Post 16, December 13, 2010.

• Most of us are getting ready fro the holidays. I enjoy the snow, hot chocolate, sled-ridding and being with my family. I still believe in Santa too! I think that all of us have "Christmas Spirit" and be a Santa at any given time. For example, we are all getting gifts for the children of AYA. This time of year always allows me to reflect on what is important to me and how to share it with others. What are your plans and how do you spend the holidays?

During the holidays I have to divide myself into two pieces. Since my parents are divorced I spend Christmas/Hannukah with one of my parents and then New Year with the other. Normally I go to Mexico with my mom and to Margarita with my dad. This I'll be going to Mexico with my mom to spend Christmas with my stepfather's family over there. And New Year I'll be spending it with my dad here in Caracas with my stepmother's family.

Post 15, December 5, 2010.

• Please write a reflection on the process of your work for the project which is due today!!

This project was very informative about the topic I chose, the Pythagorean Theorem. I had heard about this topic before, but never actually understood it. By researching about it, even though it was not that in depth, helped me understand it a lot better and made me realize how people like Pythagoras proved mathematical concepts with just a theory. I think I chose a pretty difficult topic to understand everything about it, like all the proofs for it, but this investigation helped me a lot. Since I was the very first person in the class to choose any topic and the teacher already had mentioned the Pythagorean Theorem, it was very easy for me to choose it, unlike some other people in the class that had a very hard time picking theirs.

Post 14, November 26, 2010.

• With Thanksgiving this week, what are you thankful for?

There are many many things I am thankful for, for everything I have and am. In other words... I am thankful for being in this wonderful school, with my friends and teachers that are so nice! :) I am thankful for having the family I have, my house, and that my birthday is on Monday, and that I live in a wonderful country (not the president, though...).

Though there are also things I am not so thankful for, but that I don't regret in my life, but that I rather not have or be... For example, I am not thankful that that my parents are not with me all the time or that they are not going to be with me on the day of my birthday. But these are things I can't do anything about...

I am thankful for having enough money to pay for this school and to have something to eat, also to have things that not everybody has... :)

Post 13, November 22, 2010.

• Talk to me about how your project is going...which is due December 6th!

My project is fine. I have investigated a lot about my topic, which is the Pythagorean Theorem and found many interesting information about bit that I didn't know before. I have created my website, but I haven't included any of the information, yet, since it is not complete. Once I finish researching I will start putting the information in the website. I think that I chose a very fascinating topic and that my website will end up very nice and informative. :)

Post 12, November 11, 2010.

• What has been the most difficult topic so far this year? Why? Do you understand it now?

The topics that have been the most difficult, or most confusing, for me so far in math class are the ones about Logic (lesson 2-2) and Conditional Statements (2-3). In the topic of Logic, it talks about truth tables, conjunctions, disjunctions, and the Venn diagrams. What I don't have very clear is the part about the Venn diagrams and how they are used to solve a problem like the ones you included in the exam. For example, "A travel agency surveyed a group of 215 high school students. The survey results showed that 86 students have been to Mexico, 106 have been to Canada, and 59 have been to both. Draw a Venn diagram to represent the data." Of course, in the exam I got this question wrong because I didn't know what to do. In the topic of Conditional Statements, I don't understand the part about logically equivalent statements, contrapositive, inverse, and converse statements. I still don't understand these topics.

Post 11, November 8, 2010.

• What is the best way you learn in the math class and why?

I learn better when I had a good night sleep the night before so that I'm concentrated during the class. If I didn't get a very good sleep, it gets very hard for me to be able to concentrate when the teacher is explaining things. Also when I'm sitting next to someone that lets me work and that works well when I'm sitting next to them. When I'm sitting next to someone that is very talkative, I get distracted a lot and don't pay attention. Another good way I learn in math class could be listening to music. I love listening to music while I do homework and school work, but sometimes I do get distracted if I know the song's lyrics... :)

Post 10, October 28, 2010.

• Explain ways you have used math recently in your life....math class doesn't count :)

In my life I have used math in several ways, for example, today was the VANAS volleyball tournament. I used math when my team won points and calculated the difference from the points of the other team. Another way I have used math was during the day when I look at my watch and calculate how many minutes I have left to go to the next class. Also, when I went to buy clothes in the weekend, the store had discounts of 10-30% so I had to calculate how much money I had to pay and if I paid in cash how much money would be left. When I wanted to eat a chocolate I took a look at how many calories it had and compared them to a diet of 2000 calories.

Post 9, October 21, 2010.

• My perfect math class would be...

My perfect math class would be working on World Math Day all class! I know that it has not started yet, but it is very fun, entertaining, and educational. Another class I would enjoy quite a lot would be talking with my friends all class, but of course, that is practically impossible... But I'm just saying...

Post 8, October 11, 2010.

• Pretend you are a shape. What shape would you be and why?

If I was a shape, I would like to be an "infinigon"! Though actually, since an infinigon has an infinite amount of side, it is considered to be a circle. I would like to be an infinigon because, first of all, it sounds very cool, and second of all because then, I would be able to roll everywhere I want. If I were a square, squares can't roll and it is hard for the to move, and so is a triangle. If I am an infinigon/circle, it would be easier to move around and it would be faster.

Post 7, October 4th, 2010.

• Explain how your world would be different if you were only 12 inches tall.

If I were only 12 inches tall, my life would be completely different. I would not be able to reach some things that are on tables or chairs or higher... It would be really hard to adapt socially to my environment, people would just stare at me and say, "She is so weird...". I guess, things would be made to adapt to my size, for example, my clothes and other things I use in my everyday life, like desks and my bed. But I suppose I would have to adapt myself to the situation. Since I am a very tall person, it is very hard for me to imagine how I would be if I were just 12 inches tall... very hard... Specially when I am talking to someone they would have to, literally look down to the floor to even see me, and I guess my voice would also change to be proportional to my size, so it would be hard or people to hear me from way down there...

Post 6, September 22, 2010.

• Explain what math you used during your Lagunazo trip.

In the Lagunazo trip there were several ways in which I used math. Most of them were during the Amazing Race. There were several posts which were about math. For example, there was one post that had riddles and one riddle was that we had to add and subtract some numbers and convert them into Roman numerals and the result gave us a word, and the word was MIX; M=1000, I=1, and X=10. Another way that I used math was using a compass. On the second day, the guides gave us the coordinates of the posts, for example 240 degrees, and we had to guide ourselves with the compass. While doing the Race, one group started 10 or 15 minutes before the other, so when we had to start first, we had to hurry up, so that the other group did not catch up with us; we had to calculate the time that the other team started and where we were to avoid them catching up with us.

Geometry Project

I began the project by researching what are latitude and longitude and what are the average monthly temperatures in cities in the USA. I found the definitions in the dictionary, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/latitude and http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/longitude.

After looking for the definitions I looked for a web site that had information about the average monthly temperatures for all or some cities in the USA and found several web sites, http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0762183.html, http://countrystudies.us/united-states/weather/, and a site for some southern cities, http://www.travelsouthusa.com/weather/.

Then I looked for the latitude and longitude of the cities and found this web site, http://www.bcca.org/misc/qiblih/latlong_us.html.

Post 4, September 3, 2010.

My opinion about the project for this quarter is that apart from being just about math, we can apply what we learn, for example, in Technology Class about creating web pages and Geography looking for the places in a map and finding their latitude and longitude. Though it doesn't have to do with Geometry, it is still very informative and educational. I also think that it is very long and it requires several steps to complete, but these are not that hard. I think that the hardest part will be crating the web page because finding the latitude and longitude of a place is quite simple and the making scatter plots, too.

Post 3, August 30, 2010.

Questions to Mr. Davis:

1. Is math in other languages or countries different than how we know it?

I'm curious to know if my friend in Beijing learns the same things and the same way I do, but instead of being in English, in Chinese.

2. What is a "base prime"?

I want to know this because in one problem of this week´s Problem of the Week, I saw this term in the question and didn't know. I had to ask my brother to help me, but still didn't quite understand.

3. What is the most interesting topic in mathematics for you?

I want to know just out of curiosity. :)

Post 2, August 22, 2010.

• How do you best study for math exams and what grades are you expecting in math this year?

When I have a math exam, I study for it by reviewing first some concepts that I don't have very clear. Then I do some examples of those problems and examples of the rest of the problems that go for the exam. This year in math I would like to get at least 6's in the exams and as the final grade. Because I have high expectations for myself, I have to try my best to achieve this goal and study very hard.

Post 1, August 12, 2010.

• What do you expect from math class this year?

This year in math I expect things to get a bit harder. Even though we are seeing Geometry this year and it is different from what we saw last year in Algebra, what we learnt, we are going to apply some of that in Geometry. I expect to work more on word problems and applying the concepts we learn in the lessons, to real-life situations. Also to work on the IXL program Mr. Davis talked about and the rewards we could have if we do our homework. I expect to get better grades in the tests and quizzes and like math more because it is a very important subject and will use it for the rest of my life.