The first week of class

During the first week of class, we are starting right off with "exponential expressions" or "powers." The students will be multiplying, dividing and taking the power of powers.

Exponents are a shortcut to show how many times a number or variable (like x), called the "base," is multiplied by itself. For example, 3x3x3x3 = "3 to the 4th power" = 81. You can see other examples in the picture.

• When students multiply powers, they add the exponents.


• When they divide powers, they subtract the exponents.


• When they raise a power to another power, they multiply the exponent by the exponent.


• A base to exponent 1 is the same as itself.


• A base to exponent 0 equals 1, never 0.


• If the exponent is negative, then it is the same as the reciprocal of the expression.

At the same time, the students will be learning the routines of our classroom, like being in their seats, ready to work on a problem, when the bell rings, remembering to bring pencils, notebooks, math book, calculator (if they have one) every day.

The students will work in pairs and 4-student groups to solve some problems,and we will practice getting quickly into groups, working together in groups, and reporting back to the class from groups.

We will work on learning all the new math words, and use them regularly both when we talk about math and in writing exercises. And of course this blog journal will give the students an opportunity to show that they have learned to write about math.