All of chapter 4 is fairly confusing to me. I didn't understand Linearization, and I don't really understand Related Rates either.

Linearization is the easier of the two thing we learned this week in my opinion. Once I got the hang of where to plug things in it became easier, I'm still not 100% on it though. I'm trying my best to understand it, but so far Chapter 4 and I do not get along.

Related Rates is the bigger of the two problems. I semi-understand most of what we do. Again, just like with optimization, I have trouble figuring out where to start sometimes. But once I get started, I can find the derivatives and plug the things I already know in my equation and it's not a problem for me to get the right answer.

The root of all my problems with this chapter is not knowing where to start with the problem I'm given. I hope to do plenty of examples this weekend and hopefully figure out a way for me to get better at starting different types of problems.

Well...to be honest, Section 4.4 kicked my butt.

It was easy to understand the first things we learned which we're maximizing or minimizing equations, but after that it just got tough. I can maximize the volumes of boxes like a pro now, but maximizing the area of a rectangle inscribed in a sin curve or in any other curve gets me.

The examples we did in the notes were helpful, but I feel like we didn't do too much else. Just the homework examples. I am a person who likes to do a lot of examples to feel comfortable with something.

Also, another thing that seems to give me trouble is actually starting the problem. Once someone gives me help starting the problem I can just go and do it and get the correct answer. It's just the start that gets me and I can't do anything until I start it.

This section started to get easier and hopefully it continues to get easier as we do more things with it.

Exam week! Yayyyyyy (sarcasm voice). Nothing went on this week. So I guess I'll tell you about nothing.

Monday, we went into the computer lab to fill out out evaluation sheets for our "post test" but it wasn't really a post test. Just some data Cresswell will use. I was almost proficient in everything (awesome!), except for a few things that I really know how to do, but I just learned how to do them after the quiz/test was over.

Tuesday, we finished up the non-calculator portion to our quiz we took on Friday which seemed fairly easy. I started to understand how to get each part of what we were asked like the asymptotes, concave up/down intervals, intervals of increasing and decreasing, and inflection points all without using a calculator. I really depend on my calculator for a lot, so it was a challenge for me to do this at first, and it's still a little challenging but that's okay. I'm not completely lost when I do it so that's good!

Wednesday, we worked on the exam review and Cresswell answered any questions we had. I felt like the review wasn't terribly tough and I remembered lots of things like how to do limits, which we learned almost at the beginning of the year. The exam review was so helpful, I wouldn't have known what to study besides old tests and quizzes we had. It was nice to have other problems to do that we hadn't seen before.

Thursday, today, we took the exam. I didn't think it was too difficult, but we'll see about what grade I get. I made a stupid mistake on the non-calculator part. I graphed it backwards. What was I thinking? I don't know. I had a memory lapse or something and I forgot how to properly graph an x^3 graph. Oh no :( but hopefully that doesn't impact my exam grade too badly.

This week seemed to go by too fast for me. Cresswell was gone on Monday so all we did was a worksheet that I thought was easy and Tuesday I was on an astronomy field trip to MSU, so when I got back to class on Wednesday I had some catching up to do.

Honestly, I still don't fully understand what we learned on Tuesday that I was taught Wednesday. I had to learn on the go because of the quiz being on Thursday. It helped that Shane was willing to explain section 4.3 to me, but I also had one of my other friends explain it to me so I could try to understand it better. I also didn't get a good understanding of the Mean Value Theorem, but Cresswell showed Shane, Keigan, and I a few examples and that helped me a little bit.

Overall, I'm still a little rocky with this chapter so far, but this is what happened to me last chapter and I ended up doing fairly well on the final test, so I'm really hoping that's what happens this chapter!!

Will attaching a link to a video work on here? I'm about to find out! This video is a video I watched to try and understand what we first learned when chapter 4 was introduced. http://youtu.be/GyQZI_B_dxo

This week seems like a blur! This week all we really did was start chapter 4.
Section 4.1 gave me a little trouble at first but I eventually got the hang of it. I'm not so sure I liked the digital notes. I mean, yes I liked them, but I am one who likes to take a lot of notes to feel like I fully understand what was being taught and with the digital notes, I feel as though we didn't take too many and we only did a few examples. Other than that, I thought that section went okay.
Section 4.2 the first day was fairly easy considering we really didn't do a whole lot. The second day of section 4.2 has stuck with me the most. It was very easy for me to get the whole "find c" thing considering we already learned about anti-derivatives in chapter 3. It's going to be weird for me to admit this. but I actually like doing anti-derivatives. Did I just say I liked something in math? Yeah, I'm surprising myself here! But really, anti-derivatives were easy for me to understand and finding out what "c" is is just adding one more algebraic step like we've all done since Pre-Algebra! Not so hard!
We did an activity today (Friday) that once I got some things explained to me it all just clicked. I thought it was interesting to see how the extrema on the graph of a derivative of a function showed us the values at which the original graph was concave up or concave down. I already knew that the zeros on the derivative graph were the extrema on the original graph and that the derivative could be graphed by using the slopes of the line of the original graph but I didn't realize how much more related the graphs were.
Overall, I felt pretty okay this week with the things that we learned. Of course, though, I don't consider myself very good at them yet, but with more practice I'm sure my understanding will increase!!

The CCC's this week have been very beneficial to me. I like being able to get taught how to do a problem by another student because they can relate to my understanding of the questions.

This week wasn't too bad! We were taught the derivatives of inverse trig functions and also the derivatives of exponentials and logarithms. Although I stumbled a bit with derivatives of inverse trig functions, I thought this week wasn't so bad.

The derivatives of inverse trig function section was difficult at the very start, but as we did the example and I got to understanding it, I thought I did pretty well. All we have to do is plug in the inside function into the derivative of the inverse function and then multiply that by the derivative of the inside function and bam! We have our answer! (After some simplifying of course). So really, this wasn't a hard section for me to understand once I really understood it.

The derivatives of exponentials and logarithms section we did was easy for me! And I am always greatful to have something in math be easy because that doesn't seem to happen all that much! But anyways, the definitions of the different things we were given helped so much on the anti-derivatives worksheet. Instead of guessing how to do the last few problems, we could actually know how to do them. I actually enjoyed finding the derivatives of exponentials and logarithms because the definitions were easy to follow.

Also, these sections helped me come closer to fully understanding chain rule. I was having some difficulty with that, but now I feel quite a bit more comfortable with chain rule and that makes me feel not as panicked as when I didn't understand it at all! This weekend, I am making my mastery videos in hopes of gaining some points back from last Friday's quiz, so we'll see what happens with that!

This picture I have attached is of Sam and I working on making our mastery videos, we had fun doing it together!

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!