Hugo teaches math

Unit Plan Draft

The examples of using first/second person pronouns in math textbooks never occurred to me. I'm still not quite convinced that this plays an important role on the student's learning experience. As a student, I don't think I would be able to tell the difference. But as a teacher, maybe I could see why some one could reason this. The language of uncertainty within textbooks were frustrating as a student, because math is usually a subject with specific answers. As a teacher, this uncertainty is good because it engages the student more and provokes inquiry within the students. As with most people, I feel that textbooks are a tool that must be utilized correctly by the teacher/students. If you're teaching straight from the textbook, then why do you need to be there? Students could just read the textbook at home or find a source online to learn. As a teacher, you have to engage them, not just teach from the textbook. A textbook is definitely a powerful tool, but it needs to ...

My first thought when I read this problem was that one of the weights must be equal to 1 gram. This must be true because in order to weigh 1 gram of herb, there must be a weight that is 1 gram. My next thought was that to weigh 40 grams of herbs, I should probably use all the weights to add up to 40 to be most efficient.  I thought that I would probably need a 2 gram weight to weigh the even numbers. But then I thought, could I be more efficient and instead 'make' a 2 gram weight by combining a 3 gram and 1 gram weight? This would be more efficient cause I could also combine 3+1 to make 4. So far I have determined that there must be a 1 and 3 gram weight. This will make it possible to weigh herbs of grams 1 to 4. To weigh a 2 gram herb, we put it together with the 1 gram on one side, then check it with the 3 gram on the other side. So now that I can make 1 to 4, how can I make 5? By this same reasoning, I chose a 9 gram weight. This would allow me to do 9-3-1=5. This gave me ...