Happy (Belated) Pi Approximation Day!

I certainly dropped the ball on this one ... I hope everyone enjoyed Pi Approximation Day on Monday.  Pi Approximation day is celebrated on July 22nd each year because 22/7 is the closest rational approximation for Pi.  Pi is certainly special for many reasons, but hopefully you know that one of the big characteristics of Pi is the fact that it is irrational.  That means Pi is a decimal value that never ends and never repeats.  Irrational numbers are those that cannot be expressed as a fraction.  Many times we use 3.14 to represent the value of Pi, however, another value that is commonly used is 22/7 (again the rational approximation for Pi).  Click here for more information on Pi.

My apologies for being a few days late ... hopefully we can all celebrate Pi Approximation Day on the actual calendar day next year!!

Updates

I've added a page, Parent Updates and Reminders, which is designed to keep parents (and students) up-to-date on what's happening in my class and what assignments, projects, tests, etc are coming up and will be due soon for students.  My goal is to keep updating this page often so that parents can track the progress of my classes.

Videos

I've added a page (feel free to take a look!) for important and useful videos for students and parents to check out.  I will continue to update this page with more videos throughout the semester that relate to topics we discuss in Algebra II and Statistics.  Enjoy!

Additional Resources

Check out my page titled 'Additional Resources.'  I've posted some links to sites that will provide videos and demonstrations, games, math-related information, as well as tools to create your own glogs and blogs (which we will use in class this year!).  I'd also invite you to check out the Wolfram|Alpha link as well.  Feel free to enter a quadratic equation into the search bar on the W|A site and see what you get!  And if you don't know what a quadratic equation is, well then go ahead and put that in the search bar and see what you find out :-)

Donegal MOJO

The start of the 2013-2014 school year is still over a month away but I am already looking forward to the Algebra II and Statistics classes that I will be teaching for both the first and second semesters.  It's hard to believe that at this time last year we were still anxiously awaiting the opening of the new high school.  However, as we get ready for the upcoming year, we all look forward to the opportunities and challenges that await us in year two in the new high school.  And while we continue to settle into the new high school, big changes continue to occur in the Donegal School District as the junior high school and intermediate school have been (and will continue to be) renovated.  With change comes excitement and I'm sure anxiousness for some.  So as you prepare for this upcoming school year, try to focus on the new adventures that awaits you ... new classes, new teachers, new friends, new opportunities for success!!