16/06/10

This morning two students got suspended from school for a week. They called the two boys to stand up front during morning announcements, and then read a statement on why they were being suspended and for how long (one week), and then told them to go home.
Grading exams this week has been very interesting for me because it shows me once again how little I understand about how some of my kids think. We are doing word problems and their tests have problems like the following: a) the sum of the double of a number with 10 is equal to 16, what is the number and b) maria has 10 Meticais more than Telma, and Telma has 8 Meticais more than Sara. Together they have 41 Meticais. When I wrote the test I assumed that the first problem, “a,” was the easier one (2x+10=16) whereas “b” is much more complicated (x+x+8+x+8+10=41). But I am finding that my students are doing better on problem “b.” I think it may be that for them it is much easier to imagine someone having more money than another person than it is to imagine the sum of the double of some hypothetical number. Just another reminder that I have much to learn.