Ms. Bearse's Site

Today we are writing emails home to share what we have done this week, and share a little bit about our course.   Photos can be used from Mme Bearse’s website for this week, but you will be starting to take your own photos of your work over the next weeks for use in your portfolio.

To: parent/guardian email address

CC: bearser@limestone.on.ca (Mme Bearse’s email) –this will send Mme Bearse a copy of the email you send to your parent/guardian.

Subject: Grade 9 Math Weekly email

Feel free to elaborate a little and communicate this information in your own words.  Please include all of this information because it is important, and parents/guardians love hearing all about what you are doing in school.

“Dear ________________,

Our math class is writing weekly emails home to share a little bit about what we are learning, and how we are growing as students and mathematicians.  This week we have been solving different types of problems, and we’ve been doing most of that in groups. ”

*Here is where you should describe one of the problems you’ve solved.  Sky scrapers, number circling, crazy taxi.  You should include a photo that helps explain the problem (a picture is worth 1000 words–if you choose a good one!)

“We learned some of the elements of good group work: “*summarize the ones that are most meaningful to you.  *choose a photo to show good team work and explain how you know it is good team work.  “I know this picture shows good teamwork because….”

“Right now, I think that my teamwork strengths are_________________________, because__________________________.  I think that an area I can work on is ____________________________________________”

*think carefully about a group work goal you can make–goals should be specific, attainable, and measurable.

“Here’s some general information about our course.  Ms. Bearse has a website (bearse.wordpress.com) which shows some photos of our activities in class.  It also has a calendar that will show homework/important dates.  We will have weekly quizzes on Fridays.  For more information about tests etc. we can look at the course outline together” (*available online if you’ve lost it already)

“So far I’m feeling ________________________ about math class.  I’m excited about learning about ______________________________, and nervous about ________________________.”

“This weekend I’ll show you some multiplication strategies I’ve learned.”

*Sign off your email however you like, but include your name–it might seem super formal, but it will help Mme. Bearse know who sent the email if your address does not include your name.

We’ve started our first project.  We are doing an experiment and collecting data to later graph and discuss trends.

Our data collection takes 5 minutes of our time each day.  We are working with multiplication!

We have 100 mixed multiplication questions from 2-12.  We collected initial data yesterday, and then talked about some useful strategies or ways to represent multiplication.  We talked about how multiplying is repeated addition, or how it can be shown as an array, or a rectangle.

We talked about how if we can double something, and double it again it’s like multiplying the original by 4, or id we double again, like multiplying by 8.

It’s fun to see how many different ways we can attack a multiplication question, and different ways of representing our thinking.

We applied our strategies today and collected more data.  We are using the date as the independent variable, and collecting a few options for our dependent variables.  Some of us will graph how our results improve over time, how our mistakes decrease over time, and how we can get faster by using different strategies and practice.

The next thing we did today was to look at a 3 act math task.  We used a video of “crazy taxi” act 1 and wrote down what we noticed and wondered.

Then we watched a video with more information and a question attached.

We needed to determine how much a 30km ride would cost.

We used different strategies to show our thinking.  We practiced good group work, and excellent communication.

We watched the 3rd act to see the resolution.

We had an extension to see how far we could travel if we had 83 dollars.  

(In case you’re wondering…fuzzy socks are excellent white board erasers!)

We made good progress today with our problem solving and communication.  Great work grade 9s.

Today’s task in grade 9 was all about teamwork.  Our mission was to take turns and circle all the numbers from 1 to 100 in order.  

It’s a bit of a neat number page because if completed in groups of 4 we can notice something cool.

All the numbers for each person are grouped in a quadrant.

Knowing that, we tried again and were able to get through many more numbers within the set time.

We got faster due to practice, and using some strategies.  The third time we did the activity we had a minute to strategize as a group, to make a plan, to arrange ourselves, and see if our new ways worked better.

We gathered close to the paper either on the ground…

Or around one desk.

Many groups stood up

The level of focus was impressive on such a hot day!

Overall we noticed some strategies that helped a lot.  We brainstormed what the attributes of good teamwork are.  We classified them as what it looks like, what good teamwork sounds like, and what good teamwork feels like.

Our brainstormed list was compiled, and the overall list made by both grade 9 classes will be posted soon!

Well done again today grade 9s!

We worked on solving a skyscraper problem.  We started off not really knowing how to do it, since we’d never done this kind of problem before.  We muddled around a bit and discovered some good strategies.

We worked in groups which helped because we could talk about our solution ideas.

Also we could view the problem from several angles, which really helped!

When we got discouraged we worked through it to figure out where we went wrong, or we restarted and tried again.

We used our perseverance!

When we were done, we could check it ourselves to know!  Some of our groups worked hard and could apply our strategy to bigger grids too.
It was a very good start!  Good work grade 9s.

Partie 1
Qu’est-ce qu’on remarque? Qu’est-ce qu’on veut savoir?

Partie 2

Partie 3

Extension 1: Si on commence à empiler le papier sur un table comment est-ce que la situation changera?

Extension 2:  Si on utilise le papier dans un paquet plus grand, comment changera la situation?

(source: tap into teen minds)

Hello and Welcome back to school!

This semester I am teaching in room 208

Period A: Grade 10 Mathématiques

Period B: Grade 9 Mathématiques

Period C: Grade 9 Mathématiques

I look forward to meeting everyone and working with you this term.  You’ll need to bring a pencil, paper, and calculator with you along with your creativity, perseverance, and cooperation.  We will be trying lots of new things and exploring math from many perspectives.

Notice, Wonder….

Dans les groupes nous allons poser les bonnes questions de mathématiques, et nous allons demander pour de l’information necessaire pour les resoudre.

Nous allons poser les questions de chaque section de notre curriculum: la numération et algèbre, la géométrie, les relations, et la géométrie analytique.

Pour notre investigation, le deuxième jour, vous allez recevoir de l’information que vous voulez, et vous allez individuellement resoudre les problèmes que vous avez crées. 

We are using mirrors to determine the height of the school.  Using the law of reflection we can create 2 similar triangles.  One between the heigt of the school, and the length of the ground between the school and the mirror.

And one involving the height to the observer’s eyes, and the distance from the observer’s feet to the mirror.  

We can determine the proportionality constant and calculate the height of the school!

We used a meter stick as a reference, and measured the lenght of its shadow.  

We can now measure shadows and determine the heights of the tall objects.

We can do this and make similar triangles because the sun is at the same spot in the sky when we take all these measurements.