Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Tentative

I'm feeling a bit unsure of this entire blogging process... I was slightly alarmed to read a new post which referenced my blog... Thank you, but I feel the sudden need to proofread everything that I have written for fear that there may be too many idications of my lack of intellect and insight. I'm trying... I have never really enjoyed this writing thing; I would much rather talk, do Calculus or read - almost anything else...

Now that my nauseousness has passed, I really would like to share my thoughts and ideas about problem based learning. I need some quick, relevant and practical literature to help me understand how to implement. I understand the basic components and its constructivist foundation, but I have been searching for practical ideas. For example, my grade ten math class is working on rational and irrational numbers, solving equations and polynomials. We were doing a review today on all of the basic operations involving fractions. I want them to create a visual to represent what it means to divide and multiply fractions - illustrate 5/6 divided by 1/2. They thought I was crazy. We discussed this for awhile, and I think that perhaps tomorrow they could do this in small groups, even with a few variables! We'll see! I think this may be a good practical example of pbl, but I would appreciate any thoughts and directions...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Never meant to make you feel anything but welcome. No pressure. You're already demonstrating transparency and reflective practice which to me is really what blogging is about.

As far as proofreading, the book Naked Conversations (don't worry it's about blogging in business) actually states most bloggers prefer the odd error. It demonstrates this is not a formal publishing space but a space where we work out stuff.

That's what you're doing. Keep it up.

Anonymous said...

Hi Catherine,

Thanks for dropping by my blog and leaving a comment. I am always excited to meet someone close to home. I get quite excited when I find people have come to my blog. I enjoy the conversation but I do feel pressured to say something original and I don't know how possible that is. As to your real question regarding problem based learning - great activitiy. I looked to see if you had a blogroll but I thought I'd let you know about Dareen Kuropatwa at 'A Difference". He is a high school math teacher in Winnipeg. He'd be a great person to set the question to, plus he does very cool technology stuff with his classes.