Wednesday, December 3, 2014

What's The Problem?

We all want answers. 
All the time. 
We seek answers from different sources throughout the day-our parents, friends, colleagues, books, magazines, songs-the list goes on and on. 
And we demand answers from each other. 
        "What do you want for dinner?"
                       "Why isn't your room clean?"
                                   "Did someone walk the dog?"

Getting an answer (or giving an answer) is something we are taught to do from infancy.
So it is no surprise that when it comes to school, especially mathematics, we are all about the finding the answers. 

But when we focus solely on the solution we often miss out on how we arrived at there. And it is in the journey that we can find meaning, make sense of concepts, and the uncover the beauty of mathematics (or science, or poetry, or music, etc.) and be excited about learning.

It is so important to feel the joy in learning. 
So I am providing the answers. 
And I am letting our Peck Place students and staff determine the question
               or QUESTIONS...


We Have the Answers




Week 1 - The solution is 14.



Student and staff contributions to "The Solution is 14"

And the ideas continue to flow.

The board is full by the day's end.
This generated such enthusiasm that I decided to change the solution once a week. 
                   Last week: "The solution is 2 dozen." 
                                                      Our current board: "The solution is 5 x 4."

Stop by Peck Place School and take a break from providing answers. 
We'll give you the solution, you give us the problem!