Today Joshua took his Unit 2A Test. The test included multiple choice and free response. It also included a portion where a calculator is permitted and a portion where the calculator is prohibited. Joshua worked diligently the entire period. He will have to finish the test tomorrow.

Kellan dictated a story for me to type for him.

Kellan took his spelling test. I read about Temple Grandin, and we discussed her life and how to treat people.

Christopher was absent today.

I read about Temple Grandin, and we discussed her life and how to treat people.

Richard did a word search to practice his spelling words, He took a spelling test including sentences I dictated to him. He practiced ie words the long e sound using Silly Putty. He read books with words he can read.

Kaitlin was absent today.

PJ was absent today. The class time was used to update grades into Veracross.

Today we reviewed for Matthew's upcoming Quiz. Matthew chose problems that he hasn't seen in a while. He chose a factoring problem that required a creative approach to factoring. With some reminders, he was able to reach a solution. We also reviewed how to solve equations with multiple fractions in it. Matthew cleared the fractions by multiplying by the denominators. Matthew had to leave early. I gave him the rest of the review for optional practice.

Today we continued with the concept of factoring expressions. This notion is something Aiden will continue to see throughout his future math courses and he is doing an excellent job of learning this concept. Today we started with the expression 6x-12y-18. Aiden does a great job of finding the GCF between several terms. He factored out 6 to get 6(x-2y-3). We discussed how we an always check our answers when we factor, by using the distributive property to see if we get the original expression. As a challenge problem, I decided to give Aiden a similar expression with more variables (this is an Algebra 1 level problem, not 7th grade math). I presented 6x^2-12xy-18xz. I reminded Aiden the GCF includes constants and variables. We determined the GCF in this case is 6x. Aiden realized that when you factor out the 6x, what is left inside the parenthesis is the result of division. He divided each term by 6x and wrote 6x(x-2y-3z). Aiden likes to input values for the variables to check that both expressions are equivalent when the variables have value. Our conversations led us to discuss the difference between 6x^2 and (6x)^2. We also saw another expression with a negative leading coeefficient. Aiden recalled two approaches to factoring it.