What's Going On? December 19th through December 22nd

Class Kick Session: Sunday, December 18th from 1pm-2pm
In preparation for Monday's Unit 6 Summative Assessment on Polygons and Quadrilaterals, I will be offering a Class Kick session where students can get some extra help on our review assignment.  After taking a poll of students, the majority of the vast majority of students voted to hold our session on Sunday, December 18th from 1pm-2pm.  The class code is KWP 3OF.  Even if you cannot join our official session, I encourage students to still use the Class Kick app as there are embedded videos explaining each problem.  Also, if students get stuck, have a question, or need me to check a question they can "raise a hand" or ask me to "please check" and I can leave feedback.  I will do my best to check in with Class Kick a few times over the weekend.  Please also note that the answer key for our review assignment is posted on BlackBoard.  Happy studying!

School Schedule for the Week
Since this is a four day week leading up to our winter break, our schedule will look a little different.  We will not run a traditional "Monday Schedule".  Instead, we will run our typical "Tuesday schedule" on Monday, our "Wednesday schedule" on Tuesday, our "Thursday schedule" on Wednesday and our "Friday schedule" on Thursday.  We will also have a modified schedule on Thursday with a pep assembly at the end of the day.

Honors Geometry Schedule for the Week

We will start the week by completing our Unit 6 Summative Assessment on Polygons and Quadrilaterals.  This assessment will cover our 3c learning target on solving for missing measurements and our 2c learning target on proving theorems about quadrilaterals.  

I will not be in class on Tuesday, but on this day students will spend some time reviewing how to write equations of lines.  This is a topic that students have struggled with in the past and it is definitely something students will need to know as they progress on to Honors Algebra 2 and future math classes.  On our last day of class for the week, we will go through our unit 6 summative assessment results and review any problems with which students continue to struggle.

Winter Break

Winter break is Friday, December 23rd through January 2nd.  School will resume on Tuesday, January 3rd.  I hope everyone enjoys this break and has time to relax and spend time with family and friends!  Stay warm!

What's Going On? December 12th through 16th

Unit 6: Polygons and Quadrilateral

This week we will spend some more time working with the concepts we learned throughout our polygons and quadrilaterals unit.  On Monday, students will work in small groups to create videos with Explain Everything in order to create a class library of how to solve problems based on different shape characteristics.

On Tuesday and Wednesday of the week, students will work on our "Polygons and Quadrilaterals Detectives In-Training" project.  On Tuesday, students will work in small groups to choose four quadrilaterals. Students will need to determine the coordinates of their vertices, making sure to work within the constraints of the project.  On Wednesday, students will switch their quadrilaterals with another group.  The students will use their detective skills to classify the quadrilateral based on the properties graphed.

On the last day of class for the week, students will complete our review assignment in order to prepare for our summative assessment on Monday, December 19th.  Any students who are interested in retaking our unit 5 summative assessment will need to have this completed by December 16th.  Please see me if you have any questions!

What's Going On? December 5th through December 9th

Continuing with Unit 6: Polygons and Quadrilaterals

This week we will continue our study of unit 6 and we will continue our focus on quadrilaterals.  On Monday I will not be in class (I will be working with the yearbook club picture day), so students will watch the Kites and Trapezoids video to guide through the notes and then will have the rest of the class period to work on our homework assignment.  On Tuesday we will go through any questions that students had from Monday's video, we will review our properties of polygons and quadrilaterals, and do a formal formative check-in on how the unit is going so far.  We will finish up the week by looking at quadrilaterals in the coordinate plane (think: graph) and how to formalize a proof of quadrilaterals in the coordinate plane.

Interested in Computer Science? Try An Hour of Code!

December 5th through 9th is Computer Science Education Week and people all around the country and world are participating in the "Hour of Code".  Tens of millions of people in over 180 countries have participated in an "Hour of Code" event.  North will be hosting an "Hour of Code" event on Thursday, December 8th after school from 3:15-4:15 in computer lab 300.  If you would like to learn a little bit more about computer programming, please join us!  Please see me if you have any questions.

What's Going On? November 28th through December 2nd

Unit 6: Polygons and Quadrilaterals

This week we will be starting our sixth unit on polygons and quadrilaterals.  We will begin the week talking about interior angles and exterior angles.  Students will use the formula 180(n-2) to find the sum of the interior angles of a polygon, where n represents the number of sides in the polygon.  We will also learn that one set of exterior angles of a polygon will always add to 360°.

Later in the week we will focus on quadrilaterals.  We will learn about parallelograms, apply our knowledge of parallelograms to a formal two-column proof to show that a quadrilateral is a parallelogram, and we will learn about the characteristics of special parallelograms.

What's Going On? November 21st and November 22nd

Finishing Up Unit 5: Triangle Relationships

During this short week leading up to Thanksgiving, we will be finishing up our fifth unit on Triangle Relationships.  During Monday's class, students will have the opportunity to complete our unit 5 practice test and ask questions.  On Monday night, students are invited to join our "Class Kick" session.  Students can download the "Class Kick" app on their iPads and work on their review assignment using class code "OL9 EE2".  I can then check in with students, respond to questions, and review the work that students are doing outside of school.  This would be an awesome time to get some extra help!

For this summative assessment, students will be asked to demonstrate their knowledge on three learning targets.  The first target is 3c: I can solve for missing measurements.  Students will be asked to solve for missing measurements in triangles using our triangle relationship properties that we learned about during the unit.

Students will be asked to solve questions like the one below:

The second target is 1c: I can perform geometric constructions.  Throughout the unit, students learned about four different points of concurrency.  We learned about the "incenter", the point that allows us to draw a circle inside a triangle and just touch each side.  We learned about the "circumcenter", the point that allows us to draw a circle outside of the triangle that just touches each vertex.  We learned about the "centroid", or the balance point for the triangle, and we learned about the "orthocenter", the point where all of the altitudes of a triangle meet.

For this section, students will be asked to solve questions like:

The owner of an amusement park is looking for ways to increase revenue.  She has an idea that for every three attractions, she would like to add a new snack stand that is the same distance from the three attractions.  Where should the new snack stand be located for the dragon boat ride, the roller coaster and the carousel?  Explain your answer.

For the last section of the test, students will address target 2a: I can write an equation.

For this section, students will be asked to answer questions like:

Write the equation for median AX.

What's Going On? November 14th through November 18th

Unit 5: Triangle Relationships

This week we will start our fifth unit for the year.  During this very quick unit, we will focus on properties and relationships that exist within in a single triangle.  We will only have four lessons that go along with this unit and students should expect a summative on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving break.  

During this unit, we will focus on four different learning targets:

• 1c: I can make formal geometric constructions, including points of concurrency.
• 1e: I can prove theorems about congruent triangles.
• 
  2c: I can write equations of lines.
• 3c: I can compute, solve and analyze geometric shapes and measures.

Students will learn about different points of concurrency that exist within triangles. While learning about these points, students will write equations for altitudes, perpendicular bisectors, and medians of a triangle. We will also use a free app called "Geometry: Constructions Tutor (Lite)" in order to work more with constructions. Students should have this app installed for Monday's class.

We will start off the week talking about angle bisectors in triangles. We will learn about a point known as the "incenter" that allows us to draw a circle that just touches all three sides of a triangle.

Next, we will talk about perpendicular bisectors in triangles.  We will learn about a point known as the "circumcenter" that allows us to draw a circle that passes through all three vertices of the triangle.

We will talk about medians in triangles.  We will do an activity where students find the "centroid" of a triangle.  This is the magic "balance point" of the triangle.

Lastly, we will talk about altitudes.  Students will construct an "orthocenter" of a triangle which is where all three altitudes of the triangle intersect.

What's Going On? November 7th through November 11th

Finishing Up Unit 4: Triangle Congruence

Last week, students investigated triangle congruence shortcuts.  Students learned about five different shortcuts that we can use to say that two triangles are the exact same size and shape: SSS, SAS, ASA, SAA/AAS, and HL Congruence.  We also learned about two shortcuts that are not sufficient to prove that two triangles are congruent: SSA and AAA.

This week we will be finishing up our fourth unit on triangle congruence.  On the first two days of the week, we will focus on proving two triangles congruent with a formal two-column proof.

We will also take this one step further.  Once we prove that the two triangles are congruent, we will be able to say that their corresponding parts are also congruent using CPCTC (Corresponding Parts of Congruent Triangles are Congruent).

At the end of the week we will review and complete our fourth unit summative assessment.

Reminder: Unit 3 Summative Retakes are Due Soon!

Students who would like to take a retake on one or both sections of our unit 3 summative must have this completed before our next summative.  In order to be eligible for a retake, students must:

• Make sure that all formative work from unit 3 is complete. Please verify this in Infinite Campus.
• Students must make corrections on the original assessment.
• E-Mail Mrs. Kamenar to request extra practice and complete it.
• Schedule your retake.

Please see me if you have any questions.

Parent Teacher Conferences

This is just a reminder that parent-teacher conferences are scheduled for this Thursday, November 10 from 4:30-7:30pm.  Parents and students can meet with teachers at this time in the field house.  I will be available to talk about student progress and goal setting at this time.  

What's Going On? October 31st through November 4th

Unit 4: Triangle Congruence

Last week, students studied properties that exist within triangles.  We talked about isosceles triangles, midsegments of triangles, the triangle inequality theorem and the side-angle theorem.

This week students will continue our study of triangle congruence.  On the first day of the week, students will participate in a review of important concepts and complete a formative assessment to make sure that we're on the right track with our knowledge and to clear up any misconceptions.

Later on in the week, students will explore triangle congruence shortcuts.  

In order to say that we know that two polygons are congruent, we need to be able to say that all of their corresponding sides are congruent and all of their corresponding angles are congruent.  However, some shortcuts do exist if we are dealing with triangles.

During class this week, students will "discover" some triangle congruence shortcuts.  We will then be able to apply this knowledge to formally prove that two triangles are congruent using a two-column proof.  

What's Going On? October 24th through October 26th

Unit 4: Triangle Congruence

During this short week, Honors Geometry students will begin our fourth unit of study on triangle congruence.  During our three days of class, we will talk about the properties of isosceles triangles, the midsegments of triangles, and triangle inequality.  Students will learn about different properties associated with triangles and will learn how to solve for missing measurements.  This will lay the groundwork for our work on proving that we know two triangles are congruent in the following week.

What's Going On? October 17th through October 21st

Finishing Up Unit 3: Properties of Parallel Lines

This week students will be finishing up our study on the properties of parallel lines.  We will spend Monday's class reviewing how to write the equation of a line and two column proofs.  We will be working with the Google Slides app during class, so please make sure that this is downloaded from the app store or from "Self Service".

On Tuesday, we will take a look at spherical geometry.  We have been talking about Euclidean geometry so far in class (and will continue this throughout the rest of the year), but on Tuesday we will take a moment to talk about spherical geometry.  Students: prepare to have your MINDS BLOWN!

We know that in Euclidean Geometry, parallel lines are lines in the same plane that will never intersect.  When we take a look at spherical geometry, ALL LINES INTERSECT!  

For our study of spherical geometry, we will be drawing on balloons.  This makes it much easier to visualized 3D concepts.  

We will finish up our week with a review and our unit 3 summative assessment.  This assessment will cover two major targets: properties of parallel lines and writing linear equations.  

A Note About Unit 2 Summative Retakes

This week is the last week students can take advantage of a unit 2 summative retake (by Thursday).  In order to be eligible for a test retake, students must have completed all formative work (check Infinite Campus), must make corrections on the original assessment, and complete the extra practice.  Students must notify Mrs. Kamenar about when they would like to come in to make corrections (before school, during lunch or after school on Tuesday or Thursday in Homework Club), e-mail Mrs. Kamenar about which section(s) of the test they would like to retake, and make an appointment for the retake.  Please DO NOT try to accomplish all of these tasks in one day!

What's Going On? October 10th through October 14th

Parallel Lines

Last week we started our third unit on parallel lines.  We talked about the special relationships that exist between angles that are created by two parallel lines cut by a transversal.  

This week we will start off the week by reviewing the vocabulary learned last week by completing a set of station activities.  Students will engage with the vocabulary and identify relationships between angles.  Later on in the week we will talk about how we can prove that lines are parallel based on angle relationships.  We will apply our knowledge while we complete two-column proofs.

Students should be prepared to see a couple of formative check-ins this week so that we can make sure that we clear up any misconceptions before our next summative.

What's Going On? October 3rd through 7th

Monday: Unit 1 Summative Assessment Retakes are Due!

Students who are interested in retaking the unit 1 summative have until Monday to do so.  Please remember that students must follow all steps of the process:

1. All formative work must be complete for the unit (please verify this in Infinite Campus)
2. Corrections must be made on the original assessment
3. Students should e-mail Mrs. Kamenar to request extra practice for the section(s) they would like to retake (kkamenar@waukesha.k12.wi.us)
4. Students must complete the retake before our next summative (Due by MONDAY 10/3)

If you have not made arrangements with me for a time to complete your retake, please do so ASAP!

Finishing Up Unit 2: Reasoning and Proof

For Monday's class, students will need to bring in their completed unit 2 practice test.  We will make sure that we clear up questions that students have before our summative assessment on Tuesday.  Once we have answered questions, students will play a review game called "Castle Attack". Each team will start with 5 castles. Students will work in teams to solve problems like they will see on Tuesday's summative.  If a team gets a question correct, they can choose to either add two castles to their own team or remove two castles from other teams.  (There is a maximum of 5 castles per team).  The team at the end with the most castles wins!

During Tuesday's class, students will complete our second summative assessment.  For this assessment, we will cover two learning targets:

• 1b: I can use the basic language of logic
• 1d: I can prove theorems about lines and angles.

Students will demonstrate their understanding of logic statements and indirect proof in the first section of the test.  On the second section, students will demonstrate their knowledge of basic algebraic and geometric two column proofs.

MAP Testing

On Wednesday of this week, freshmen will complete the MAP test.  We will meet in the West Lecture Hall in the junior hallway to complete this assessment.  Students will need to have the NWEA MAP app installed on their iPads before Wednesday's class.






Unit 3: Parallel Lines

On the last day of class for the week, we will start our study of unit 3.  In this unit, students will examine patterns that are formed when two parallel lines are crossed by a transversal.  Students will then apply their knowledge of these relationships in order to prove a relationship between two angles.

What's Going On? September 26th through 30th

Unit 1 Summative Retake Policy

This past week students took our first summative assessment for our first unit on the Basics of Geometry.  I would like to take a few moments to remind everyone of some of our policies regarding grades and retakes.  Students who are interested in retaking one or more sections of the assessment must complete the following steps:

• Make sure that all formative work is complete for the unit.  This includes all homework assignments and formative check-ins.  Students can check out Infinite Campus to check the status of work completion for the unit.
• Students should make an appointment to complete their corrections on the original assessment.  These corrections can be completed before school, after school, or during lunch.  Please contact me to arrange a time.
• Students should send me an e-mail requesting extra practice for the section(s) they would like to retake.  For example:

                 Mrs. Kamenar,

                 This is Sam Smith from your 1st period Honors Geometry class.  I would like to retake the                    1a section from our Unit 1 Summative.  Could you please send me some extra practice?

                 Sincerely,
                         Sam Smith

• Students should make arrangements to complete the retake of the assessment before our next summative assessment (Unit 2 assessment is scheduled for Tuesday, October 4th).
• Please note that the retake score will be entered into Infinite Campus, even if the score is lower than the original assessment.
• Also note that a score of "IE" in two or more learning targets will result in a failing grade for the course.  Students who scored an "IE" on our last assessment should start preparing for a retake. 

MAP Testing

Freshman students enrolled in Honors Geometry will be completing our math MAP test soon in order to chart student growth in mathematical understanding throughout the year.  Students will need to have the "NWEA MAP" app installed on their iPads in order to complete the assessment.  I will start checking iPads this week to make sure that all students have the app installed before our MAP testing window opens on October 4th.

Unit 2: Reasoning and Proof

This week we will continue our unit on the introduction to reasoning and proof.  Last week students were introduced to logic statements and we started to apply proof practices to solving Algebra problems.  This week we will continue to work with logical reasoning statements in order to formulate our logical reasoning in Geometry.  Students will be able to walk through a proof problem step-by-step and justify their reasoning for being able to perform each step.

What's Going On? September 19th through September 23rd

Our First Summative Assessment!

This week Honors Geometry students will take our unit 1 summative assessment on the Basics of Geometry.  In order to prepare for this assessments, students should make sure that they Unit 1 Practice Test is complete by Monday's class.  If students have questions about the review, they can check out the answer key posted on BlackBoard.  Additionally, students created a class library of videos walking through each problem.  So, if a student is stuck on problem #19, they can view the problem #19 video.  The video links were posted on BlackBoard and are also accessible by clicking here.  During class on Monday we will go over questions and play a review game.  Our summative assessment will take place on Tuesday.  Students need to make sure that they have the necessary tools for the summative, including a compass, straight edge (ruler), and a calculator.


Unit 2: Reasoning and Proof

After our summative assessment, we will move on to our second unit: Reasoning and Proof.  During the last two class periods of the week, students will work with logical statements.  Students will work on writing logic statements and will examine if the statement is true or not.

For example, we might look at a conditional statement such as

"If I just ate a whole pint of ice cream, then I'm not hungry".  

Students will find that this original statement is true.  Students can also write a converse of the statement where the first and second part of the statement switch places.  The converse of this original statement would be "If I'm not hungry, then I just ate a whole pint of ice cream."  Students can list a whole bunch of other reasoning why someone is not hungry rather than just eating a pint of ice cream, so this statement would be considered false.

We will use this idea on our examination of logic statements to evaluate geometric definitions.  For example: 

"If a figure is a square, then it has four equal angles."

Students will learn how to examine statements like a mathematician in order to form logical arguments.  This unit will lay the foundation for our study of proof that will continue throughout the first semester.

What's Going On? September 12th through 16th

Unit 1: Basics of Geometry

This week we will continue our study on the basics of Geometry.  Since this is our first full week of school, we will meet four times.  During these four class periods, we will look at angle relationships that exist when we have two intersecting lines.  We will also take our knowledge of geometry to the coordinate plane.  This study will allow us to study the relationship between geometry and algebra while we look at the distance and midpoint formulas.  For our last concept with the unit, we will define a "polygon" and be able to classify a shape based on its number of sides.  We will finish the week by reviewing the concepts learning in unit 1 to prepare for our first summative assessment that will occur early in the following week.  We will discuss more details about the summative assessment as we progress through the week.

I would like to take this opportunity to remind you about our summative retake policy.  If a student completes a summative assessment and is not happy with the results, the student may be eligible for a test retake.  In order to complete a retake, the following steps must be followed:

1. All of the formative work for the unit must be completed.  You can find a list of our formative work here.
2.  Corrections must be made on the original assessment.  This must be done at school, so please schedule a time with Mrs. Kamenar before school, during AO, after school, or during lunch.
3. Complete the extra practice problems assigned by Mrs. Kamenar.  (Please e-mail Mrs. Kamenar at kkamenar@waukesha.k12.wi.us to request this customized extra practice).
4. Complete the retake before the summative assessment for our next unit.

Please remember that the score of the retake will be entered into Infinite Campus even if the retake score is lower than the original assessment.  Also, a summative retake is a privilege, not a right.

I am here to help, so please see me if you have any questions or concerns.

What's Going On? September 6th through 9th

Basics of Geometry

This week we will continue our study of the basics of Geometry.  We will start the week by talking about the Segment and Angle Addition Postulates.  Basically, we'll be talking about how the pieces of a segment (or angle) and be combined to talk about the entire segment (or angle).  We'll also check in to make sure that students are able to accurately measure line segments and angles.

On our second day of class for the week, we will continue to talk about more basic geometric vocabulary and how to mark in relationships that exist within figures. We will learn to use markings to show that segments are the same length, angles have the same measure, and how to show parallel and perpendicular relationships.

On our third day of class for the week, students will complete a formative assessment to check in to make sure that we are on the right track.  Students will have the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of the segment and angle addition postulates and their knowledge of basic geometric vocabulary.  Once this is complete, students will learn some basic geometric constructions using a compass and a straight edge.  Students will need to have these tools for class!

I hope we are off to a great start to the school year.  Please contact me if you have any questions!

Welcome to the 2016-2017 School Year!

Welcome back to school!  My name is Mrs. Kamenar and I will be working with you in your Honors Geometry class this year.  This will be my twelfth year teaching at Waukesha North.  This year I will be teaching Honors Geometry, Math Readiness, Fundamentals of Programming, Programming the Web 1 & 2 and Yearbook.  In addition to teaching at North, I am also an assistant women's cross country coach and the school's yearbook advisor.

I hope that everyone had an enjoyable and relaxing summer.  This summer went by too fast, but I guess it always seems that way.  This summer I got to spend a lot of time with my husband and my two kids, Jack and Laura.  We spent our time going to the zoo, the children's museum, going to the library and swimming.  My family and I took a few days to visit Portugal where we were able to visit a castle, an oceanarium, and spend some time on the beach.


My goal is to keep you up to date with what's going on in the classroom through this blog.  Between the blog and our class schedule of events that will be posted on our BlackBoard class website, it is my hope that all students and parents will be informed about what's going on in the classroom.  This week we will begin our study of some basic geometric terms.  We will ease into the year by talking about inductive reasoning and patterns.  We will also talk about some of the basic building blocks of Geometry and their naming and labeling conventions.

I am really excited to get to work with you this year.  I hope we are all able to learn a lot and have some fun along the way!  If you have any questions as we move through the year, please don't hesitate to contact me.  If you have questions, feel free to e-mail me at kkamenar@waukesha.k12.wi.us.  You can also follow me on Twitter: @MrsKamenar.