Muddiest Point

I have always enjoyed math and found that it came fairly easy to me, the concepts just click and I get it right away. Unfortunately, this can lead to mistakes on my part and missing out on information. I understand the unit circle very well and I am able to easily map it out and find solutions to sine, cosine, tangent, etc.. In the beginning, when we were learning about secant, cosecant, and cotangent, I found the problems easy to solve and breezed through them. However, when we got to the more complex problems, that changed. I started getting the wrong answers for every single homework problem because I wasn't thinking. I just wanted to finish the problems as soon as I could so that I wouldn't have any homework. I would forget to set the theta value to zero to find the solutions, use the wrong period or make simple math mistakes. To fix this, I simply slowed down and actually took the time to think about what I was doing and why. I asked Mr. Jackson many questions and thank him for always being patient even when I feel like I ask simple or too many questions. He helped me a lot because he doesn't just do the problem for you, he walks you through it and makes sure you know why he is taking the steps that he is taking. Because of this, I understood how to do the problems more after talking to him and found the right answers every time.

I also had a little trouble with the "Around, around we go!" homework. The problems in this packet were fairly straight forward and not too complicated but I just didn't seem to grasp the concept. I was taking the equations from the arc length and sector area sheet and only using those. I didn't quite understand how to change them to work with the individual problems and I got confused as to when I should use the radian or degree equations. After again, asking Mr. Jackson more questions, I began to understand the problems and soon saw how easy they were. Thanks again, Mr. Jackson!