Miquon is pretty solid. Be sure to get the Lab Annotations with the workbooks. The workbooks also are a good jumping off point for creating your own worksheets. The First Grade Diary talks about how the worksheets were used with a class. It's impressive. I used Sinapore along with Miquon. I much prefer how Miquon does division. Don't limit your son to a certain workbook or think that a certain workbook corresponds to a certain grade & Miquon goes really well. I haven't used MUS, but if you're concerned that Miquon isn't rigorous enough, MUS will really not be a good fit. There have been a number of threads (you can search for them) that indicate that MUS is a "lighter" program overall. If you're looking for rigorous math, there are a number of programs that may be a good fit. Miquon is absolutely one of them. SIngapore another. Beast Academy from Art of Problem Solving (AoPS) is another, although they only have 3 out right now. But I would strongly recommend reading some of the threads from people who have used MUS and found it not rigorous before picking it over Miquon.

If it's a college text (like MyMathLab), typically access is a calendar year from start date. If they don't have ending access info for your account, contact tech support. They're generally pretty good about responses.

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Thanks!

It's great that you've had some good online experiences. It may be the difference in school or in class type. I'm teaching a traditional class this semester. Students have a practice final that's been available online all semester. It counts as a quiz grade and is designed to prepare them for the final exam. They can take it as many times as they want and the highest score is the one that counts. Only 4 students (of 13) have taken it once. It's due by midnight Tuesday since the final is Wednesday. At least these students will have Monday's class to ask any questions - and I only expect questions from a couple of them. The others will have the benefit of seeing the answers to the questions of the working students. Some of them will pass the final because of the mandatory attendance policy. Being forced to spend 4.5 hours a week in a classroom, they're spending regular time at least hearing about math and seeing problems worked. Participation in the online course is worse for this class. I've taught this exact class online and had students not do the assigned homework, only do quizzes immediately before the due dates, and many (over 2/3) ended up being dropped for missing tests. Work ethic was mentioned earlier. Those of you who've had good experiences with online classes are seeing your experience as a student who works. There are a lot of other students you aren't seeing. For the online talking, I think it depends on the class and individual students. I've taught classes where we've had a LOT of online discussion on the discussion board and I've had classes where there's almost no discussion. It really varies according to the individuals involved. The comparison between online learning and homeschooling is an interesting one and does have some validity. But the number of people who can homeschool effectively is much much lower than the number of students. No one is (or should be) proposing that all students homeschool (or that all courses are taught online). Online learning absolutely can be effective and successful for some students. As an instructor who's taught both online, hybrid, and traditional courses, the number of students who can effectively learn in an online course is very small in my experience. Do I think online courses shouldn't exist? Absolutely not. Do I think they're expanding faster than they should & that we're setting students up for failure in many cases? Yes! I wouldn't mind my son taking a couple of online courses in the process of getting his college degree. I wouldn't pay anything for an online only degree though.

Regentrude is absolutely correct with her comments. I have taught college algebra online and developmental math. The students who will succeed in an online course are exceptional students who are highly motivated and really know how to work...or they are misplaced students who just need a credit. In the first case, they might be able to learn more in class where I can sometimes go on tangents and expand what we're doing..."Here's where you'll see this again in a later course." In the second case, online may be best (or an exemption exam). I have an undergrad degree in English. If anything, I think humanities are even worse for online than math. You miss the exchange of ideas in person...it's a different vibe. Kind of like how a conversation via text or email is different than a conversation in person. I think online learning is a potentially useful tool, but I don't want to see college degrees pulled down like high school degrees have been...and it feels like that's the direction we're headed in.

Having taught online courses, the pass rate is typically much lower than in a traditional class...if you keep content and difficult level the same. So you'll either have major grade inflation or a lot of enrollees not passing.

I remember the fish costume...and the turkey drop...and the alcohol test with Venus and Johnny...and saying "booger" on the air. Wish the shows were available on DVD with original music....

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I'll say crap. I'm actually okay with people typing carp. I know I've had times when I've had the boards up and my son stares over my shoulder and reads what's on the board. Not really a concern now for me, but if kids read aloud what they see, it could be a concern.

When my son was 5, he tried (briefly) to copy what I was saying. "So, how was your morning?" "So, how was your morning?" I started reciting mathematical formulas. After about the third cycle of the quadratic formula, he gave up :)

Meh. Times change, along with what's acceptable. When my husband started working, cigarettes were still okay in the office. Now they're not allowed in the building. I'm sorry you're offended, but I like the idea of some words having less power (Carlin's 7 words, for example). I think blasphemy and words that denigrate (racial slurs, etc) should be watched because that affects how we think of others (dehumanization). So I'm all for political correctness, but I'm perfectly fine with Carlin :)

Welcome! Can't help with groups in Greenville. Testing will vary according to your accountability group. I'm using PACES and don't need to test. If you used SCAIHS, they require testing at 3rd grade and up. Don't send your diploma out! What I've done is just make a copy and send that (for the groups that require it). I think for PACES, I had to send a notarized letter where the notary saw the diploma. I believe (although haven't checked in a while) the law is that starting at age 6 (first grade... 6 by Sept 1) you have to be registered. I think K is still optional.

http://notalwayslearning.com/math-exercise-dividers-of-theoden/30451 Made me smile tonight and thought I'd share :)

In high school, the bio teacher would offer students extra credit if they ate a mealworm. You could get more points for (my memory may be faulty here) tying a string around a cricket, swallowing it, then pulling it back up. My husband remembers the string as around a mealworm. He ate it. He also says his memory is that it was an assignment, but you could do an alternate assignment of a paper (if so, that's what I did... I remember going to the library instead of being in the bug eating class that day). I would have taken Latin in hs, but a friend who was a grade ahead did... and then the Latin teacher had a nervous breakdown. He said she gathered them all around one day and asked them what they'd do if a friend needed help and then cried. I took German instead as Latin wasn't offered when I got there.

:hurray: :hurray: :hurray:

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I do and have had some great students. I do feel honored to be able to help some of them progress. Some of them are accomplishing tremendous things...especially with obstacles they're overcoming. I expect I'll have my son take some science courses at the cc for the lab experiences. I'll be careful who he takes though...and which classes. Jane... I've worked with people from NCMATYC. The NC cc system seemed much saner from what I heard than our system :)

I absolutely agree! I think with the dual enrollment issue, we were told that the hs said they could take the course and we weren't allowed to move them to a different course. That's also part of why I'm anti dual enrollment. I also see a LOT of student straight from high school where alg 1 is the lowest math they can take to graduate and they need three math credits to graduate. They take the placement test and test into algebra 1 or lower. What were they doing for those three years in high school?!?! That is also why I'm very much in favor of exit exams for courses. I don't trust the teachers (but mainly administrators). In our state, students typically can't score below 50 on any assignments, no matter what they do. I've seen this on district websites. When I did my student teaching, it was district policy. The grading scale started at 50. F was 50-69. It's no wonder they think I don't mean what I say in the syllabus and in class.

It was dreadfully frustrating. Prereq course taught quadratic formula. They didn't know it. I taught it and told the I'd quiz them on it next class. First question...state the quadratic formula. Over half couldn't do it. They refused to work. I left that cc. They started sending instructors out to the high school to teach classes. It was miserable. And the SAT wasn't required for admission. Really just a pulse and the ability to get a loan. The math SAT was for placement. I think over 420 and you could take college algebra. I pushed to require the ASSET for math placement, but I couldn't get that changed. Current cc I work at is much better. You want to know really discouraging...I learned that some students didn't know how many states there were, so I put it as a bonus on the test. (+ 1) There are ___ states in the United States of America. In the alg 1 course, about half got it wrong. In calc 1, only 1/7 got it wrong, but she argued with me about the answer. I didn't do it with that college algebra course, but I imagine it would have been poor. So yeah...there's a potentially huge difference between the students you'll be working with at a cc and at a uni.

I think dual enrollment can be good for some kids. I took courses at the cc while in hs. I still see college algebra as a high school course and don't personally think it should be a college course. That semester, I was teaching two college algebra courses in the morning. Kids from the high school came to our campus during school time to take the course. Out of about 25 kids, I think under 5 passed. I had students coming late to class (30 min of a 50 min class), asking me for pencils, and just pulling all kinds of high school crap. They didn't have to take a placement test, they didn't know the quadratic formula, they refused to work. They should have stayed on their own d@mn campus and taken a precalc course taught by a teacher at the high school. I did everything I could think of with that class. It is one of my worst teaching experiences. We should teach high school at the high schools. The cc or uni should be for courses that are not available at the high school. You want to take a discrete math course, come on over! You want calc and it's not offered? Welcome! You need precalc and have enough students to run a class at the hs? It's a hs level course...teach it there for hs credit! Especially if the students aren't prepared for college level work! This is the course that got me checking placement scores. Some of these students had 430 on SAT math. They should never have been in my class.

I was once grounded from reading.

My goodness...there have been occasions I'd have been thrilled if a student got a 40. I had one last semester actually take the test and scored a 0. I really like using MyMathLab. I can see how long a student was logged in on an assignment :) And yes, I am mean! :) I do tell students I don't care how they do in my class...I want them to be able to succeed in their NEXT class. Most of the time they drop before they link, but I expect there'll be two or three Fs this semester in my class of 13. And I did have one semester where no one passed my college algebra class. Personally, I loathe dual enrollment as a result of that experience. Sigh.