I am here

Here I am.

Paul I am.

I like green eggs and ham.

And laptops. I like those too.

Anyway. For the unit so far, I feel I am very unprepared. I understand most of the material in concept but am unclear on most of the application portion of the subject. I also think I'm missing on some key topics like integrals and differentiation (erm, what is that?). I get derivatives mostly, and understand the rules introduced in Chapter 4 the most. I am mostly lost with the stuff in Chapters 2 and 3 as they were primarily graphically "explained" to us, which I had trouble understanding. Part of the problem may have been the reluctance to use the calculator when the book leaned heavily on the calculator.

So yeah, I believe some of the topics us young Jabbamathees don't quite grasp yet could do with some reintroduction and review to ensure we understand the material before we move on.

Welcome back Mr. K. 

Where Are You Blog-On Blog?

So where are we at? Currently one of the most important thing that I have learned during the past 2 months are:

Note: In chapter 1 I was fine until we landed in limits which I haven't learned in grade 12 pre-cal, which pretty much demoralized me into losing some hope in this class.

A) Chapter 2 - I AM NOT MUCH OF A VISUAL LEARNER! Staring at graphs and imagining them changing into something else with vague information are not friendly to me, why? Well I find it kind of hard to work with them when I can't use algebra, or was given very few information to solve it in that form. (Is not lover of depending on a calculator 24/7 (Seriously whats the point of using a calculator most of a time when half of the exam we wouldn't be using it and or, depending on the career choice, during the rest of our lives? >>;; No offense))

B) Chapter 3 - In integrals, things here began to get better, since there was a bit of algebra involved, and a bit of the old stuff. However I am beginning to sense that in most of the tests there will be a big free response question in it, which I have no idea how to solve.
>_______<; Finally C) Well at the beginning I was fine, until we reached to the part with Leibniz Notation and the Chain Rule, after jumping a couple of chunks in the text book, then I got lost. After a while I eventually caught on; on using the notation, but then I hit another bump on the road when we try to solve for questions involving a combination of the rules, when solving those questions as a class on the board, there were many jumps from one step to another step, which gave me almost no idea on what the heck was going on. Hopefully since, Mr K. came back things are going to be a bit clearer and more detailed, minus any philosophical sayings that may occur in this class. Especially since during these past 2 months I haven't learned as much I as I hoped to. So where are we at BOB? I have no idea, if this was a game of Trouble I would probably be sent back to home base from being stepped on constantly by the other players. Or in terms of Monopoly, to those who doesn't know the rules to Trouble, I would be stuck on the Jail square. T^T

O BOB, WHERE ART THOU?

It's been ice ages since I last did this. Blogging On Blogging. BOB. You get the point. Technically, since blog is derived from weblogging, technically it's WOWing. But speaking of deriving....

I know I go off in tangents, [sines and cosines], but I haven't changed much. I should end the corny talk and just BOB or WOW. Whatever floats your little sailboat. I am fully aware that you don't want an essay, but I'm warning you in advance. What I write is never as short as I am.

Where do I begin? Chapter one was easy after a while, adjusting after summer, but then again, I'm one to talk since I always duplicate my uncommon sense on tests. It's something I do. Something that makes me degrade myself ...and of course my marks. Derivatives...I think it's fair to say that the majority of people found it difficult at first, finding how a function changes [the long way] and so on and so forth, but I'm not even quite sure if I understand it right through my bones or whatever that quote was.

Integrals...was..kind of the same for me.. but later on I caught on to it. Then differentiation rules...I sort of had my break, since I knew what I did wrong before in the previous chapters which seemed to help a teeny bit.

But the main parts that still remain vague to me are graphing parts, and how to graph the derivative of a function without an actual function, I guess, by using inflection points and what not. I can't explain it much because I don't know much about it. It's the thing that's bugging me the most since it's been on every test that we've had so far. Every test that I've ... failed. As well as that, what I don't really get much is how to extract the needed information to solve a word problem with derivatives and the chain rule. I'm sure with new thorough lessons and practice with problems, I can learn this, hopefully good enough to at least live up to my own expectations.

It's good to have things come back to the way things were, with Mr. K back and everything, and I know I might sound kind of weird but the room looked...different today for some reason. I'm just saying that the ROOM itself looked different today. I really don't know why. There's something going on. I'm just saying. A math conspiracy? Or Feng Shui [well besides that the desks were moved around, there was something else.] The point is, we all survived the first two months or so and I don't think any of us will be disappearing like victims in a bad horror movie any longer.

I'm looking forward to starting fresh tomorrow!! Snappity snargle click click boom people!

The Ultimate Bob

I haven't BOB-ed in the longest time.

So our first unit was pretty simple even though I can't remember what we did. I do know it was some sort of...review. The second chapter is much clearer. The whole derivative concept took me a while to understand but all is good now.(Too bad I wasn't this comfortable with it a month ago) Looking back at that test I realized I made the stupidest mistakes and I should've done way better on it. Chapter 3 really clicked in my brain. I found it way simpler than the previous chapter and I understand it really well. Now for our current chapter. What confuses me here are the word problems. I have a hard time figuring out the relationships between the functions. All the other stuff like the rules I can become more comfortable with after some more practice.

Looking at my tests is super depressing but thanks Mr. K for cheering us all up today with your lecture and welcome back!

BOB: Where Are We?

So the Question is, Where are we?

That's exactly what I'd like to know ;_;

Really though, my opinions on the past couple months are these.

The first bit, as everyone has been saying, we easy enough. Review and whatnot, so it wasn't too bad. The hardest thing to do was get used to being in school again.

Then we started derivatives. Now, my personal take on it is, I know lots about derivatives. However I understand almost none of it. I know a derivative describes how a function changes. I dont really understand how to apply this. I have a limited understanding of limits (as these weren't explained in any kind of detail at all. At least not while I was around.)

Next I believe, was integrals. This unit was by far my best, and I understood it's concepts quite well. Much better then say, derivatives.

The third and most recent unit, has been about fifty fifty. I understand the easier differentiation rules, namely the product, power, and to a degree, quotient rules. I also understand some things about the chain rule, although I have almost zero ability to apply it practically (a testament to the lack of understanding I have on the subject.)

Overall, I'm on fairly thin ice here, with less then 50% of the course so far falling in what I could call, "Comprehended material", about 30% in a region of, "mid to low level understanding" and the rest (about 30-40%) in a region of, "Could we try again without the latin?"

Hopefully we can change all that though!

So overall, its been okay, not quite what I was expecting, but I coped, and I'm looking to get back on track :P

BOB-- Where are we

Well, what i have learned? UM.......
In Chapter 1 I only understand a little part of it, baceuse it's most gr12 stuff which i haven't learned yet.
For Chapter2 I still didn't get it, I was even more confused with all the graphing stuff. The beging part seems to be easy then it become more more harder.
Chapter3 becomes a little bit easier than before so I think I did it better than before.
For this Chapter I find fine but the ends were kind of hard!
The end. ^_^

Where we at?! BOB

Okay well, I was in the middle of watching James Bond, then I realized that I had to BOB, James BOB. It actually kinda ruined the movie, haha. First off all, welcome back Mr. K, I'm excited to learn!

Our first unit about graphing was quite simple, it was pretty much a review of our previous years of graphing functions and all that. Not much to say here folks. The second unit about derivtives was pretty tough, the most I remember is about limits, I got the hand of those pretty fast, everything else was kinda blurry.. to say the least especially graphing a derivitive of a funtion from nother graph of a function, talk about confusing. The 3rd unit, was about definite integrals, was this unit short?, because I hardly remember anything about it, I remember rieman sums, but not fully.. actually not much at all only that I can use my calculator for this. This current unit was pretty cool, I felt like I did a lot in this unit because of the product rules and chain rules, and such and such. The chain rule isn't crystal clear, but I'm sure I'll get there. ESPECIALLY SINCE MR. K IS BACK! CAN I GET A HIP HIP!? HURRAY!

Long Lost BOB: Where Are We?

Oh BOB, how I missed you so but not as much as how I, and I'm sure my fellow peers would agree, missed Mr. K. Welcome back you snapping clickity click math teacher we all learned to love.

Anywho, back on topic. Where am I?...is the big question. To put it bluntly, not very far. The first unit was obviously pretty good since it was just review of last year's stuff and the only problems I could say that I had with that unit was trying to jog my memory (I am easily forgetful of things). Overall, nothing more to say here...moving on.

Chapter 2.......TT___TT. I can still safely say that I don't quite understand this unit all that much. I understand that a derivative is the slope of a tangent line and all that jazz, but when it comes to graphing the derivatives of functions...oh boy. Graphing was always my worst enemy and it didn't help that I didn't get how to graph the derivatives in the first place. The only thing I'm confident about graphing for derivatives is the fact that if there's a critical point on the original function, the graph of the derivative will be at 0 there since the slope of the critical point is 0.

Now the last chapter. I can admit that it was a bit easier, but a bit doesn't cut it when I still don't understand derivatives. It especially didn't help when the test's last few questions required knowledge of derivatives and how to GRAPH it and stuff. I really raged hard at that and I'm getting kinda depressed just thinking about it again. Anyways...*sigh*...I understood most of the concepts for this chapter and last year's calculus blog definitely helped with that so I guess there's nothing more to say on this side.

Yep, that's all I have to say really. The current chapter is actually going quite better than the previous two, although I'm kinda iffy on those rates of change comparison things. I think getting more practice would help for sure since I can say that I understand the differentiation rules (at least I think so).

Kay, this is getting a bit long and I know Mr. K doesn't want an essay so I shall stop there. Most of my feelings were expressed and letting anymore be known wouldn't be so pleasant. So toodles for now. :D

Where are We?

Okay so I would like to wish Mr.K a great Welcome Back. The Jedi Master has returned. I hope Dr. Eviatar will have a great teaching career.

Where are We?

Well the last two months have been interesting. Concept-wise the first unit on Functions and Graphs were quite easy since the whole unit was composed of Precalc 40s topics. The next unit on derivatives was a bit more tough because it was a new topic. Again it wasn't all that bad (my test says otherwise -___-"). Near the end of that unit I felt more comfortable about the unit. Drawing the graphs got easier and easier. The next unit, Definite Integrals, was much more easier. At first I was thinking it was harder than the derivatives, but it turns out that I was over thinking the concepts and questions. When I got that straightened out the test became baby's play.

Now the newest unit to our class, the Differentiation Rules and Laws. This topic was quite simple. The rules were really easy to understand. But what I would have liked to see during this unit was the derivation of these rules. Seeing this would have been really great, just like how most of us had experienced Mr. K's teaching skills. One topic in this unit that I still have trouble with is with the Related Rates of Change. If it isn't too much trouble, I was wondering if we could have a brief look at this topic.

Welcome Back Mr.K and let's begin our epic journey on becoming fellow Jedi's of Mr. K
JabbaMatheez Rule...

BOB Version ???: Where Are We?

After having Mr. K as my math teacher since my first semester of grade ten, it was different not having him around in math class for two months. During his absence, we had a revolving door of teachers teaching our class; we were exposed to different teaching styles.

With one teacher, we studied directly from the textbook, using the examples it provided. Although reading the textbook is good, I thought we should have used our class time doing questions from Mr. K's old slides from last year instead of reading our textbook, because I can read my textbook at home instead.

A lot of the content in chapters 2 and 3 were weighted heavily on our calculators and graphing, especially graphing the derivative. As we ventured on into learning more about the derivative, we found out that we can find the derivative of a derivative, the second derivative (and the derivative of the derivative of a derivative, the third derivative, and so on). My muddiest point in learning must have been giving an answer to a question that asks for information when given a second derivative and I have to find something about the original function, or vice-versa, because of taking the "extra steps" involved in obtaining the answer.

On the other hand, chapter 3 was about the integral. Using my knowledge of grade 11 physics, studying the integral was a breeze (compared to studying the derivative).

So to help answer Mr. K's question, "where are we?" or more specifically, "where am I in my learning?" a review of the relationships between a function and its second derivative would be nice.