What are your plans and how do you spend the holidays?

My plan for the holidays is staying here in Caracas with my family. We were planning t go to Brazil and having my entire family together but everyone has plans this year. So, we decided to stay here and celebrate Christmas together. I remember, when I was younger, once we had this party at my aunts and everybody came and everyone was there, it was really fun. The way I spend my holidays is usually like that. With everybody just there, with you celebrating. Every year we do a Secret Santa in the family. And we are always together. I don’t really know why everyone just decided to travel; we never did that before but... Every Christmas, someone of my family, usually a funny chubby uncle dresses up as Santa Claus and pretends he is Santa for my little cousins. We always have so much fun. That happens in Christmas Eve. In the next day, we always go have lunch in my gran grandmother's house. Christmas is one of my favorites Holiday.

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

Well, if I would reflect on my project I would say that the hardest part of the project was the part where I had to explain exactly what the Pythagoras theory is. I think that I did a good job on processing my work. First I did almost 1 page talking about the Babylonians. And then I did the same thing with the Pythagoreans. I discovered the word meaning of radical expressions and squares roots. And I discovered really cool things about the origin of these words. I didn’t know a lot of things about the Babylonians and Pythagoras now I know, it’s funny how its called Babylonians because if sounds babyish. When the easiest part of the project for me I think was on finding information. Because there is so many sites talking about this so, it wasn’t that hard. I think I did a good job in this project and I think that I putted a lot into it and that my information and organization were very good.

With Thanksgiving this week, what are you thankful for?

I am thankful for so many things. So many great things happened in my life in this couple of years. I am thankful for my health, good furtune, friends, family, karma etc. And I am also thankful for my mom and my stepfather, who I consider my father for everything he has done to us. I study in a great school, I have so many awesome friends and I just have to be thankful for everything that happened in my life. Yesterday I lived in Brazil, didn’t speak Spanish or English and didn’t have any idea about what its like to be out of your country and accept new ideas. Today I have new ideas, I know a different culture I am more open-minded and I am just so happy to have this. I know that that will help me so much in my life. I am thankful to my family and to god. Thank you so much for this opportunity in life.

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

My projet is going fine. I am almost finishing my research, which is about radical expressions and triangles. I already picked a topic to my project on, I fond two people who contributed to the study of this topic. And that is Pythagoras, who was a Greek mathematician that helped the research of this topic and Decartes, who was the first one to use and present the first version of the symbol for radical expressions. I learned that no one really "invented" the sign - it developed over the years. Which is really cool since the first person who invented it died. I Wrote the contributions that these two people made to the topic you have chosen.and all I need to do know is to display one problem that one of your chosen people proposed or solved. And the conclusion. So, I am doing fine in my project and I will have it ready for December 6th.

ps. This picture does not show how I am doing my project

Explain ways you have used math recently in your life

I have used a lot of math lately in math. We use math every day, sometimes we use math and we don't even notice that. for example: we use a lot of math when we go to grocery stores or malls. We have to count and figure out how much money we have to pay. We also use a lot of percentage of change for example when we calculate taxes and sales when we are buying something. I also use a lot of math when it comes to dates. I am always counting how many days its left for mine or my friends birthday. And also in science. We use a lot of math in science. like when we are doing an experiment, we have to know how much water, and things to put in the experiment and count how much we put it so the experiment will work. So, we can see that we can use math in a lot of ways in our lives.

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

The most difficult topic for me this year for me so far would be the topic on probality, the part on finding the odds. It wasn’t that hard I think that I didn’t understand it very well because I wasn’t paying attention to the explanation and it took me a while to understand it. And I think it’s also because I don’t like fractions that much. For me that was the most difficult one but, it’s not difficult anymore.

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

The best way I learn math is by understanding it. There is a lot of ways to learn math. You can learn math by just reading the steps of a book and memorazing them. You can also ask your teacher to tell you what you have to do and you pratice it. You can just start doing something without even knowing what to do. But the best way I learm math is by looking at the book, my math teacher explaining to me what the book is talking about. and then I do some exercises to show that I understand it and that I know what I am doing. So, it is a little bit of all the ways of learning math together.

The perfect math class

Every teacher and every students wants a perfect math class. A perfect math class would be just.... perfect. With perfect timing, every student would be there on time with every ting ready to start the class. Without having the teacher to ask them to pay more attention or just to stop talking. The perfect math class would have a perfect level. Every student would have the same level of understand, following rules, dificulty and consentration.And the perfect class would also have a great Instructor, you can't have a perfect class without having a great teacher. And the perfect class would be perfect if it hadnt fun stuff. What would a math class be without a little fun? We, students love to have fun in class. some times us, students get a little bored without any fun. For me that would be the perfect math class. And ill have to admit that our class is not too far away from being the perfect math class.

Explain how your world would be different If you were 12 inches tall

I think that my world would be very different. I couldn’t do a lot of things that I can do now. I would have to wear boring and baby cloth, if I am 12 inches tall than my feet would be also very small. I would have to wear baby shoes and I wouldn’t do cool things such as going to amusement parks and ride rollercoasters. I wouldn’t be able to ride my bike and I would never ride a car with such a small size. I wouldn’t be able to do a lot of things a love to do now. And for me it would be horrible to be 12 inches tall.

My data

To this journal i tried to find three different places and show the similarities between them. I got a chart from the USA. One chart from the UK and a world graph. They all predict that after 2010 we would have a way lot more of population just like in the article we read and this is my data. I chose those graphs because i think they show a message about the future and the past and we can see our past and predict our future so, that’s why I chose those graphs.

A world population graph

USA Graph

UK Graph

Can You Fit 100 Candles on a Cake?

About it: I think that it is a very interesting because, we can really predict and have an idea of what could happen one day and by looking at our past we can see how much of our population density has grow and we can predict that in 2020 we are going to have problems with that because more and more people are dying with more than 100 years. I diffidently agree with that. i think that that could happen and it will. It will get until a point that people will start to die with a lot more than 100 years i can tell that by looking at my great-grandmother and my greatgrandmother. My greatgrandmother died when she was only 60 years old and my great-grandmother is 85 and is still alive healthier than ever. And my grandmother is 65 and is also alive so we can say that it will increase and increase and increase and more and more people will be dyeing with more than 100 years.

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

by: Rafaela de Figueiredo

The best way of studing for math is to review, not just mentually but with a sheet of paper and practice problems of math, and if you see you don't understand something, ask or your teacher (before the exam) or to your parents, but make sure you understand how to do them before the exam. It is also important to know when to study. Don't study when your really tired or bored... for example, when it cames to math dont stop at any point and live it like that. Finish your problems and your lessons. Work it out. There are A people who dont study at all and always have the best grades. And there are other people who really struggle in school even though they are smart, to get good grades. You have to know your best way of studing, so you get an A every quarter in math. The way I study is that I put time for myself for example: 7:00-8:00 Wake up (1 hour: shower, eat, watch Tv, etc...)8:00-9:30 Study (1.5 hours) 9:30-10:00 BREAK (0.5 hours)and at 10:00-11:30 Study (one more 1.5 hour)and just make a schedule on weekends, in that way you will never get tired or bored while studing. I am expecting for this year better grades because, last year I sometimes did study. Sometimes not. So, i am expecting to have better grades in math because i am going to put my effot into math and into school and i am going to do my homework without any exeption. This is my goal for math this year and that's what i want for me.

What are my expectations for this year in math?

Rafaela de Figueiredo

Algebra – Mr.Davis

August 13, 2010


I expect a lot more knowledge this year. I expect to know a way more in algebra than what I did in 7th grade. We can get really confused in the middle of an equation if we don’t understand something at the beginning, like basic steps or how to solve simple equations so I expect good explanations that should help me in math. I expect an awesome year in algebra and I hope I get out of there learning much more than just algebra. How to work with a calculator, respect with the other classmates etc. I am not a big fan of math, and I know this is the last thing you say to your math teacher but because of that, I know that I have to work harder than the other students who really love math to get a 7. So “LETS DU IT.”