The Disciplined Mind

I have decided, after much thought and debate, that I will not be returning to Skyview next block. This was a difficult decision, but I feel that I am not suited to teaching at this point in my life and I would be of better service to the world in another form. I love to teach, but the “other stuff” – classroom management, grading, paperwork, etc, is overwhelming. I like to be able to go home and leave work at work; unfortunately I have discovered that is not usually the case for a teacher. I am not liking the person I am becoming – I get sarcastic more easily, I lose my temper, and I do not want to model that for my students or choose that for myself in my life.

I have taken a job as a bursar (think: accounting) at a local massage school where I had worked prior to becoming a teacher. I am grateful to be returning to an environment where I am appreciated and respected on a daily basis and additionally grateful to have been able to find a job in a tough economy.

I will miss my students and my coworkers at Skyview. They have encouraged me to grow as a person, and my experiences here will not be forgotten.

Take care of yourselves, and grow in whatever direction inspires you.

~Ms. Thompson

FOUR days left in the block!

We are done with the “far out” stuff and are coming back down to earth. Now we are going to look at what man has done to explore his universe… the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, telescopes, and space exploration. We will also be watching the movie “Apollo 13″ about the mission to the moon that almost killed 3 astronauts.

The final exam is Thursday, December 17th.

Please remember that all late work is due no later than Monday, December 14th at 4pm. Also, students must flex ALL absences otherwise they will FAIL the entire block. Some of you are very close to passing, so get that work in and flex those absences.

We are done with all new material in Algebra. Wednesday we review for Exam 4, which will be given on Thursday. All next week we will be reviewing for the Final Exam.

ALL LATE WORK IS DUE BY MONDAY, DECEMBER 14TH AT 4PM.

*****NO EXCEPTIONS!*****

In algebra we are beginning to explore polynomials:

POLY = MANY

NOMIALS = NUMBERS or TERMS

We started today with binomials and multiplying them. We will move into factoring tomorrow and then explore quadratic equations. This will lead us into the quadratic formula, and our last topic will be to graph parabolas.

Astronomy finished their spacecraft projects and presented them to the class this week. I will be honest: they were mostly disappointing. There were only a few that held both creativity as well as a good story to go along with it. I am saddened by the effort shown by most of my students. I would, however, like to commend Brayden and Liselle for completing all required parts of the project and an excellent essay. Way to go!

We move then into some of the strangest ideas in the galaxy – dark matter and energy, parallel universes, and the search for alien life.

We have traveled throughout the galaxy, studying nebulae, stars, and supernovas. We studied the Milky Way itself, and strange things called black holes (and some theoretical things called wormholes and white holes that we have yet to find).

Next week we begin our projects of spaceships. Looking forward to seeing what this class comes up with!

We have conquered systems of equations and solved them by graphing, by eliminating, and by substituting.

We spent this week getting to know exponent rules, radical expressions, and will work next week on radical equations. Our next Exam is Wednesday, November 25th. There are no classes on Thursday the 25th or Friday the 26th in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.

We have finished with Systems of Inequalities, and are moving into solving Systems of Equations. Today we solved them by graphing them. Tomorrow and Thursday we solve them by elimination, and next Monday we solve them by substitution. The next exam is Thursday, November 12th.

We are finishing up our solar system this week with Saturn on Monday and Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto today. Tomorrow we look at asteroids and comets and the difference between them, as well as how they could cause a lot of destruction if they impacted Earth. Then Thursday we start to embark on our journey out of the Solar System with Light Speed  that teaches us how to measure distances in the Universe in light years.  Then we launch into the cosmos to learn about the strange and interesting things that exist in our galaxy… AND BEYOND!

Above is the Orion Nebula, which, on a clear night, can actually be seen with the naked eye as a fuzzy patch in the constellation of Orion.