We continued yesterday's lesson. We discussed ideas which were important to the Founding Fathers when they created our government. We also discussed why and how these ideas are important today.

Review chord progression to Sweet Home Alabama - play chords along to a metronome.
Music theory: discuss the relationship of the major and minor chords in the key of G to the G major scale. Add the E minor (Em) chord to our chord changing exercise.
The minor pentatonic scale: Practice the "box pattern" minor pentatonic scale in the key of G, but demonstrated the pattern's portability to be played in different keys by changing position on the guitar neck.

Hunter did very well in class and is showing improvement in his chord changes. I recommend that he gets a guitar of his own so that he can practice at home. Practice outside of class is necessary for us to be able to move past these beginning lessons and begin playing more challenging pieces.

Hunter did p. 324 (13-21 odd) using synthetic division to divide polynomials on the board. I then taught him the Remainder Theorem, which states that if a polynomial P(x) is divided by (x-a), then the remainder is P(a). He did p. 324 (27-33 odd) on the board. We then watched a Khan Academy video about end patterns of graphs of polynomials.

Hunter and I discussed content of his new descriptive essay on Costa Rica. He has recall of some vivid locations and activities during his recent trip there and he noted these on paper, with a list of descriptive words that came to mind. We discussed the use of figurative language and flowery adjectives to appeal to emotions and senses. We began a chart, listing ideas under columns, one for each of the senses. We discussed the steps to writing the essay and printed out some templates to motivate him to outline the essay. We discussed ideas for a thesis statement and supporting paragraphs. I think this will be a great one! We read aloud together in "The Book Thief," stopping to analyze particular passages.

I reviewed long division with Hunter, and then taught him the procedure for doing long division with polynomials. Hunter worked through problems on the board. He understands the concept, but would make mistakes with his negatives. I then taught him Synthetic Division, which is a simpler way to divide polynomials without using the variables. He caught on to the idea quickly. The problems he worked on were p. 324 (1, 2, 3, 5,6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12)

Hunter and I continued working through grammar problems - the use of abbreviations, contractions, slang, starting a sentence with a conjunciton, ending with a preposition, and splitting an infinitive. Hunter read "Most Valuable Player," a poem by Arsdale, and answered dependent questions. He learned new vocabulary - repugnant, gratuitous. We read "The Book Thief" aloud together and identified figurative language and new words. We looked at four different types of essays and Hunter chose to write a descriptive essay next, about Costa Rica. His goal is to write with descriptive language that appeals to the senses and emotion. I assigned HOMEWORK. He is to choose adjectives and words to use in the Costa Rica essay.

Hunter will understand the idea of the "state."
He will analyze some theories surrounding its creation.
Hunter will also identify and understand the concept of "public policy."

What are the advantages of a metal stud over a wooden stud? How do you cut a metal stud? How do you fasten metal studs to the bottom and top plate? How is drywall attached to metal studs. All these questions are answered in this very educational video. We also learned how to get rid of all those unsightly wires around a tv installation. Good session.

We recapped what Hunter began learning the formation of the US Government.
We discussed ideas which were important to the Founding Fathers when they created our government. We also discussed why and how these ideas are important today.

Hunter worked through many exercises today. He wrote polynomials in factored form. On the graphing calculator, we graphed functions and identified their relative maximum and minimums, as well as their zeros. From a function's factored form, Hunter identified the zeros of that function, and then graphed it from a graphing calculator. He also learned about the multiplicity of a zero, which is a term used to describe how many times a number is a zero of a function. He did p. 317 (7-35 odd)