December is here and 2020 will soon be over. It has been, at best, an interesting year and has certainly been trying for students, parents, and teachers all around. My own children have been in a mostly hybrid scenario, which means each is getting roughly 50% of the total instructional time they would have if it had been a normal year. At eMATHinstruction, we’re always trying to keep the student in mind when creating resources and making them available for teachers to use. We’re excited about 2021 and all that it will bring, not the least of which is hopefully a return to some sort of normal. For now, let’s get into our latest round of new materials.
In our N-Gen Math Middle School courses, we now have the Unit 7 and Unit 8 assessments published and ready for use. We plan to continue to release the unit assessments until they are all done, hopefully by the March additions. We’ve also published the SMART Notebook files for Units 7 and 8 in all three courses as well. As a reminder, the SMART Notebook files can be used only with SMART Notebook, the software that many teachers use if they have a SMART Board. I like the software a lot and it can certainly be used even without a SMART Board for presentation purposes (especially distance learning).
In Common Core Algebra I this month we have published a set of mid-unit quizzes for Unit 6 (Exponents), both a Form A and Form B. As well, we have released the Unit 7 (Polynomials) Spanish Language editions of the unit assessments (Forms A, B, and C).
For Common Core Geometry, this month we have new assessments for Unit 5 (Tools of Coordinate Geometry). First, we bring you a mid-unit quiz, both a Form A and Form B. We then bring you the Unit 5 Form D assessment.
The new additions to Common Core Algebra II this month include some quizzes and an additional lesson. First, we have Unit 8 (Radicals and the Quadratic Formula) mid-unit quiz, both a Form A and Form B. We then bring you an enrichment lesson for Unit 8 on Deriving the Quadratic Formula. We’ve structured a lesson (not homework) that leads students through the process of deriving the quadratic formula from the use of completing the square to solve a quadratic. Some of the algebra in this lesson is quite challenging, but we structure it so that the students lead up to the derivation with numerical examples.
Finally, in Algebra 2 with Trigonometry this month, we bring you two new unit assessments. We bring you the Unit 7 (Trigonometric Functions) Form D unit assessment and the Unit 8 (Trigonometric Algebra) Form D unit assessment.
As the year progresses we have many ongoing projects at eMATHinstruction. We are currently working on the our Next Generation Standards aligned Algebra I course. We have confidence that if you’ve used our Common Core Algebra I course, you will find this update of the text to be more focused, better aligned to the standards, and even easier to use. We are also working on expanding the resources for our new middle school courses. We are currently having all three courses translated into Spanish and hope to have those Spanish workbooks and files available this summer and certainly ready to use next year.
Here at eMATHinstruction, we want to wish all of our friends a happy and safe holiday season. Remember, if we all work together, we will come of out this struggle stronger and better prepared. 2021 here we come!