Ahhh, another week of school over. We are approaching winter break day by day. That’s the next thing I will be looking forward to. Anyway, this week was a smooth week when it comes to mathematics. Other than that it was hectic. Early on in the week we studied for the test on Tuesday. I thought I understood the content on the test very well. I'm not quite sure what I missed on it, but throughout the week I began to understand continuity and discontinuity better. The concept of removable discontinuity was shaky for me at the start of the week but now I know that it means there is a definite point that works for the equation, but it is not necessarily the limit. These ideas will help with the next segment of derivatives because a line must be continuous at the point. Lab 3 along with the speed and time activity really helped me in understanding the beginnings of this new section. It gave me good blocks to start building on. I thought my participation was good this week. It wasn't the best overall when we were working in groups, but I can improve on that. I thought my participation was best when I was having trouble I wasn't afraid to ask questions. I still need to work on improving my mental math. I think I type things in my calculator too much. I need to start working things out algebraically in order to be prepared for the written part of future tests or quizzes. It was nice to have a little break from homework every night by doing activities in class. I hope this week goes more smoothly than last week. I think it will without the stress of spirit week and homecoming. In other news, good job MCing on Friday. I was quite impressed!
This week went well for me. The procrastination I talked about in previous posts was non-existent this week. That always leads to a good solid week of work and understanding that work. The thing I had the most trouble with was discontinuity. I didn’t really understand the complete concept of it until we started doing the review assignment Friday. Even after that I am still kind of confused about how to find the points of discontinuity in some examples. I think that will get cleared up as I finish the review assignment tonight. One of the concepts I understood really well was limits. Those came easier to me and I am actually kind of surprised I got minus 2 points on the quiz. I can’t help but wonder what I got marked down for. I guess I will have to wait and see. This week was one of my most productive weeks in school. I think I am officially back in the school mindset. I really enjoyed the ted talk this week. It was pretty cool. This was our first week of actual sections so it’s hard to say how it connected with the review assignments we did in previous weeks. Although one connection I made is the use of asymptotes in the concept of limits. My participation was a lot better this week because I actually had the assignments done on the days we talked about them. That allowed me to respond to your online surveys and get help on the questions I was shaky on. I need to work on finding asymptotes without a calculator and solving equations involving trigonometry. This week mattered because without these skills calculus will be a heck of a lot harder in the near future. I hope to keep working against my procrastination problems in order to have successful weeks like this one.
(Below is a picture of a proven limits equation involving the trigonometry things I said I needed to work on) This week we expanded on the concept of limits. These help show end behavior of graphs. I believe this was taught because we will be using limits frequently throughout the year in calculus. I understood the lab we did really well. I really enjoyed working with groups for these labs. For the parts I didn't understand, I felt as if my questions were answered well by you or my table partners. I really struggled with numbers 21-26 on pg. 66. I thought those were the hardest questions concerning limits. The table number work time helped a little bit but I am still worried if I would be able to recognize what steps to take on those if a different one was given to me. I think I participated well in the learning because whenever I struggled with something,I was able to ask you for an explanation. In most classes I am afraid to ask or just too stubborn in wanting to solve it myself to ask. One thing I learned that I didn't know at all previously is that an asymptote isn't always a line that is never crossed. It can be crossed like the example, the limit as x approaches positive infinite of f(x). I haven't began the homework that was assigned over the weekend but with the notes I took in class today I'm not too worried about it. This seems to be the class that I am able to focus best in during the day. Another thing I think I will be kind of shaky with is remembering the little tricks like the sin(X) / x trick in the different limits, but I think the more I work with them, the better it will be. I hope as the year goes on to continue doing well and progressing.
This week we reviewed over content that we should know in order to have a head start on grasping AP Calculus. We needed this big review assignment in order to refocus our heads in math mode and get us thinking again. I struggled remembering some aspects of the assignment but overall I was impressed with what I did remember. I really struggled with the problems including decomposition of functions and my domain and range skills were a little bit rusty to say the least. I feel as if I participated very well in the learning this week. My table worked together really well to solve problem after problem together in the packet and I think it will be nice to have them to work with in future assignments. I think I need to finish this packet and brush up on the things I was struggling with before I am completely prepared for this assessment. Elaborating more on what I need to work on: my handwriting after the first week, my procrastination problems, and my time management skills. I believe I can improve on all these pretty easily in the future weeks. I guess I hit the first week of school drag already... I found the shape problems, the graphing the bicycle time and distance problems, and the finding the real solutions problems to be the easiest... or the ones I remembered best. I learned that for the shapes you can just find the base area and multiply it by the height instead of having to break the shape into different parts. It turned out to be a much faster process. This week was definitely the introductory week and is preparing us for the harder AP CALC, non-review, stuff later. I hope this will become a successful year of math for me, grade wise and learning wise.
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