Hello to all of my wonderful, brilliant, hard-working Pre-Algebra students!
I know workshop can be pretty intense, but I need to make sure each and every one of you know how to do the problems that were on Friday's quiz correctly. Make sure you have your Math notebook and a pencil out and ready to go if you are in workshop.
Some of the things I'm noticing:
While many of you are able to use the number-line system in your head to solve for the adding of integers, mental math can sometimes be tricky. If you use this method, you can always check your answer by using the abolute value method (see previous post).
Remember that, when using the absolute value method, you must find the difference between the two absolute values - many of you are then adding those absolute values, but you must find the difference.
Example:
3 + (-5)
Absolute values: 3, 5 ---> What's the difference between these numbers? (How many numbers between 3 and 5?)
There is a difference of 2.
Is the 2 negative or positve? 5 is the greatest absolute value - and the original number was -5. Therefore, our answer is negative: -2
Keep practicing the KFC method for subtraction. And remember, once you turn your subtraction problem into addition (adding the opposite), forget the subtraction problem ever existed. Some of you are using the absolute value method for the addition part and then are looking back at the subtraction problem to figure out if your answer is negative or positive. Sometimes it's a good idea to just cross it out - that way you'll remember to just treat the problem exactly like an addition problem:
See you tomorrow for more workshop.
