Crazy first semester!

Well, I have officially completed my first semester as a high school math teacher - Final Exams, Provincial Exams, Report Card comments and all!  My first semester was hectic - especially as my classroom management skills still need to be developed and fine tuned.  This semester will be even more crazy as I am now teaching 4.5 out of 5 classes (I have one prep period every other day).

With the new semester starting, I have put more emphasis into Mental Math in all of my courses.  Where I teach, Mental Math comprises 20% of a student's final mark.  Typically, we do Mental Math questions at the beginning of class each day (sort of like Bellringers).  Students get between two and four days to practice the types of questions that they will be assessed on during the "Mental Math Test" on Fridays (typically).

Here is what my grade nine's mental math questions will look like this week.  We have been studying how to solve linear equations and inequalities. Linear Equations and Inequalities Mental Math

In my grade 10 Applied/Pre-Calculus class, we are going to begin studying Roots and Powers on Wednesday after our Factoring test on Tuesday.  Here are the Mental Math questions I am using. Roots and Powers Mental Math

In Grade 11 Pre-Calculus, we just started a new unit on Radicals.  The Mental Math questions I created for this week are similar to the questions the Grade 10 class is doing as it appears my current Grade 11's are not as strong in this area as I would like them to be. Radicals Mental Math

Finally, in my Grade 12 Pre-Calculus class, we just began a unit on Rational Functions.  As such, my students need more practice with factoring!  All of the mental math questions I created for this unit have to do with factoring quadratics and solving quadratic equations.Factoring Mental Math

I feel prepared and ahead of the game for this week!