Jump Rope for Heart, Back from Wahanowin, some notes on reducing fractions and Probability, Grade 7 Math videos, and samples of the "Food Project"

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It has been close to a week since I posted on the blog and there a number of things I would like to cover in this entry.  I have been having some Internet issues in the classroom and running into problems showing the blog to the class.

So, here we go.  

As a part of the review  of the Grade 8 unit on Probability, we have run into a situation where fractions may have to be reduced.  This is some work that we did in the Progress Report term in the Fall.  Here are a few screenshots of when we were actively reviewing how to reduce fractions:

Here is an instructional video, that is not too long, that will also illustrate this idea:

When calculating the probability on 2 independent events happening -- something we will do in class tomorrow-- it is quite possible that a fraction may require simplifying.  A number of the questions we took up in the homework today required some simplifying.  

The homework has been looking at Theoretical Probability and I would like to move this into comparing it more with Experimental Probability.  Actually doing the Math and the experiments will make this more fun and meaningful for the students.  Here is another YouTube video comparing the differences in the two forms of Probability:

As for the Grade 7s, and Math, I had a few students -- Mickayla and Kavishan -- point out an error I made on the last test.  So, as a result, I pitched all of the tests and spent a fair bit of time, today, reviewing where I went wrong.  It is possible to learn from errors and I apologize for any confusion I may have caused.  All of the Grade 7s will get another shot and doing another test on Transformations.

Here is a silly, but informative review video on Transformations:

Another video on Motion Geometry from Discovery Education:

I mentioned that the Internet has been giving me some problems in class.  Before I left for the trip, I spent a fair bit of time preparing some information relating to the food project assignment.  I am hoping that these problems won't be a problem tomorrow.  I will post up the Success Criteria for this assignment:

This is one of our final Language assignments for the term.  To guide the students, I will be doing a project to support their learning.  Today, I had a question from Drile asking what the paragraphs might look like.  I am going to post a couple of samples of what a Level 3 project might sound and look like:

I believe that is it, for now.  

To be continued.