Carol's Blog, 2005 archive

Wednesday, January 18, 2005
I've fixed a bug on the Combining Like Terms web exercise; an answer of zero was mistakenly being reported as an empty string.

I've been fighting for two days with Adobe Reader. It had been "bugging" me for weeks to download the newer version, to which I kept clicking "NO!" because past experience has shown that upgrading can cause me hours and hours of frustration with things not working. Well, this experience has again been confirmed! The new version (7.05) is not working; it will not display PDF links in my web browser. I get a blank page, and then everything freezes. I have un-installed and re-installed, scanned my entire system for spyware and viruses, gone through massive amounts of Adobe "troubleshooting" stuff, and have still come up empty. SIGH. I just have to let it go for now, because I've got so much to do. (I even tried to just re-download an earlier version of Adobe Reader, and that also failed to work.)

Last night, I got to see Al Gore's address at Constitution Hall in Washington, DC, given on January 16th. Unbelievable. His historical perspective, his understanding of the workings of our government, his eloquent and dynamic delivery, made it the best address I have heard by a politician in many, many years. Well worth your time. This copy of his speech doesn't even come close to seeing him deliver it himself, but it's better than nothing.

Tuesday, January 3, 2005
I've finished the Solving Systems Using Elimination exercise. It now has all types of systems: unique solutions, no solutions, infinitely many solutions. School starts up again for us tomorrow. Happy New Year, everyone!

Friday, December 30, 2005
I have a preliminary version of the Solving Systems Using Elimination exercise up and running.
There are still more different types of problems coming, but this is a start.
This one has taken quite a long time, because I've had to write a bunch of new macros to automatically generate the MathML for equations of the type  ax + by = c .

Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Happy Holidays, everyone!
Things are settling down a bit, and I actually got some web work done today.
I finally wrote the "no solutions" and "infinitely many solutions" examples in the Solving Systems Using Substitution exercise.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Fixed a minor glitch on the "Approximating Radicals" exercises in Section 22.
Rurika Oka has gotten the time on the multi-step exponent problems down to 3.3 seconds per problem. Unbelievable!!

Sunday, December 11, 2005
A bunch of girls are having lots of fun with Algebra Pinball!
I've decided to include links to previous scores, so people can see the "evolution" of the fast times.
First international entry, thanks to Rurika Oka!
I put my "Condo for Sale" information online again.

Thursday, December 8, 2005
Did a lot more work on the Solving Systems Using Substitution exercise. Lots more coming: there will be more variety, systems with no solutions, systems with a whole line of solutions.
Also, I got several more timed exercises posted on Algebra Pinball. I'm trying to figure out a way to get an audience outside of Miss Hall's involved in this. Offering "Quick Quiz" points to my students for getting people from other schools to participate seems like one small step to get things started! Also, I'll be offering the option of faxing the "time sheets" to the school instead of mailing them.

Wednesday, December 7, 2005
I decided to create my own blog!
Also, I uploaded a preliminary version of Solving Systems Using Substitution in the emerging Algebra II curriculum.


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