Welcome to Mrs. Martin's Web Page
Pre-algebra and Algebra
By Nancy Martin
August 13, 2008
e-mail address: martinn@usd385.org
planning period: 10:18-11:03
school phone number: 733-5061
If you have tried to contact me by e-mail and you haven't heard back from me within 24 hours, please assume that I did not receive your message. Please call the school office. They'll put a message in my box and I'll return your call as soon as possible.
I'm in my 12th year of teaching at AMS, and it's a great place to be!
This year I'll be teaching 4 pre-algebra classes and 3 algebra classes, all from books published by the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project (UCSMP), commonly referred to as the Chicago series. I'm excited about our new books, the third edition of Transition and Algebra I. If you have older students who have used the Chicago series in the past, you should notice positive changes to the third editions. The same concepts will be studied, but the books have been re-written to be more user-friendly for middle school students.
Q: Will my
student be able to use a calculator at all times?
A: No. In order to keep their computation skills sharp, there will be many tests that will be "calculator free." I will always work a test problem to see how long and/or complicated it is. If the arithmetic involved is something that takes a few seconds and pencil/paper, then I will not allow calculator use for that particular problem. Sometimes that means that students will even need to use long division (yikes! :) ) to help solve a problem. If, however, the arithmetic takes a while, or involves many steps, then I will allow calculator use. Often there will be a test that has just one or two problems that justify the use of a calculator. When that's the case, I tell everyone to work that problem (or those problems) first and then put calculators away. Any calculator use after that point would constitute cheating.
Q: How much time should be spent on math homework every night?
A: I try to allow for enough time to get started on homework toward the end of class each day, but that won't always be realistic. If homework has not been started until your student gets home, the maximum amount of time should be about an hour. If math homework is taking more time than that on a regular basis, we probably need to get together to figure out how we can improve the situation.
Q: Should I be helping my student with his or her math homework?
A: On rare occasions. If you find yourself sitting down with him every night for the duration of the assignment, we probably need to get together to figure out how we can improve that situation.
Q: My student is very active in sports and other extracurricular activities. By the time she gets home, gets cleaned up, and eats dinner, she's too exhausted to think, let alone do 45 minutes to an hour of math homework. What should we do?
A: I am thrilled that so many of our students at AMS are so active--working on becoming well-rounded individuals. Most of them are pretty good at time management, and the times when they're just too tired to open a book for homework are rare. When those times do arise, however, I'd rather have a student in class who got enough sleep the night before and didn't get her homework finished than one who stayed up later than she should have and finished her homework. If this becomes a pattern, however, we may need to communicate about possible solutions.
Q: What about penalties for late papers?
A: The general policy is that a late paper receives half credit, but I understand how de-motivating that is. I will give a student 85% of his true score on a late paper if it's turned in one day late, 75% if it's turned in two days late, 65% for three days late, etc. This is a new policy for me, so we'll try it for awhile to see if it works. (This does not apply to students who were absent. They will get full credit when homework is turned in within the extra time allotment.) It's only to encourage those who were unable to get an assignment done on time because of extenuating circumstances to go ahead and do the assignment instead of just forgetting about it and taking a zero.
(These images were obtained from www.teacherfiles.com.)