Jon Oaks

Author: Jon Oaks

  • Solving a System of Equations with Two Unknowns

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    Jon Oaks
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    A Sample Lesson on Solving a System of Equations with Two Unknowns Before you begin, you may want to print the summary sheet below for reference.  The sheet happens to have a major typo, but I think that it’s usually fun for the students to discover it themselves. I’ve been generous enough to correct the typo.…

  • Could We Have an Open Dialogue About Race?

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    Let’s face it.  I’m Asian.  I could definitely play the race card, but I don’t.  Because I don’t want to.  I don’t think that it’s the right thing to do.  I want to believe that it is dedication, hard work, and passion for what I do that is what will get me to where I…

  • More Student Feedback.

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    I'm really happy to report that this is ALL of the student feedback from my Saturday class that recently ended: "Although I did not understand a lot of the material, the instructor was very informative and acted as if he had he students in his best interest." "Jon is a great instructor.  He really takes…

  • Encouragement for Any Teachers Out There…

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    I know it can be tough out there!  I just finished two of the worst semesters I have ever had back-to-back.  The students constantly had attitude problems and my supervisors scolded me for telling the students that their attitude was unacceptable for the classroom.  Well, I just received the first good news I have gotten…

  • Pi Day Exponent Activity

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    This year on Pi Day I was teaching exponents, so I created an activity surrounding many of the common errors that I see many students make when working with expressions involving exponents.  I have attached the file to this post, and I would hope that people would know what to do with it, but let…

  • I Use Matrices in Everyday Life, Do You?

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    I am teaching a Finite Math class this semester and the majority of students in the class are business majors.  I’m trying to make the class as relevant to them as possible, so I’ve been reading magazines such as INC, and Entrepreneur to try to get ideas for things that I can talk about in class.…

  • The Snooze Button is Now a Math Problem

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    Yesterday I came across this problem while planning a lesson on ratio and proportion: "When I woke up this morning, I hit the snooze button and got 10 extra minutes to sleep.  Every time I hit the button, I get 10 extra minutes.  At this rate, if my alarm first goes off at 5:30 and…

  • Rotten Tomatoes, Linear Equations, Ratio and Proportion

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    This problem came about because I was talking about solving the equation 4x + y = – 14 for y and there was a little confusion about how I could  subtract 4x from – 14.  Although this was really a problem with combining like terms, I figured that now was as good of a time…

  • New Application Problems from the Classroom

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    Here are few more problems that I came up with during today’s class: 1.  Clyde owed 8 different people $4 each for some doughnuts that he bought to eat on his birthday. Then when he wasn’t looking, Hellman’s stole $4 from Clyde’s wallet.  In order to reclaim his debt, Clyde needed to split up his…