Me: Alright, well we're about halfway done, so how many folders have we done? There are 25 total.
An intelligent, respectful, hardworking sophomore: Uh, I dunno, you can do it Ms. Lewis.
Me: Well, let's see, I know 25 is near 24, and I know what half of 24 is... do you?
Sophomore: Uhh....
Me: It's 12. I just have that memorized, but if you don't, you can break up 24 into 20 and 4. So, what's half of 20?
Sophomore: Umm, I think it's....
Me: Just think, 10 plus what is ______
Sophomore: (Counts on fingers) 20!
Me: Yes, but you don't need to use your fingers for that. Just remember your tens. 10 plus 10 is 20. 20 plus 10 is 30. 30 plus 10 is _____
Sophomore: (Counts on fingers again) 40!
After some time working on the board, he understood that to add 10 to any number you just increase the tens place value by 1 digit. We then moved on to adding quickly by breaking apart numbers (ex. 22 + 12 is the same as 22 + 10 + 2). How are there sophomores in our schools that don't know these things???? My heart breaks for the destruction in their lives that poor schooling in elementary school has done for them.
Note to self: teach students the meaning behind procedures and how to manipulate numbers, not just procedures.
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