Click on PreAlgebra Documents page for the course syllabus, semester pacing guide, the monthly Cover Sheet/Required Work lists, and the monthly Test Study Guide. The directions for taking notes for each section of the monthly work are available at the Important Information page. 

 

Weekly study group: Wednesdays from 12:15 to 1:30, NOT on the Wednesday of test week.  The study groups will be for learning and practicing the concepts and procedures of the month--as much as can fit in the short time available.

 

Math help is available, at the times shown on the Weekly Schedule.  For math help, come with your textbook, and with the papers you're writing on, to show the teacher.  Math help is a relaxed one-on-one help time, where the teacher will work with any and all students who come, explaining things and directing practice.  This is a come-when-you-can (don't have to come right at the official start) and leave-when-you're-done activity.  Students (and parents) can come for 3 to 4 minutes for one particular thing, and then leave, anytime during the scheduled time, or come with a list of things to ask about, and we'll look at as many time allows.  NOTE: The teacher does not reteach the sections in the textbook; the teacher already does some of that in study groups, the parents of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders are already teaching that, and high school students are already learning the sections by themselves at home. 

 

DOING MONTHLY WORK:   Use the cover sheet/required work list for the specific assignments each month.  Here are the main steps you need to do each month, and then each day:

First, a note to PARENTS of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders:  It's YOUR responsibility to show your child how to do these things, and to do these things with your child as much as is necessary.  Most 6th, 7th, and 8th graders CANNOT do these things on their own.  Learning the math well is your top priority, and it might mean that you have to go through every lesson with your child, and supervise your child's practice every day.  It is not the Mt. Everest teacher's responsibility to teach every lesson (although I will do as much as I can); this is not a traditional school, and the once-weekly classes and tutoring times are NOT enough to replace your direct teaching at home.

 

       During the month:

 

 1. Do at least three problems from past days for practice, so you will better remember those things now and later when you see them on tests. 

 2. Read the lesson. Don't look at just the examples; read the information before and after the examples.  If there are boxes listing formulas or important concepts, look for how those things are used in the examples.  Nothing is useless or wasted in a lesson; look at and analyze all of it carefully.  Do all this BEFORE doing any of the work problems.  

 4. Do the CA Standards Check problems following every example. Show your work—every step, every problem.

 5. Do every other odd of the practice problems. You must show your work—every step, every problem.

 6. Do the Multiply Choice Practice. You must show your work—every step, every problem.