This week my best mistake that led to a learning moment was when we were simplifying expressions with adding and subtracting. I thought when you found the common denominator you take all the factored terms from both denominators. this is technically not wrong as long as you multiply the top of each fraction by the same thing, but I was doing more work than I had to. I now know that when there is a common term on the bottom of both fractions, you only put it once in the denominator and any other terms or numbers the two fractions do not have in common. after this you can continue with simplifying the expression.

This week my best mistake that led to a learning moment was when we were in groups at the whiteboards and we were supposed to find out what x is not allowed to equal based on what the denominator is. I only put what zero could not equal based on the final answer, but I then found out I should be using the factored form of the denominator before it is simplified, to get all of the values x cannot equal.

My biggest lightbulb moment this week was when we went to the boards to work on evaluating inequalities. I didn’t remember how to do it because I thought you first had to isolate x. I was able to figure out you are meant to put the constants on one side and anything with an x on the other side and evaluate the expression from there by using algebra once the terms are combined.

This week my biggest lightbulb moment is when it was pointed out to me that you are able to get the vertex form/standard form from factoring an equation by completing the square. This was really cool to me because it means that I am able to save time when factoring, and I will be able to find the vertex much faster since it shows the vertical and horizontal translations.