What's Going On? December 16th through December 20th

Winter Spirit Week!

This week, we will have a spirit week with different themed dress-up days.  On Friday, we will run a modified schedule and there will be an assembly with a student-staff volleyball game at the end of the day.  Please note: Tuesday is also club picture day.  Students should listen to the announcements and report to the auditorium when their group is called.

Finishing Up Unit 6: Polygons and Quadrilaterals

During class on Monday, students will have the class period to work on our summative review in preparation for Tuesday's summative.  On Tuesday, students will complete the unit 6 summative during class.  Please note: I will not be in class on this day as I will be running yearbook club picture day.  Students who have last-minute questions can see me before the start of the school day.  The test will take place in our flexible learning space in the 200 hallway.  Students will be permitted to use a calculator (not on the iPad) and will need to turn in their phones or leave them in their lockers during the summative.  Students who will need to leave class during the summative due to a yearbook picture should talk with me about starting the assessment early so that it can be finished by the end of class.  You can check out the club picture day schedule here:

 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rvoeO2gsXjPB28233OnfYj2bemVe0omvNFsnEPvbXDs/edit

In class during Wednesday and Thursday, students will participate in some ACT-style review questions as well as work on some concepts related to probability.




Planning Ahead

For those of you who like to plan ahead, here is the semester exam schedule for January:

What's Going On? December 9th through December 13th

Quadrilaterals on the Coordinate Plane

This week we will work on applying our knowledge of quadrilaterals to the coordinate plane.  That means, we will examine the coordinates of a quadrilateral and use various algebra formulas to classify the shape.  Students will use our previously applied slope, midpoint, and distance formulas to determine the measures of angles and side lengths for our figure.  Then, based on the characteristics we have learned about for the different types of quadrilaterals, students will be able to classify the shape.  We will end the week with a "Quadrilaterals Detectives in Training" formative assessment where students will work in groups to graph
different shapes based on the characteristics.  Then the groups will swap projects and use their "detective skills" in order to determine the type of shape graphed.











January Exam Schedule

For those of you who like to plan ahead, check out our exam schedule for January:

What's Going On? December 2nd through December 6th

Unit 6: Polygons and Quadrilaterals

This week, we will continue our study of polygons and quadrilaterals.  We will spend Monday's class focused on proving parallelograms.  For the rest of the week, we will focus in on different types of quadrilaterals, including rhombuses, rectangles, squares, kites, and trapezoids.  We will spend our final day of the week on applying our proofs with the coordinate plane. 

What's Going On? November 25th and November 26th

Happy Thanksgiving!


Due to the Thanksgiving Holiday, we will have classes on Monday and Tuesday with a break
Wednessday through Friday.  Monday will be a "Monday-style" schedule with AE and Tuesday will be a "purple-style" schedule without AE.








Unit 6: Polygons and Quadrilaterals

This week, we will introduce our sixth unit of the year.  We will spend Monday's class learning about some general characteristics of polygons such as the sum of the interior and exterior angles.  We will spend Tuesday's class discussing the characteristics of parallelograms. 

What's Going On? November 18th through November 22nd

Unit 5: Triangle Relationships

This week, students will continue our study of "Points of Concurrency".  So far, we have taken a look at the incenter, where the three angle bisectors of a triangle meet, and circumcenter, where the three perpendicular bisectors of a triangle meet.

This week, we will focus on the centroid, where three medians meet, and the orthocenter, where three altitudes of a triangle meet.

We will then spend Wednesday's class reviewing and complete our unit 5 summative during class on Thursday.  Our test will be made of up three major components:

• Solving for missing measurements 
• Constructing points of concurrency
• Writing equations and determining the location of a point of concurrency.

What's Going On? November 11th through November 15th

Unit 4: Triangles

This week, we will wrap up our fourth unit on triangles.  Students will spend Monday's class getting last minute questions answered and participate in a review activity.  During class on Tuesday, students will complete their unit 4 summative.  All formative work for the unit must be turned in by the start of class on Tuesday in order to be eligible for a summative retake.  Students will have two major parts of the summative:

1. Working with measures in triangles, including isosceles triangles
2. Proving triangles congruent

During class on Wednesday, we begin our fifth unit where we will spend more time discovering relationships that exist within triangles.  Students will spend some time learning to construct angle bisectors and perpendicular bisectors within a triangle.  By doing this, students will "discover" points of concurrency.

What's Going On? November 4th through November 8th

Parent-Teacher Conferences

There is another opportunity for parent-teacher conferences on Wednesday, November 13th from 5:00-7:00pm.  For this night of conferences, you will need to sign up for a time slot.  Please check out the link and sign up if you would like to meet!

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0f4daba628a1fe3-art




Unit 4: Proving Triangles Congruent

Last week, students learned about the five different triangle congruence shortcuts: SSS, SAS, ASA, AAS and HL Congruence.  This week we will work on formalizing this knowledge by proving two triangles congruent in a two-column proof.  Along with next week's lessons, students should expect to see a formative or two to make sure that we understand how to prove triangles congruent.

What's Going On? October 28th through October 30th

Shortened Week!

This week, students will only have school Monday through Wednesday.  This means that school will begin at 7:35am each day!  Monday will be a regular Monday-style schedule with AE, Tuesday students will attend each of their classes without AE and on Wednesday, we will have an early release with students seeing each of their classes for a shortened period of time.






















Unit 4: Triangle Congruence

This week, we will spend more time working with triangle congruence shortcuts.  Students will learn three more "shortcuts" that can be used to prove that two triangles are congruent.  Students should expect to see a formative assessment this week so we can make sure that we are on the right track.

What's Going On? October 21st through October 25th

Unit 4: Triangles

This week, we will start our study of triangles.  We will start off the week looking more intensely at the properties of isosceles triangles and what happens when we draw midsegments in triangles.  After this, we will move into some triangle congruence "shortcuts" that will help us determine if two triangles are congruent.  This means, to determine if the two triangles are the exact same size and shape.  Students should expect to see a formative or two this week so we can check in with our current level of understanding. 




Not Satisfied with Your Unit 3 Summative Score?

Students who have fulfilled all of their requirements for unit 3, including completing all homework and formative work before the day of the test, may be eligible for a summative retake.  Students are able to retake up to 2 summative assessments per semester.  Students are welcome to retake one learning target or both.  In order to be ready for a retake, students must complete the following steps:

1. E-Mail Mrs. Kamenar to request extra practice for your selected learning target(s)
2. Make an appointment to make summative corrections on your original work.  Mrs. Kamenar is available before school and during lunch.  Arrangements can also be made for students to make corrections with Mr. Syverson in homework club after school.
3. Complete the retake BEFORE our unit 4 summative. 

Please note: the retake score will be entered into Infinite Campus even if the retake score is lower than the original assessment.

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

Wrapping Up Unit 3: Parallel Lines

This week, we will be wrapping up our study of parallel lines.  We will spend time during Monday's class reviewing how to write equations of parallel and perpendicular lines.  During class on Tuesday, we will briefly explore a different type of Geometry called "Spherical Geometry".  Students will work with balloons to discover the properties of parallel and perpendicular lines in a sphere.  During class on Wednesday, we will spend time reviewing for our summative assessment on Thursday. 

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

Unit 3: Parallel Lines

This week, we will focus on relationships formed when two parallel lines are cut by a transversal.  During class on Monday, students will complete an activity through the Desmos app in order to "discover" these relationships.  We will spend the rest of the week working with these relationships and applying our knowledge in a two-column proof in order to prove that two lines are parallel.  Students should expect to see a formative or two this week in order to make sure that we are on the right track.

What's Going On? September 30th through October 4th

Happy Homecoming Week!

If you are interested in participating in our spirit week, here is a list of the themes:

Wrapping Up Unit 2: Logic and Reasoning

This week, we will be wrapping up our second unit of the year.  We will spend the first class periods

of the week focused on an introduction to Geometric proof.  During class on Tuesday, students will participate in "tutorials", where they will work together to solve problems that have caused confusion.  Hopefully, this will help clear up any misconceptions related to introductory geometric proofs.  We will spend Wednesday's class reviewing and will complete our second summative assessment during class on Thursday.

What's Going On? September 23rd through September 27th

Unit 2: Reasoning and Proof

This week, we will begin our second unit of the year on reasoning an proof.  We will start off the
week discussing conditional statements.  Students will practice writing several statements including the converse, inverse, and contrapositive.  Understanding these statements will help students decode future theorems and definitions of geometric properties.  Additionally this week, students will learn the basics of creating a formal argument and will be introduced to a two-column proof and indirect proof.  Students should expect to see a couple of formative assessments throughout the week so we can check our level of understanding.

What's Going On? September 16th through September 20th

Wrapping Up Unit 1: Basics of Geometry

This week, we will be finishing up our first unit of the year on the basics of Geometry.  That means
that students will complete a summative assessment (test) at the end of the week.  We will begin the week by diving into our last two topics: Classifying Polygons and Connecting Geometry with the Coordinate Plane.  During class on Monday, we will talk about how we can classify polygons based on the number of sides, the properties of their sides and/or their angle properties.  During class on Tuesday, we will see how Geometry can connect with the coordinate plane through the midpoint and distance formulas.  Wednesday's class will be dedicated to reviewing and we will take our summative assessment during class on Thursday.


Class Kick Session!  Wednesday, September 18th!

Need to get a few last-minute questions answered?  Log into "Class Kick" on Wednesday night from 8-9pm.  I will be available to interact with you through your iPad to answer questions and check work.  Be sure to log in!  Not available from 8-9pm?  Make sure you log in before that time with your questions and "raise your hand".  I can leave feedback for you to check later.  https://app.classkick.com/#/login/YOJXD8


Summative Assessment Retake Policy

We all have bad days, right?  Making sure that you are eligible for a summative retake is like an insurance policy for your final Honors Geometry grade!

As a reminder, students will need to have all formative work complete, including homework and "quizzes", prior to Thursday's summative assessment date in order to be eligible for a summative retake.  Students who are not satisfied with their summative score could retake one or more learning targets covered on the assessment.  Students can retake up to 2 summative assessments per semester.

Steps for Earning a Retake

1. Complete all formative work (homework and quizzes) prior to the day of the test
2. If you are interested in a retake, contact Mrs. Kamenar via e-mail (kkamenar@waukesha.k12.wi.us) to request extra practice for your selected learning target(s).  Mrs. Kamenar will send personalized extra practice to work on the skills necessary for improving understanding.
3. Complete your extra practice.
4. Complete the summative retake before the next summative assessment.

Please note, the grade earned on the retake will be entered into Infinite Campus, even if the score is lower than the original.

What's Going On? September 9th through September 13th

Unit 1: The Basics of Geometry


This week, we will continue our study of the basic building blocks of Geometry.  We will start the
week spending time with more vocabulary terms, including perpendicular bisector and median.  On Tuesday, students will take a short formative assessment to check in with our content we talked about so far this year.  Students will also be working with constructions, so students will need to bring their protractors, rulers, and compasses for this class.  We will finish the week by talking about Geometry on the coordinate plane, including the distance and midpoint formulas.

Welcome Back, Honors Geometry Students!

Welcome back to school!  My name is Mrs. Kamenar and I will be working with you in your math
class this year.  This will be my fifteenth year teaching at Waukesha North.  This year I will be teaching Honors Geometry, App Development 1 & 2, AP Computer Science Principles Programming the Web 1 & 2 and Yearbook.  In addition to teaching at North, I am also the 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, going to the library and swimming.  I also had an amazing vacation with my mom and sister to the Galapagos Islands where I got to swim with sharks, turtles and sea lions, hike some volcanoes and learned to surf.

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.  On Tuesday we will ease into the year by talking about inductive reasoning and patterns.  During Wednesday's class, we will talk about the "Basic Building Blocks of Geometry", and on Thursday we will talk about Segment and Angle addition.

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.

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

Preparing for Our Final Exam

For our final exam, students are required to complete sections covering the following three learning targets:

• 3d: Solving Right Triangles (unit 8)
• 3c: Area (units 10 and 11)
• 3g: Volume (unit 11)

Students will also choose at least two additional learning targets:

• 1f: Similar Figures (unit 7)
• 1g: Similar Triangles (unit 7)
• 2d: Dilations (unit 7)
• 3h: Non-Right Triangles (unit 8)
• 2b: Writing Equations of Circles (unit 9)
• 3e: Solving for measurements in circles (unit 9)
• 3f: Circumference & Arc Length (unit 10)
• 2f: Transformations (unit 12)

During class on Monday, we will go over questions from the three required targets.  During class on Tuesday, students can work together and I will go over individual questions on the student-chosen targets.  During the exam, students may use a "cheat sheet": a single piece of 8 1/2" by 11" piece of paper.  The paper must be handwritten and can contain definitions, formulas, sample problems, etc.  The "cheat sheet" will be turned in with the exam.  Students should also bring a calculator, pencil, and ruler/compass if it will be required for their chosen targets.  Our exam is scheduled for Wednesday, June 5th from 9:30am - 11:00am.  Late students may not be permitted to enter the exam.

Students are more than welcome to come in to ask questions during the review/conferencing time in the morning prior to the exam.


Final Exam Schedule

What's Going On? May 27th through May 31st

Honors Geometry Textbook Return

At the beginning of class on Wednesday, we will head to the media center to return our textbooks.  Please be sure to bring your book and your ID.


Probability

This week, we will explore probability.  We will talk about permutations and combinations.  This will be our last "mini unit" of the year prior to our final exam.

Final Exam Schedule

Please note the final exam schedule.  Our Honors Geometry exam will be held on Wednesday, June 5th from 9:30-11:00.  You are more than welcome to come in to ask questions during the review/conferencing time!

What's Going On? May 20th through May 24th

Schedule Change for the Week

This week, North will hold a school-wide Service Learning Day/Community Day on Friday.  Because of this, Monday will be a "Tuesday-style" schedule, Tuesday will be a "Wednesday-style" schedule, Wednesday will be a "Thursday-style" schedule, and Thursday will be a "Friday-style" schedule.  On Friday, all students will be participating in a volunteer activity in the community and/or some sessions at school. 

MAP Testing

This week, students will complete their final MAP testing for the year.  The reading MAP test is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon and the math MAP test is scheduled for Wednesday morning.


Unit 12: Transformations

This week, we will wrap up our unit on transformations.  We will spend Monday's class reviewing for our assessment and complete the summative during class on Tuesday.  This summative will include content related to symmetry, translations, rotations, reflections, and composition of transformations.

What's Going On? May 13th through May 17th

Unit 12: Transformations

This week, we will continue our study of transformations.  Transformations are changes to a figure that preserves the distance between points.  So, our image (resulting figure) will be the same size and same shape as the pre-image (original figure). We will talk about translations (a pick-up and move), rotations (twists), and reflections (mirror images).  We will end the week by talking about compositions of transformations, or in other words, how we can apply multiple transformations to a figure.  To check in, students should expect to see a formative assessment or two this week.

End of the Year Schedule

What's Going On? May 6th through May 10th

Unit 11: Volume


This week, we will be wrapping up our unit on volume.  During class on Monday, we will discuss
how to calculate the volume and surface area of a sphere.  We will then spend one class period reviewing all of our volume and surface area work.  We will have our summative assessment during class on Wednesday.  Additionally, students should be prepared to see our final "geometric vocabulary" assessment for the year.  We have been tracking our understanding of basic geometric terms and concepts throughout the year to chart our growth in knowledge.

What's Going On? April 29th through May 3rd

Unit 11: Surface Area and Volume

This week, we will dive into our unit on three-dimensional solids.  We will start the week talking about surface area of prisms, cylinders, pyramids, and cones.  Towards the end of the week, we will start talking about the volume of solids.  Students should expect to see a few formative assessments throughout the week to check for understanding.




Sophomore Aspire Testing

This week, on Tuesday and Wednesday, sophomores will be completing the Aspire test.  Students with last names at the beginning of the alphabet will test in the morning and students with last names at the end of the alphabet will test in the afternoon.

What's Going On? April 22nd through April 26th

Wrapping Up Unit 10: Area

During class on Monday, students will complete the unit 10 summative on "area".  Students should be working on the summative review that was posted on BlackBoard and be ready to start the summative right away on Monday morning.  I will be available on Monday morning starting at 7:00am for any students that would like to get some last minute questions answered.  If questions come up over the weekend, please log in to "Class Kick".  I will check in periodically over the weekend and offer feedback when requested.

Aspire Testing

The rest of the week will be disrupted by "Aspire" testing.  Freshmen will be broken into two groups.  Students with the last names A-K will test in the morning Tuesday through Thursday.  Students with the last names L-Z will test in the afternoon Tuesday-Wednesday.



Spirit Week

This week, we will have a spirit week with an assembly on Friday.  Here are the dress up days:

What's Going On? April 15th through April 18th

Modified Schedule This Week

This week, students will have school Monday through Thursday with an early release day on Thursday.  Due to this, we will follow a modified schedule for the week with Monday as a "Tuesday-style" schedule, Tuesday as a "Wednesday-style" schedule, Wednesday as a "Thursday-style" schedule and Thursday as a modified "Friday-style" schedule.





Unit 10: Area

This week, we will continue our study of area.  We will start Monday's class with a review and a
formative assessment to gauge our current level of understanding of the basic area, circumference, and arc length properties.  Later in the week, we will focus on finding the area of a circle and how to calculate the area of parts of a circle, including a sector, a segment, and an annulus.

End of the Year Schedule

What's Going On? April 8th through April 12th

Unit 10: Area

This week, we will continue our study of area.  We will specifically focus on finding the area of trapezoids, kites, and regular polygons.  We will also dive into calculating the circumference and areas of circles.  Students should expect to see a few formative assessments this week so we can make sure we have a firm grasp of our concepts.

End of the Year Schedule

What's Going On? April 1st through April 5th

Welcome Back!


I hope everyone had a chance to rest and relax over spring break!  At this point, we have 9 more weeks of school.  Let's see how much we can learn between now and the end of the year!

Wrapping Up Unit 9: Circles

Upon our return from spring break, we will wrap up our ninth unit on circles.  During class on
Monday, we will review our material from unit 9, including chord, tangent, and secant properties.  Students should expect to see a summative assessment during class on either Tuesday or Wednesday.  Once this is complete, we will begin our tenth unit on area.

What's Going On? March 18th through March 22nd

Unit 9: Circles

This week, we will continue our focus on the properties of circles.  We will focus on "inscribed angles" during class on Monday. Then will focus on angles created by secants and tangents.  We will end the week by talking about relationships that exist between circles and the lengths of line segments.  Students should expect to see a formative assessment or two this week to check in to make sure that we're on the right track.

What's Going On? March 11th through March 15th

Unit 9: Circles


This week we will begin our circle unit.  On Monday we will focus on how we can write the equation of a circle.  For the rest of the week, we will focus on the relationships formed when chords, secants, and tangents are drawn in a circle.  This unit comes with a lot of vocabulary related to circles, so to help with the familiarity of these terms, students will participate in an activity where we create physical models of the parts of a circle.

What's Going On? March 4th through March 8th

Wrapping Up Unit 8: Triangle Trigonometry



We will start off the week by talking about our final non-right trigonometry rule: the Law of Cosines.  This is useful when we want to find an angle measure and we know all three side lengths of a triangle.  This is also useful when we see a triangle set us as "SAS", where we know the measures of two sides and their included angle, and we want to find the measure of the third side length.

Once we finish with this, we will spend Tuesday's class applying our trigonometry rules to real-world situations (ie word problems).  We will spend Wednesday reviewing and we will have our summative assessment on Thursday.  Based on student interest, we may have a Class Kick session on Wednesday night to get last-minute questions answered.  Students are also welcome to come in for review before school on Wednesday and Thursday mornings.