Welcome to 7th Grade Math!

It is going to be a great year!

Click on the following links to find important course documents:

• Class Syllabus
• Guidelines for Success/Expectations

Click here to meet your teacher.

*Please note that you may see the last name "Dunay" in some places and "Peterson" in others, as I am in the middle of a name change. My email is currently angela.dunay@dvusd.org. Students will be kept up to date in class when my email changes. Parents, I will send out an email communication to you when the time comes so you have my new email should you need it.*

Struggle is good! I want to fly!

Once a little boy was playing outside and found a fascinating caterpillar. He carefully picked it up and took it home to show his mother. He asked his mother if he could keep it, and she said he could if he would take good care of it.

The boy got a large jar from his mother and gave the caterpillar plants to eat and a stick to climb on. Every day he watched the caterpillar and brought it new plants to eat.

One day, the caterpillar climbed up the stick and started acting strangely. Worried, the boy called his mother, who came and understood that the caterpillar was creating a cocoon. The mother explained to the boy how the caterpillar was going to go through metamorphosis and become a butterfly.

The little boy was thrilled to hear about the changes his caterpillar would go through. He watched every day, waiting for the butterfly to emerge. One day it happened! A small hole appeared in the cocoon and the butterfly started to struggle to come out.

At first the boy was excited, but soon, he became concerned. The butterfly was struggling so hard to get our of the cocoon! It looked like he couldn't break free! It looked desperate! It looked like it was making no progress!

The boy was so concerned that he decided to help. He ran to get scissors, and then he walked back (because he had learned not to run with scissors!). He snipped the cocoon to make the hole bigger, and the butterfly quickly emerged!

As the butterfly came out, the boy was surpirsed. It had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. He continued to watch the butterfly, expecting that, at any moment, the wings would dry out, enlarge, and expand to support the swollen body. He knew in time that the body would shrink and the butterfly's wings would expand.

But neither happened!

The butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swolen body and shriveled wings.

It was never able to fly...

As the boy tried to figure out what had gone wrong, his mother took him to talk to a scientist from a local college. He learned that the butterfuly wsa SUPPOSED to struggle. In fact, the butterfly's struggle to push its way through the opening of the cocoon pushes the fluid out of its body and into its wings. Without the struggle, the butterfly would never, ever fly. The boy's good intentions hurt the butterfly.

As you go through school - and life - keep in mind that struggling is an important part of growing. In fact, it is struggle that causes you to develop your ability to fly.

As teachers, our gift to you is stronger wings...