Welcome to 8th Grade Mathematics

You will learn a great deal this year, building on what you've previously learned and seeing parts of mathematics you didn't know existed.  The year will go by very quickly.  Don't hesitate to jump in and enjoy the challenges, as High School will be upon you soon and you will need the skills and knowledge from this year to go forward successfully in math, as well as science.

GRADING

• Tests = 60%
• Assignments = 10%
• Quizzes = 10%
• Online Math = 20%
  • I will be dropping the lowest Assignment score.
  • I will be dropping the lowest Online Math score, Quiz score, and Test score.
• Reasoning for category scaling:  I give no lower than 50% on any formal test.  If a students is faithful to to all of the Assignments and Online Math (the dropped scores, notwithstanding) and students get average a 50% on the Tests and simply pass the Quizzes, they should get no lower than a 70% in the class, or a C-.
• The only way to drop below a 70% is not to complete Assignments and/or Online Math, coupled with failing the Quizzes (which is unlikely, as students usually have access to notes and/or they work with a partner during a quiz).
• Online Math is worth "twice as much" as Assignments due to the fact that most (if not all) assignment answers + solutions are posted daily for the students. Online Math requires diligence and focus and allows students to redo work that is missed to get a score up to 100% if they want to do the work.

LATE WORK

• Math work is accepted the entire semester.
• Work submitted past the due date is awarded up to 50% credit.

MAKE-UP POINTS for TESTS

• A common offering is to allow students the option of re-doing missed test questions for up to half credit for each problem. 
  
• The details of this option are described in detail in class and will be posted in Google Classroom (and announced in Remind).
• Make-Up Tests are generally NOT available.
• If make-up tests are offered, there will be a maximum score of 75% available.

EXPECTATIONS and MATERIALS

REQUIRED:

• Courtesy toward your peers and staff is a must regardless of any other considerations.
• Work every day to the best of your ability.

OPTIONAL, but nice:

• At least one pencil.
• A spiral notebook ... a GRAPHING notebook is even better (not lined paper, but graph paper)
• One or more Expo Dry-Erase markers.

The latter three are requested items, not mandates.  It would be a great help to have them, but if you cannot bring your own, please see me and I will make arrangements for you to have what you need.

TECHNOLOGY

• We will be using quite a bit of technology in and out of the classroom this year.
• Chromebooks will be provided.
• Cell phones are permitted for use in the classroom for school communication, math-oriented tasks, and research.

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