Test 2.2 and Egypt

Hello everybody, sorry to take so long posting here again, it's been a busy few weeks for me but there's a lot to cover so I won't take too long telling you all about it. The first item to address is our second attempt at test 2. The scores the first time around were so abyssmal that I decided to have the students take the test a second time. Similar to Test 1 taken earlier in the year, the vast majority of mistakes made on our second test were due to careless errors rather than a failure to understand concepts. In an effort to reduce the amount of careless errors during testing we spent time creating "mistake cards" in class that detailed each mistake the student made on their first test 2 try. Then I gave these cards to the students when they took the test the second time (the test was not identical, I just changed the numbers), the idea being to learn from past mistakes. I also awarded the students points on the second try for making an estimate of the answer to each question before actually solving it, the point being to think generally about what their answer should be, so absurd answers can be eleminated using common sense. The strategies seemed to work pretty well as the scores I have now for Test #2 are quite high. I haven't entered them into PowerSchool yet, but I think the average will be around a B.
The second item to address is the Egypt Project. This is the first full-blown project we've done this year so far, meaning it began with a student-created proposal, will take time for critiques, and will conclude with a post-project presentation and reflection. Ms. Looney and I are giving the students 90 minutes at the end of each day for independent work time on their projects, and while technology issues have hampered their progress so far, we're hoping to get a lot of work done this week in preparation for critique week when we return from Thanksgiving break.
The final item to address is our new math approach. I've discussed this before with some of you personally, but Ms. Gavan and I have been working together this year to try and find a system with math that will better serve the individual needs of our students, and we think there may be some potential with online math resources, such as HeyMath!. Our current vision includes time for all students to participate in both my class and Ms. Gavan's, getting an Internet-based lesson in the former and engaging in extension activities in the latter. We originally planned to begin the new system this week, but with the delay in my class due to the Test 2 retake and Thanksgiving break approaching, we decided it would make more sense to begin the program after we return from vacation. Hope all of you are doing well, I'll have more news for you later this week I'm sure. -Mr. H