Today Ben was in a rough mood when I came in. He was giving me one word answers like "Hey Ben, what happened to your finger?" (it was bandaged), his response, "Stuff."
I knew that meant he needed some time to get started. He said he was in a bad mood because of the privileged students here. That don't have to think about money. They can buy food and get it delivered any time they want. I told him I understood that. I have to wait to buy groceries for when we get paid. I can't afford to have Chik-fil-a brought to me each day. Then I explained to him that I try to keep things in perspective for a need versus a want. That I don't really need Chik-fil-a, and that I'm fortunate to be able to bring some food from home. I told him that just because money is coming in, doesn't really mean that the "grass is greener" on the other side. We further discussed and I think he shifted his perspective a little bit.
We were able to be a little productive. I wrote some exponent problems on the board. I asked him to simplify them. He recalled that anything to a zero power is 1. He also recalled how to divide powers (by subtracting them).
5-4 Transformations of Piecewise-Defined functions – We learned to graph transformations of piecewise-defined functions. We identified the effect of changing constants and coefficients of absolute value functions on their graphs. We learned to interpret for an absolute value function, g(x)= a|x – h| + k. We practiced identifying the horizontal and vertical translations defined by h and k. Then we learned how the value of the leading coefficient affects the vertical stretch or compression of the function.
Ben had a tough time getting started today. He came late and asked if he could have a few minutes to get ready. I said sure. He worked on Legos while he played a video. Then I asked him to do some math with me. He complained he couldn't understand my writing. I told Ben he needs to be pushed out of his comfort zone in order to grow - we can't stay in the same box we're in every day or we will never develop. He got upset with me and said it's his stage of development and he needs to have math class at a later time in the day so he can focus. We did ONE problem today in our 45 minute period. He said the problems were too messy and he couldn't see. So I erased them. Then he said he didn't know how to multiply -2*1. I kept pressing him to try but it was like pulling teeth. I told him tomorrow we have the class period before lunch and I expect him to be in a better state of mind so we can have some productivity.
Today Ben and I focused on negative exponents, their meaning, and how to simplify them. We worked on the white board. I wrote the reminders of how to work with negative exponents. I showed Ben a basic example of 3^-2. We recalled that negative powers do not mean the value is negative, it means 1) move the power and 2) make it positive. So 3^-2 is 1/3^2 which is 1/9. I wrote out similar problems, prompting Ben to respond to questions like "Should we add the powers here or subtract?" Ben was a bit distracted, but eventually responded. Eventually Ben said he sees what I'm doing but he doesn't understand why and it's making him confused. He wanted to know WHY we make the powers positive and move them. I didn't know exactly how to answer him either, so we looked up a video online. While we were watching it, it brought up another concern as why anything to the zero power equals 1. Recess started as we were exploring these ideas. Tomorrow we will resume trying to understand this process and hopefully it will help Ben understand the Why's behind our methods.
5-1 The Absolute Value function – We learned that the axis of symmetry is the vertical line that passes through the vertex. We learned to calculate and interpret the rate of change of an absolute value function over a specified interval.
Assignment: For homework complete assigned problems.
Ben did not want to work today. He had legos on his desk.. I asked what he was making, he said, "I don't know." He had food on his desk, I asked him what it was, he said, "Food." I told him one day when he's not tired, he's happy, he feels good, I'm going to be the happiest teacher ever! He told me I'd never feel that way because he's in an ever-changing state of hormones and growth.
So I put on a metallica song and started writing exponent problems on his desk. He asked me about the song and we started talking about it. Then I pointed to the (8x)^0 on his desk and asked him what it equaled. He answered 0. I reminded him that anything to the 0 power is always 1. He asked why. I said I don't know, we should watch a video about it tomorrow. He started to open up a bit more. I was able to ask him a few more exponent problems.
5-1 The Absolute Value function – We learned the values that cause a vertical or horizontal shift in the absolute value function. Then we identified the features on the absolute value function that cause the graph to be compressed or stretched vertically.
Lesson 11-5 Dividing Polynomials – We practiced dividing rational expressions. We divided polynomials by monomials. Then we divided polynomials by binomials with long division. Hudson will remember to put parentheses around the term you are subtracting to distribute the negative one through the parentheses.
