It is Thursday and I am sitting here trying to decide what approach to take about talking about this week. It was well interesting to say the least. A different week for me for sure. I did not procrastinate and was able to finish each homework assignment in a timely manner. I guess that was something new. The thing is, that since I missed class for an orthodontist appointment last week on the first day of this chapter, I wasn't able to completely understand some of the key points and that set me back as we began to build upon them. I sit here understanding it the best that I have all week, but that is purely because after taking the quiz some stuff seemed to click. I began to worry again after completion though. I know I need to do well on this quiz. I thought most of it went smoothly, but there were a couple of problems like 7,9,10 that I wasn't so confident about. My participation was pretty good in class this week since I had the homework completed. It's too bad it took me a total of 10 weeks of school to figure out the key to doing well. One thing I struggled on a little bit was graphing the function without using a calculator. I will brush up on that over the weekend so I am prepared for the rest of the quiz Monday. The activity we did a couple weeks ago with graphing derivatives and second derivatives and recording observations helped me quite a bit on this quiz. I was able to remember some of the key concepts. I like this new process I have going with being able to write my blog in English class now. It makes my life quite a bit easier. Another thing I noticed was that the weebly app for iphones has been fixed! There is no longer a deletion error! Now, these mastery forms need to save my butt.
It’s Friday again… you know what that means. Times for another enjoyable math blog. I’m sure you enjoy reading this as much as I like writing it. This week started with a test! A Monday test… but no, I am not complaining. I am actually quite happy it was moved back. Although, even with it pushed back, I am not all that confident about my grade on it. It will probably end up with another “average” grade for me. Now, after watching this “Kid President” video in English class, I realize average isn’t what I want to be. I want to be able to excel at everything I do. That may mean working harder than I currently am or have worked in the past. That is just what I am going to do with this new chapter we started this week. I am going to apply myself and strive to do the best I can on each assignment. That way when it comes to quiz or test time, I am ready and not scrambling last minute to finish work. No more procrastinating. No more excuses. I will achieve this goal. That being said… I am off to a slow start after missing Tuesday for my orthodontist appointment. I may need a better explanation on some things that were taught that day. I don’t really understand extrema or critical points. That was covered on that day I missed, so if I get that cleared up things should go smoothly. My participation was good in class this week. I finished the homework assignments on time, so I was able to participate in the CCC discussions. I understood 4.2 really well and was able to complete almost all of the homework in class. If I keep up this type of production things should go pretty well for the remainder of this six weeks.
The new marking period has begun and I am as ready for it as I can be. I am ready for this fresh start and this week was a good example of it. I got my homework done in a timely manner and was able to participate in all the discussions. I can honestly say I am proud of myself this week. I hope I can carry this throughout the whole marking period. I am sure my grade would reflect. I am also beginning to understand these new concepts and I'm sure that will also improve in the upcoming week. The problems we were able to complete on the anti derivative worksheet went really smoothly for me and came quite easy. To find the anti derivative, you add one to the exponent and then divide the leading coefficient by that number. In some cases it may seem more complicated, like in the homework, but if you follow those general rules you should be in good shape when coming upon the answer. If I can keep up this streak of successful days next week, I should be in good shape. The bad thing is the feeling I am having right now. I feel like this kind of stuff is going to become a whole lot harder and I better be ready for it… Then again hopefully that feeling is wrong ;). I wouldn’t mind continuing with problems just like these ones. Now that soccer is over I will have more time to spend on school work. As long as the procrastination problems of mine, which I have spoken of in previous posts, stay away then it should be a good six weeks. One last thing, my brother told me to tell you he said hello but I forget during just about every class time. I guess I have too much math on my mind…
This week... hmm... what is there to say about it. I slacked off. I didn't live up to my expectations of myself. Homework is now piled up and I am in deep doo doo. This week I learned more about chain rule, and then built product rule and quotient rule upon that concept. I am not the best at applying all of these concepts at once. I get confused in what order to use them in. Incorporating derivatives of sine and cosine functions also just messed with my mind. This was probably because of my lack of focus or drive, which allowed those blank assignments to pile up. This did not help my participation in class discussions. I was unable to participate much because I didn't have much input to add in. I didn't have much input to put in because I was unfamiliar with the material. This will probably show when I receive the quiz back. I was very shaky on a lot of things on the quiz. It looks like next week I will pay for my slacking off. I will probably be buried in homework and I apologize to the future Mitch Ridley. If I could go back and do this week over, I would definitely not allow myself to fall behind. Once the next chapter starts, I don't want to repeat my actions of this chapter. One thing I thought I was good at was using the product rule. I know it is probably the easiest one of the rules we learned, but I think I feel pretty confident in it, unless there is a twist of something I am doing wrong. Implicit Differentiation was introduced late in the week and I was confident in it when I was taking notes. As soon as I got to the homework....my mind went blank and I couldn't remember the correct way to do it. I think I was able to pull it out of nowhere on the quiz, but still I need to brush up and work out the kinks for the future. Below is an example of a problem we did on our groups white board one of the days.
Another week of math completed, but so many more to go. This week, math seemed to go by slowly. Day after day we added onto the concepts we learned about the day before. I began to understand the chain rule, product rule, and quotient rule so much better throughout this week because we are using them so much in every activity or assignment. That means this mastery activity should be a breeze. Don’t get me wrong, I think it is great that the test got moved back. I was not quite ready to face that beast. This week was a week of catching up for me. The procrastination had caught up to me and I was in a hole that I needed to work my way out of. I will NOT let that happen again. You can quote me on that if you would like, but this week I was definitely a part of #procrastinationNATION and I am not proud of it. My eyes have been opened to the consequences of procrastinating and I will not let myself go through that type of thing again. That being said, I learned quite a bit this week and polished up other things! The only thing I am kind of shaky on is derivatives of exponentials and logarithms. The assignment started out really rough for me, but since I had it done when it was supposed to be, I was able to get my question answered in our group break offs. I thought I participated pretty well in learning this week. I was more involved in the CCC’s once I had caught up. My biggest accomplishment was learning the right time to use the chain rule in each problem. I know that sounds like a small step, but I believe it will improve my test score tremendously. Another thing I noticed as I type this blog is that mine for the last two weeks were never published… hmmm. I will publish them as soon as I finish typing this. I am not quite sure how to attach my mastery video, so maybe you will show me on monday??
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