creative problem solving

Chapter 8 in the psychology textbook is on problem solving. The first section is entitled, "Thinking."

I hope you are at least smiling right now. I have struggled with class management, planning, and discipline, but this I realized quickly:

you can lead a student to learning, but you can't make him think

I could be the greenest teacher around, but I'm definitely learning that students have to decide for themselves that they want to learn something. So.... I pulled a few tricks out of my very shallow bag and we spent a day doing challenge activities out on the soccer field.

Here are some pictures of the students in the 4 different stations... some of them were still at the "lead a student to learning" stage, but most of them found out you could think AND have fun at the same time. BRILLIANT!

Blindman: Students had to direct a blindfolded classmate through a series of obstacles.

Spider Web - students had to get everyone from one side of the 'magic' web to the other ... every time they used a portal it could not be used again.

Magic Stick - students had to place both fingers nail side up underneath this stick and simply bring it to the ground ... I've never heard so many students yell "BAJEN" (lower) so intensely!

Ski Challenge - students had to move the skis as a team in a certain direction.

I'll write more later... what an exhausting week! There's more to come and much more to write.

What do you do for problem solving - classroom or otherwise?