Monday, November 26, 2012

Something Personal-Please Consider Helping

        I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving that was full of good food, friends, family and of course thankfulness!  Like many of you out there my hubby and I have so many things to be thankful for, this list is quite long :)  However, there is one thing that is currently "missing" from our list-children.  Many people find it odd that after eight and a half years of marriage we do not have children.  When asked and yes it comes up a LOT I always smile and say, "Not yet."  This is something that I deal with on a daily basis and I have had to give my desire for children over to God because I know that He knows better than I do on the specifics, when, how, etc...  I say all of this to ask for you to please consider helping with Congressional Call Week 2012.

The content outlined below was taken from the Resolve website. Resolve is a national non-profit organization that advocates on behalf of reproductive health to ensure equal access to all family building options for men and women experiencing infertility. In the spirit of keeping DesignRx members informed about current events pertaining to the treatment of infertility, we felt it important to forward the following information.

Congressional Call Week 2012

Two Tax Credits. One Purpose. Families.

Dates: November 27-29th  
Join thousands in the infertility community and make a difference.
Calling Congress in support of the Family Act and Adoption Tax Credit is a very important part of the legislative process.  Members of Congress need to hear from people that support these bills and phone calls are very impactful. 

Starting Tuesday, November 27th through Thursday, November 29th we need you to call both your Senators and your Representative.
Here are the steps you need to take.
  1. Know who you’re calling. Find your Members of Congress here: www.house.gov and www.senate.gov
  2. Call the main switchboard, 202.225.3121 and ask to be transferred to the office you’re calling.  (You’ll repeat this step two more times.)
  3. Introduce yourself and make sure to mention your name and city/town/state so they know you live in their district. Follow the script we have listed below.
  4. Share your experience!  Tell us how it went on Facebook, Twitter, and our Online Community.
Sample script:
“Good morning/afternoon. I live in <insert city and state name> and I’m calling to express my support for two bills that I care about. May I speak with the Health Legislative Assistant or someone else in the office?
Once you’re connected:
“<Reintroduce yourself.>* I’m calling to let you know about two bills I care about, the Family Act S965/ HR 3522 and the Making Adoption Affordable Act S 3616/ HR 4373. The Family Act will create a tax credit to help thousands of middle-class families with the out-of-pocket medical costs for infertility treatment. And the Making Adoption Affordable Act will make the Adoption Tax Credit permanent which is set to expire at the end of the year.
Can I count on the <INSERT NAME OF MEMBER> to help me and thousands of others in our state by supporting both bills? <wait for reply>
Thank you for taking my call and passing on my message to the <INSERT NAME OF MEMBER>.


Disclaimer
Remember, DesignRx® is not an Insurance Company or a Pharmacy Benefit Manager. However, DesignRx® applies a similar model for its unique patient membership. DesignRx® negotiates drug discounts on behalf of its membership and enforces its formulary through a carefully selected pharmacy network. Through Managed Cash®, DesignRx® applies the managed care pharmacy management concepts to those patients who join the program, but have no insurance for the prescription to which a DesignRx discount is applied.



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I really appreciate all of the love this little blog has gotten through the educational "stuff" and I now maybe even with the personal stuff as well.

Many thanks and much love,
Nicole

Friday, November 9, 2012

Properties of Multiplication

        We have been exploring multiplication and division for several weeks.  This week our focus was on the properties of multiplication.  We worked with the Associative Property of Multiplication, Identity (One) Property, Zero Property and the Distributive Property.  We were doing great until it came to decomposing of a factor piece of the Distributive Property.  I have a list of the steps we followed: 
 
Example:  5 x 13

Strategy Steps: 
1.    Decompose or expand one of the factors into two addends.  For example 13 can be broken into 0+13, 1+12, 2+11, 3+10, 4+9, 5+8, or 6+7.
2.    Choose numbers that are easy for you to multiply.  10 + 3 would be a great choice! 
3.    Then distribute 5.
                      5 x (10 + 3)
                 (5 x 10) + (5 x 3)
                     50     +     15
                           =65

This was a lot harder than I thought it would be for some of my kiddos.  So . . . any suggestions? I am hopeful that with more practice my students will get this strategy but after our thirty minute work period not quite half of my class had a solid grip on this strategy.