Today we moved into our very last PreCalc topic Polar Coordinates. Joshua took notes as I explained how to go from rectangular coordinates to Polar coordinates. We used trig ratios and the Pythagorean theorem to relate the radius measure and angles to the x and y coordinates. At first Joshua was apprehensive, we both agreed that it was too hard.
We had a short class today. Ben was finishing up art while I finished a meeting with Ms. Megan. We only had enough time to look at the work from Friday. We reviewed the terms together and then it was time for Recess. Tomorrow we will move into new content.
Today Aiden and I continued working with isolating inequalities. We saw decimals and fractions in the inequalities and Aiden had to recall how to use inverse operations to solve. The only “trick” is to remember that when we multiply or divide by a negative number we must flip the inequality symbol. We practiced few problems with and without negatives. One problem required us to multiple by -3.4. Aiden forgot to flip the inequality sign, but realize he made an error somewhere when he checked his solution. Aiden said, “I understand we’re supposed to flip it, but I don’t understand why.” I explained to him that working with equations (equal signs), the equation will remain a true statement as long as “what you do to one side you do to the other”. However, when working with inequalities, this is not necessarily the case. For example if we start with 2<5 which is a true statement and we multiply both sides by -1 then according to equation rules -2<-5 should be a true statement. But we know it’s false, -2 is not less than -5. So to make it true, we have to manually switch the sign. I explained to Aiden that this is based off the premise that large negative numbers are actually smaller. Aiden put his hands on his head and said “Ah ha! It’s all coming back to me now!” With practice, flipping the sign will become more natural.
Ben's assignment was to think of a current event topic, research it, and type a one-page article about it. We talked a little about journalism and what he would do if he were reporting on a current event.
Session Minutes
45
Minutes Student Attended
45
Lesson Comments
I substituted for Ben's journalism class since Christopher was absent. I read instructions to him while he worked on a Lego project. When I said, "The first thing you need to do is find a topic," he said, "Yeah, I heard you." He continued working with his Legos. I was able to get him to talk about journalism for a couple minutes.
Kellan took his spelling test on last week's words. We looked through all his Dog Man books and ordered four books he doesn't have in his collection. He worked on the cootie catcher for literary elements.
Richard used a magic slate to practice his spelling words (wore, worn, swore, sworn) and words with dis and ex prefixes. He read books with words he can read.
Today we discussed how to determine all 6 trig ratios if given one of the 6. We used the given information to draw a triangle and label the sides appropriately. Then we used the Pythagorean theorem to find the missing side. Then we used the acronym SOHCAHTOA to find all of the other 5 trig ratios. JPaul found this topic to be fairly simple. Tomorrow we will build on it.
