My first lesson is workplace readiness. I plan to have the students utilize problem solving by planning how to prepare themselves to work.
I will have my students participate in a problem solving activity using the cornrow braiding process. We will review the historical background of the process, while documenting the step by step techniques as a group. A little self-awareness⌠as the teacher with little knowledge of the braiding process, I will perform less as an expert and more as an active participant and cheerleader. Once we have finished the lesson plan, we will review the process and brainstorm as a class.
I have students list problems that they see within our school. We come up with things like no wifi for students (they lost the privilege for a time), the food served in the cafeteria, pep rallies, etc. Although they may not be world issues they are things they see as issue in the world they live in. These are things that they may be able to work on solving and this helps with their motivation.
It is very important to make it relevant to them. I plan on giving them options because they do not all care about the same things. Some students think the dress code at our school is sexist and feel very strongly about it⌠they could try to problem solve that instead of just complaining. Others are concerned with the over population in our area and how one whole grade is in trailers. I would love to see them problem solve that, their solutions should be interesting.
I think there are a variety of ways to relate problems to real life situations. It depends which students I have in class, but I will try to present a problem that relates to something that the students are interested in personally, whether it is sports, agriculture, marketing, etc.
With respect to problem solving, I try to make all of my assignments something that is 1) interesting to the individual student and 2) relevant to the real world.
Recently, I have asked my students to work on a Minecraft server that allows players to experience colonizing a new world (historical fiction US circa 1600s). Additionally, I have had my students develop an APP that uses GPS in conjunction with historical events as a scavenger hunt.
Students are also free to choose a âpassion Projectâ where they select something important to them and work to provide something meaningful relevant to it.
My school has closed campus. The students would really like open campus. We set this up as our problem. The students went through the problem solving process to come up with a proposal to change from closed to open campus.
I find that students respond best to questions about their personal lives and interests. The difficulty for teachers is tapping into what these might be. Often, students are very reluctant to discuss personal in a classroom forum for fear of embarrassing themselves. For this reason, I often get âcookie cutterâ responses from my students. Fear of bullying or hazing via social media is one of the reasons that students are reluctant to open up in the classroom environment, even in a computer class.
Teaching students how to problem solve is a task within itself. Its hard enough for students to come up of an idea/problem which needs solving. I usually begin with the game âknotsâ. Students are to resolve a situation by becoming observers, problem solvers and communicators in order to resolve the task on hand.
Real world problems:
- Homelessness in your city - what can be done about it?
- Police brutality - how to address this?
- Stray Animals - what to do to prevent this?
- Creating a financial budget to live on and still save some money.
- Bullying in your school - how to stop it?
At the moment we are having a lot of network issues in our classroom that makes accessing certain resources difficult if not impossible. We are looking at other resources and ways to get to the information and resources we need. Students often play a role in finding the secondary source or another way to get to the information we need. I do stress that this is always within the defined parameters of what our network allows.
As an educator, the number one problem I constantly hear from my students in general around interims and report cards grading period is, âWhatâs my grade?â Despite the school districtâs many efforts to put grades at the finger tips of students, a few would still rather ask a teacher instead of take the initiative to solve their own problem by exerting energy and effort to check their own grades online thus solving the mystery.
I teach computers and keyboarding preps. Every student in the room has access to a computer. So when asked by a student to âprint a list of missing school assignments with students ID to they can see what they havenât turned in.â I used this opportunity as a teaching moment to emphasize how this information is already available and accessible online, saving time, effort, and paper. This was a great opportunity to remind students that they have the ability to solve their own dilemma because all students can now established assess to their online grades and view assignments.
Students are expected to check their grades online bi-weekly. Teachers can continue with lesson, serve, and educate the class. Now when asked, âWhatâs my grade?â, I simply remind and redirect students to be problem solvers by logging on and ascertain that information for themselves.
Air quality is a big problem in our valley that affects everyone. Last winter our air was dirtier than Beijing. I would love to have my students problem solve this issue.
I think I will ask my students to anonymously come up with some problems they experience. Then, we, as a class can decide which ones to use the problem solving method with.
There are many world problems today. I think ECS does a good job incorporating ideas, problems and topics into the curriculum. One thing that many students in my class want to talk about is the upcoming election in November. That would be a good starting point to get students thinking about what candidate in their opinion would be the best problem solver for out country.
Wow, I bring in the BreakoutEDU box in my classes now to solve problems. There are amazing real-world lessons tied to the boxes and students work collaboratively to solve the puzzle and break into the box in 45 minutes. Other concepts I have brought in are activities like the Marshmallow challenge so that students can be challenged to work together to solve a real engineering problem.
In my class, my students get the chance to problem solve all the time. We use a program where students are able to create a computer game. If there is the smallest mistake (as in an extra space), it will cause the game to not work. Students are to try and figure the problem out on their own, then ask three then me if the problem can not be solved.
the best problems are ones that the students come up with. I always suggest thinking about something you donât like. And how you would improve that something.
Real World Problem- Real School Problem - Are you the Real Bully - letâs look and examine based on your mind set. Have the conversation outloud, ask about peer pressure, the need to belong, and loving on yourself. Powerful looking forward to the discussion