Middle School
Advanced Mathematics
The advanced math class is meant to teach
the
basic middle school math skills, and to provide enrichment so that
students
with interest and/or talent can learn what mathematics is really
about.
It is appropriate for students who are gifted in mathematics, and/or
who
have very strong interest in it.
Homework
Homework is assigned every evening except
before
Shabbat and holidays. There is never any homework assigned on
Fridays.
Each night's homework should take approximately 20-30 minutes to
complete.
The students are occasionally given time in class to begin their
assignments.
Homework is checked briefly each day.
A neat organized homework notebook
containing
all the completed assignments must be handed in the last week of each
trimester.
Any missed or incomplete homeworks should be corrected and filled in
before
handing in the notebook. The notebook should have the homework
assignments
ordered and numbered with the problems numbers and pages listed at the
top. The notebook will be graded for completeness, neatness, and
organization. All student scratch work should be left in the
notebook,
it does not have to be neat.
Quizzes
Every Friday there is a quiz which
concentrates
on the material covered that week. In the event of a wipeout on a
quiz, I allow a student to redo the quiz after it has been
reviewed
in class. I then average the new score with the old score.
Redos must be handed in before the next Friday when we have the next
quiz. The style of a redo should be a detailed English
explanation of the answers that were originally wrong. The
student has to prove to me that he/she really understands the idea and
why it works. When in doubt,the student should ask me whether
their redo is acceptable.
Extra Credit
Extra credit problems of various levels of
difficulty
are assigned throughout the year. A student must write a solution
in clear English explaining their ideas, and hand it in to me.
Every
student additionally has a packet with over 200 extra credit problems
that
can help them prepare for the math team, or just for fun.
Grading
A student's grade is determined by their
quiz
grades (60%), homework notebook (20%), and class participation
(20%).
The third category includes issues like concentration, behavior, and
self-discipline.
It also includes how engaged and interactive they are in class, when I
call on them, and when we are experimenting or discussing a problem.
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Email me: shai@stonehill.edu
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