This week was the toughest week we've had so far in my opinion. I struggled with "u" substitution at first, then when I finally started understanding that I struggled with chain rule, and then when I finally got that I struggled with high order derivatives. This week was the definition of a struggle for me.

I am still a little shaky with "u" substitution, I am almost fully confident with it, but not yet. I think with a little more practice I will be 100% confident with it and that's a huge thing for me, at first, I had no clue what we were doing or how to do it, but I slowly but surely figured it out.

The CCC we did with "u" substitution really helped me. It was nice to have multiple people explain what was going on to me. When people repeat the steps to do something it is way easier for me to grasp a concept than just with a quick example and a homework assignment like previous math classes have been for me.

Oh chain rule. This was another hard thing to wrap my mind around. I always seemed to forget a step during this process, but honestly, chain rule was an easier concept to understand for me I think. It just took some practice for me to get the hang of it. I still question myself on my answers when I do chain rule problems, but I plan to continue to practice these and become better at them.

I really don't like higher order derivatives. I understand that to get y'' you must plug y' into the equation you are using to find y'', but I am really bad at simplifying. I almost always get the right answer before I simplify and then I simplify and mess myself up completely.

I have been having multiple people help me to try and get a better understanding of the things we learned this week, but the quiz we took today showed me that I should probably keep practicing. I think my confidence going into this quiz was lower than normal because I didn't feel like I knew what I was doing although I completely understood everything when we were in class and doing the problems together. I just don't understand how I can feel so confident in class but at home or on the quiz question myself to the point where I am unsure of what to do. I really need to stop that, and hopefully I can become more confident in my math abilities.

The problems we do in class I understand really well. The picture I have posted shows one of the more complicated ones we've done together and I was the first in my group to get the right answer which made me feel great about this week, but the quiz made me unsure of myself, understanding what we covered this week is the goal of my weekend!

It was weird for me to be in class for almost a full week! But I'm so glad I was. Catching up on work from last week was so helpful for this week and I feel as though I caught myself up fairly well.

This week was full of different rules of derivatives such as the product and quotient rule, which I feel I understand very well! I am happy with this week. I feel like I understand almost everything we've been over. At first, I really did not like derivatives, but now, I don't really mind them. Some of that had to do with missing class but because states is Friday and Saturday there will be no more missing days for me! Call me crazy but I like being in Calc way more than missing days and playing catch up.

One thing that I thought was going to be tricky for me to understand was the derivatives of trig functions. As we learned about them though, I came to the realization that they are much easier than regular derivatives for me! It was satisfying to know how to do something and feel confident in my abilities. I even helped people during our CCC's this week when usually other people are helping me! :) Another concept I thought was going to be challenging was the Chain Rule, but I feel as though I understand that pretty well too! It wasn't all that hard once I did the examples by myself. I started to think of the Chain Rule and composite functions like a puzzle that needed to be figured out.

This week was probably one of the easier weeks for me. I just feel like I understand so much more with the things we learned this week than anything else! I even feel like I did a fairly good job on the quiz which I haven't been able to say yet! Yay for understanding things!!

This week was by far the most difficult we've had. Derivatives are not my friend at all. I am good about figuring things out for myself, and because I've been missing school for golf, that's what I've been doing.

The quiz we took on Wednesday kicked my butt. I thought I understood what we learned so far fairly well, but I blanked on the quiz. During the time we went over the quiz in class today, I knew everything. I know that y' is the same as f'(x), I know that f(-1)= 5 is the point (5,-1), and I know that f'(x)=5 is the slope of a line. I am kind of disappointed in myself for forgetting things I knew. This always happens to me, but oh well.

Section 3.3 part 2 was hard to figure out at first, but once I knew what part 1 was about I understood it. And it was cool to see how the Quotient Rule could be turned into the Product Rule.

I now know that I just need to focus more in this chapter and not freak myself out. I know I can be successful at derivatives, I just need to be confident and try my best to not blank on a quiz or a test like I always do.

Catching up has been a struggle for me, but this weekend I plan to get help and try to fully understand derivatives and the different rules they have to them.

This week we actually started the chapter in the book on derivatives. I'm going to be honest, it was rough. At first I didn't understand how to even get the tangent equation or why we had to find a secant and a tangent equation, but I got that figured out pretty quickly. The four step process was a challenge. I wasn't in class on Wednesday due to a golf match, so trying to understand the worksheet and the CCC was a struggle. After I got the process explained to me it was so much easier. I honestly thought derivatives were going to be the worst thing ever, but really they aren't that bad.

In the activity we did on Thrusday, we looked at how the derivatives of one graph closely resembled another. I thought derivatives were going to be pretty useless, but it was interesting to see how they connected one graph to another.

The CCC seemed hectic. From just getting the worksheet, to having Keigan trying to explain the four step process, to Ishan butting in and trying to tell KEIGAN he was wrong, you could say by the end of that my head was about to explode. But I now have a fairly good understanding of what I missed on Wednesday! So I'm not completely lost. It might take me a while to really understand everything, but I'm already an enormous amount better at derivatives that when we were first introduced to them! Yay!

Here is a picture of Mr. Cresswell helping our confused CCC table and telling us there was an easier way to do what we were doing! Thanks!