The Math Notebook

The math notebook will be the most important resource that we will use this year.  Is is very important that it be setup properly and kept current every day.

Setting Up The Notebook:

A new notebook will be used for each 9 week period.  The notebook should be a 70 page spiral.

THE COVER

Design a cover for your notebook.  YOUR NAME and HOUR you have class should be plainly visible.  The title either MATH or PRE-ALGEBRA should also be very visible.  You can decorate the cover any way you want.  Many classes use notebooks, so try to make this one easy to tell apart from others.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Every day an entry will be made in this table of contents for that days work.

Reference

The reference section will contain the names of 3 other students and their phone numbers.  These are your study buddies.  These should be friends that you can call when your are absent to get notes and questions about what happened in class when you were gone.  They might also be a resource to study for tests and quizzes or just to get help with homework problems.  Put the address of the 7th grade web page here also.  The address is: www.mustangps.org/~dobbsj

Half Sheets

The sheets cut in half will be used for bell work.  Most days the class will start with a couple of problems on the board to do for bell work.  Tear out a bell work sheet and work the problems on this page to be turned in for bonus points.

WHAT TO DO EACH DAY WITH YOUR NOTEBOOK 

Each day will start on a clean page.  When you come into class, open your notebook to the first blank page and write the objective at the top of that page.  Now go to the table of contents and make an entry for today's work and place the page number where you wrote the objective for today.  Now return to today's page to start taking notes and copying example problems.  When you have finished taking notes, turn to the next blank page and begin your homework.  Place the assignment at the top of the page. Do your assignment in pencil and be neat.  Sloppy work will have points deducted.  Use as many pages as necessary to complete your assignment. 

On days that we have a hand out, (work sheet, quiz or test), an entry in the table of contents is still required and a page should be reserved for the handout.  When you get the graded handout back, glue it on to the page you reserved for it.  Be sure to turn it so the top of the handout is along the spiral bound side of the notebook, then fold the paper in half to fit it into the notebook.

You can see that this notebook is very important.  It contains all of our work, notes, and examples for everything we do in class.  Often quizzes will be open notebook so it is important to keep your notebook current.  When you are absent, there is a running table of contents posted in the room.  Be sure to go there and make the entries in your notebook for the days you missed and complete any make up work in your notebook.