Literacy and Problem Solving

The next staff development day, there was more focus on literacy.  Once again, staff rotated through stations where teachers presented various literacy strategies.  At this event I was asked to host a station that focused on problem solving, something I have been working on in my classroom.  I did a fifteen minute mini-presentation 6 or 8 times (I lost track).  Whenever I am asked to do something like this, I am excited about the opportunity and always say yes.  Then, as the time of the event approaches, my nerves and insecurity start to eat at me and I regret having agreed to giving the mini-presentations. 

For my Problem Solving mini-presentation, I had staff work through a problem where they needed to use proportions (but they did not know they needed to use proportions when posed with the problem).  They were given an actual-size photograph of Shaq’s hand.  This was something I had come across in Sports Illustrated Kids when I was student teaching.  Staff was then asked to approximate the length of Shaq’s foot.  They had rulers, calculators, Algebra textbooks, pencils, and paper.  Some staff were able to work through it quickly, and others were able to figure it out with help from their colleagues (just like in the classroom).  Then I talked through how I put students in group, how I assigned tasks to each group member, what students could do when they were totally stuck, etc.  When it was done, it was a successful experience.