



Sally Brown



            One of the most frequently asked questions is about SALLY.  What will happen to it?  I have kept careful records on each class, and when I return, we will pick up right where we left.  Also, your substitute has been carefully selected to meet your needs.  They may have a different teaching style from me and you might have to learn a few new routines.  The substitute will probably have a different reward system.  Follow it with as much heart and dedication as you have shown me.  You will be successful.

            I will miss each of you soooooo much!!!!!  At least now I have time to try to become a better blogger.  I'll post websites that will help you with math, and commercial breaks here to help you get through the year.  Here's one of my favorites: 

It's to remind you of the amazing things you are capable of doing.  Go forth and calculate!!

First-time blogger

Hey everyone!

Before I start getting serous about this blog, I need a practice run (as I usually do with first-time experiences).  I need to try stuff out,

and test drive

• some features to see what they do.

You see, the more you experiment with something, the better you understand it.  This is especially the case with math.  Once you learn something in class, try many more problems, and then make up your own problems to see if you can solve any problem thrown at you.

When I was in college studying my scales and arpeggios in music   for an upcoming test, my teacher said that I should work on them until I could do them perfectly AT ANY TIME.  If my teacher decided to give me a call and wake me up at 3 am,

I should be able to play any scale PERFECTLY at that moment.  We are only defined by how well we perform IN OUR WORST MOMENTS, when we are tired, not feeling well, stressed out, distracted with home or personal issues, or when the student next to you is acting very annoying.