Starting the School Year Off Right

Before I forget it, I'm going to write down everything I wish I had gone over with my students at the beginning of the year-- that first week of school that is all review. I have realized now some of the skills that my students needed to do the work in my Geometry class that they learned from Algebra I, which is what I'll review at the beginning of school next year.

First, anything with negative numbers, especially adding and subtracting. They always get confused with that. And doing it on a number line. They've had a hard time with the distance between two points on a number line.

Second, graphing on the coordinate plane. They still get the x- and y-axis confused, and which number comes first in an ordered pair.

Third, solving for variables in equations.

Fourth, the equation for a line and the distance formula. I taught my students the distance formula, which I just found out they were supposed to have learned last year and they all looked like they had never seen it before.

And finally, order of operations.