Madmathteacher EduBlog

Well, the first quarter is coming to a close…it’s time to reflect on what we’ve learned together. Thinking back on what you learned about in math class during first quarter, answer at least two of the following questions:

1. What was the most interesting thing you learned in first quarter, and why?
2. What was the most difficult thing you learned in first quarter, and why?
3. What did you learn this quarter that you will be able to use in your future? How will you use it?
4. How could math class be made better for the upcoming quarter?

Several students seem to be wanting to make comments and offer feedback, and they’re not quite sure where to post it. I don’t really want it posted under an assignment location, because then it’s harder to keep track of the actual assignment contributions versus the comments. So I’ve been copying these comments over to the post “New blog location” for now, but I thought maybe it’d be good to just have a post here that was specifically for those random comments, feedback, ideas, ways to improve the site, etc. So if you have comments you just want to get out there, please feel free to post them here!

We’re almost done with our study of decimals. We’ve learned that:

1. when we compare, order, add, subtract, and divide decimals:
   • we always line up the decimal points
   • if needed, we add extra zeros after the decimal point (at the end of the number) to make the problem easier for our brains to understand
   • for division only, if there’s a decimal point in the divisor (the outside number in long division), we move that to the end to make it a whole number, and move the inside decimal the same amount.
2. when we multiply decimals:
   • the decimal points will never line up unless we have only whole numbers
   • instead of lining up decimal points, we actually multiply just like with normal whole numbers, ignoring the decimals until the end of the problem
   • remember at the very end of the problem to count decimal places - the number of places in your answer must be the same as the total number of places you counted in your factors.

Thanks for visiting the new Madmathteacher Blog site! You can still find my “About this blog” post by clicking the “About” tab at the top of the page, and I have imported all posts and comments from the old site. Let’s keep up the great work — you’re all off to a great start!