Syllabus

 
Mark McKeever
PreAlgebra
Texans

Welcome to a new school year at Friendswood Junior High.  I am
excited about teaching your child.  In order to help your child fulfill his
or her potential in this subject, I am clarifying my expectations for this
course. 

Classroom Expectations

1.     Be Prompt
2.     Be Prepared
3.     Be Polite
4.     Be Respectful

Homework
Homework will be set each class period.  It is due at the beginning of
the next class period.  All work must be shown for full credit.

Late Work
If the assignment is handed in up to a day after it was due (including if it
is left in the student’s locker and handed in after class), it will be worth
a maximum of 80%.  An assignment handed in up to two days late will be
worth a maximum of 60%.  I am aware that, on occasion, there will be a
good reason why your child does not have his or her work handed in on
time.  If such circumstances arise, I will accept your child’s late work,
with a no loss of credit, if it accompanied by a note. 

Absences

It is the student’s responsibility to obtain and make up all work and tests due to absences.  Missed tests and quizzes are to be scheduled immediately upon the student’s return and are usually taken in tutorials.  As stated in the Student Handbook, state law requires that a student be in attendance at least 90% of the time that a class is offered.  If a student does not meet the attendance requirement, credit will be denied. Every three tardies that a student accrues to a class will be recorded as an absence when determining final exemptions and denial of credit. Students who are more than 10 minutes late to any one class will be considered absent.

 
Grading
Grades will come from test, quizzes, homework, and notebook checks. 
On occasion students might perform projects and other assignments.  I
encourage all students to organize their math folders into four sections.

1. Assignments
2. Tests and quizzes
3. Notes
Extra credit will be given occasionally. 

Math grades are weighted, listed below is a distribution of the grading
policy.

TEST                50%
QUIZZES           25%
HOMEWORK     25%

Tutorials
 Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday 8:00 - 8:20 A.M. 

I ask students to attempt their homework the day it is assigned, so that
they may attend tutorials before the assignment is due and obtain my
assistance if they encounter any problems. 

Course Outline
We will be studying number patterns, order of operations, evaluating
algebraic expressions, solving simple equations, operations with
signed numbers, exploring data and graphs, number theory, fractions,
decimals, percents, ratio and proportion, probability, inequalities,
geometry concepts and spatial thinking, transformations and
measurement in geometry. 

This course will be supplemented with materials including TAKS type
questions in order to help your child be successful on the eighth grade
mathematics section of the TAKS test.  A more detailed outline of this
course can be found in the table of contents of the Passport to Algebra
and Geometry text. 

Textbooks
Each student was issued a Prentice Hall Course 3 textbook, which is to be
used at home for assignments.  I will have a classroom set of books for the
students to use in class.  This way the students will not have to bring
their math book back and forth from school everyday. 

Contacts

E-mail:  mmckeever@fisdk12.net
School Telephone Number: (281) 482-7818