Sam was absent today

Sam was absent today.

The plan was to review with Samantha on topics including integers raised to fractional or decimal exponents, simplification of complex radical expressions, and solving radical equations. Samantha was not in class today so I will present this lesson when I teach her again. There was no assignment.

Today Sam and I spoke about adjectives. I mentioned that adjectives describe nouns. Like articles they match the gender of the nouns they describe. In Spanish, adjectives usually follow the noun. (Masculine Adjectives often end in O/ feminine adjectives often end in A) example el chico guapo /la chica guapa. Many adjectives that end with a CONSONANT match both genders example El chico fenomenal/La chica fenomenal. Most adjectives that end with e match both genders. example El chico paciente/la chica paciente...Some others add a to become feminine example el chico trabajador/ la chica trabajadora. Sam was able to practice with several examples(workbook/textbook) Sam learned some new adjectives (simpatico, interesante, bonito, aburrido, comico, divertido, inteligente, fuerte, bueno). Also, we highlighted new words from the Spanish dictionary for the next class for her Spelling/Quiz.

Today Sam and I spoke about all Spanish nouns having a masculine or feminine gender. Knowing the gender of nouns that refer to people is easy. But how do you learn the gender of things? When learning a new word, such as camiseta(T-Shirt), say it with the definite article:"La Camiseta" here are more examples; Los calcetines, el sombrero, la camisa, el sueter,la chaqueta, el vestido, los jeans. Sam practiced several examples. Also, Sam learned different Spanish words can be used to talk about jeans from examples in other countries (Caribbean(Mahones), Mexico(Mezclillas), Argentina and Spain.(Vaqueros) and Spain. After that, Sam was able to express what she wears in different places ( beach, dinner, and mall). Also, we highlighted 10 words from the dictionary for her next class quiz(Spelling/Dictionary). Learning the most common words from the dictionary, is going to help Sam to increase her vocabulary so she will be able to communicate more effectively.

As Sam was late in arriving and left the afternoon session early due to illness, we did not meet for the entire two sessions. Sam did hand in her homework and quiz corrections which we reviewed. Both were done well with correct responses. As the homework addressed the use of presidential executive
orders, amnesty and pardons, we discussed the current government shut-down and the possible use of an executive order to construct a border wall on the southern border. I further mentioned the related topic of immigration reform and the objection to granting a path to citizenship to illegal aliens as arguably a form of amnesty. Sam then took notes on the the 22nd and 25th Amendments which address limits on presidential terms and succession to the presidency in the event the president resigns, is impeached or dies in office. Sam handed in a chapter assessment which needed completion. For homework, I assigned completion of the chapter assessment on page 214, reading pages 218-222 and answering questions 1 -4 on page 222.

I continued working with Samantha on composition of functions and then I introduced inverse functions. After describing what inverse functions do, I showed Sam the steps involved in deriving inverse functions and expressing them in inverse notation. We did several exercise problems in both topics. There was no assignment.

As part of our study of the executive branch , on the whiteboard I sketched a series of hypothetical states in the US and the electoral college votes attributable to each state. I then demonstrated how a presidential candidate can win the popular vote yet lose the election. Sam recognized the effect of the "winner take all" system that most states utilize .We then read a summary of the Bush v Gore case that reached the US Supreme Court. I demonstrated on a index card the problem that arose in Florida in counting the votes, explained the 14th Amendment claim the Bush campaign asserted , and described the posture of the case when it reached the Court. We then analyzed a list of the arguments raised to the Court . Sam did a very good job in identifying which argument supported which candidate's position. We also discussed the Court's ruling .Last,Sam took notes on the requirements for the presidency established by the US Constitution , and the 22nd Amendment which limits a president to two elected terms. Sam displayed good initiative and interest in class today. However, she did not complete the homework that was assigned over the break and ,as such, I again assigned pages 195- 199, and 205-208, questions 1-3 on pg 198 and the assessment quiz on page 213.

I started a chapter on geometric translations and reflections with Sam today. She indicated that her year in Geometry had a lot of inconsistency with teachers, so this seems like a good place to begin with her. I taught her that a slide is simply a left-right or up-down shift of a shape. The original shape is called the preimage, and the translated (slide) figure is called the image. A reflection is when a shape is "flipped" over a line of symmetry. We looked at shapes and measured the slopes of the sides of a parallelogram that had been both translated and reflected. She started, and should finish at home, p. 344 (1-5)

I guided Samantha through problems involving solutions of square root functions. She was required to square both sides of the equations and solve for the variable. After solving the equations, she also had to substitute the solutions into the original equations to make sure they weren't extraneous solutions.
Next, we worked with various operations on functions. I showed her the obvious outcomes of adding, subtraction, multiplying, and dividing functions but I also showed her how to evaluate compositions of functions. For such problems, she had to first substitute a given value in the inner-most function and then use the output of that function as the input of the other function. There was no assignment.