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Homework Assignment 1:
Please use this form to email me the answers to the following questions.
1. Find the slope between the points (3,7) and (-2,4)
2. Write an equation for a line that passes through the origin (0,0), and the point (2,7)
3. Go to the course material tab and choose any unit. Go to one of the videos I've posted to provide extra support for you and copy the URL (website address) into the form below.
4. Make sure you include your name.
This year in Precalculus, we'll be continuing the study of Algebra that you began in middle school, and continued throughout your Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II courses.
We will study linear, quadratic, polynomial, exponential, logarithmic and trigonometric functions--starting from where you left off last year. This class will prepare you non only for your study of more advanced topics in Calculus class, but also the process of leaving high school and entering the world outside--the skills you learn here will get you ready for the SAT, ACT, AccuPlacer, and financing a car or house.
What I expect –
1. Work Hard—at the start of every class, please begin the problems on the board; during class, please work on problems or projects that I assign, with the students around you; at home, please complete the assigned homework problems
2. Don’t Give Up—through this course, more than anything, I would like to help encourage you to become more resilient mathematicians. We will work this year on how to get past roadblocks on your way to doing increasingly challenging math.
3. Be Nice—in this room, you are all working towards a common goal of mastering a second year of algebra. There is no room for cruelty, disrespect, or anything but pleasantness for any member of our classroom.
What you should expect -
1. Spirals – weekly cumulative quizzes that allow you to improve your grades as you show improvement on your skills. We’ll go into this more when we take our first spiral next Friday.
2. Calculators –it is important that you are able to work math problems with and without calculators—there will be times for both during the year. It is expected that you will have a calculator with you in class, and take it home in order to work on homework. If you don’t already have a calculator, I highly recommend the TI-84+ because it let’s you do math on the calculator that looks like the math you do on paper, but any graphing calculator will do fine—I’d recommend looking at the list of calculators you can use on the SAT. If purchasing a calculator would be a financial hardship, let me know, and I’ll put you in touch with Ms. Noftle to get a loaner.
3. Grading – Grading in this class will be a mixture of spirals, homework, classwork, and modeling projects.
4. Homework – On most nights, you will have homework to complete to practice the concepts we studied during the previous day's class. Homework may be graded directly, or at the start of class as part of our warm-up. Sometimes, homework may be assigned in the form of watching a video you will find on our class website. Speaking of which…
5. Class website – I’ve set up a website, (http://www.tofercarlson.com/precalculus), where throughout the year I will put a variety of resources to help you in this course.
6. Book – We’ll be using the little purple book. It can stay wherever it is that you complete your homework, but most of the assignments you receive for homework will not be from the book. I highly recommend you get a pretty thick binder to help organize your work in this class.
7. Communication – I live in room A217, you can reach me by email at either teachertofer@gmail.com, or kristofercarlson@danvers.org.
What you need:
Pencil or pen every day in class.
Notebook or binder to be used only for this class.
Graphing Calculator brought to class every day (TI-84/TI-83 recommended).