ths subjects we are teaching the kids are becoming more complicated now that we are reaching boolean expression. So we are more prone to disagreeing what we should teach the kids next and then what matching excercises should be used. It all works out in the end but picking lessons is becoming a healthy debate every time.
At the moment we are wondering if boolean leads to flow control and using if/then statements, and how to not make that too much of a mental leap for the kids.
There is also the issue of teaching them about inputs and outputs, teaching them gets.chomp and how to write programs that are small stories that ask for a user input and spit out an output. Some of these rely on using mathamatical expressions so that's also something I'm going to review with them.
The lesson will look something like this: tuesday- input and output (gets.chomp) and then having them write a little program that is a story that asks for user input
thursday- booleans and mathamatical expressions, then having them write some programs that add and divide numbers
the following tuesday- review of booleans and introduction to flow control and if/then statements, and practice writing if/then statements
the following thursday- review of mathematical expressions and gets.chomp inputs, and more practice with if/then statements that use these.
Nate is of the opinion that more math is better, that it would make some of these problems more interesting. I'm of the camp that this is not math class and I don't want them worrying about anything but code, assuming the translation of the problem into code alone is enough of a challenge without occupying what few braincells these kids have developed with stuff they should be learning in their other classes.
