Talking to the Board: The Problems of Problem Solving

This week in lab I had the opportunity to present a problem solving approach lesson. I choose to work on my final Introduction to Agriculture Project.

A puzzling email from my best friend Tara, the lost world traveler who had encountered endless problems, especially with the community garden she is attempting to grow. Unfortunately, Tara is not really my best friend seeing as she isn't even real, but I think her emails will help out in many instances in the future.

Anyway, the day of lab I was prepared, but extremely nervous. Usually for lab I am a littler nervous prior too, but calm down once I get started, but not his time,this made out for a bumpy start.

The beginning of my lesson was a little slow but gradually picked up. Some of the feedback I received on my observation forms included that I was enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and well prepared. On the flip side I had comments such as great beginning just didn't go smooth with this group and don't talk to the board.

As I looked back on this lab I have noted that I need to calm down and relax a little more. I feel very anxious if I have to stop and look at my lesson plan, or take a few moments to handout papers. In addition, I have discomfort with writing on the board, weather I am doing it, or having a student facilitate this activity. I just feel like it is a down time in my lesson and I do not feel comfortable with this. I believe this is why I ended up talking to the board, because I was trying to continue the momentum while writing.


Overall I think the lesson went very well, I had a lot of questions after the camera stopped rolling witch was interesting. The areas of improvement include, critical thinking questions, pace, and slowing down when needed.

I can see the impacts that the problem solving approach to teaching can have on students and am excited to see how this lesson will play out with my class in the spring.