Unit #3
I wrote last time of how one of the administrators I interviewed was not as optimistic as I was about PBL, Problem Based Learning, my topic of research.  The second administrator I interviewed this last week had a much more positive reaction to PBL.  I think mainly for this was his past experience in a charter school specifically designed around PBL.  He talked of a few reasons as to the success and failure of PBL.  One thing he said was that he felt that PBL needed to be a combination of the traditional teaching of content and the student driven learning of PBL.  I think even with my lack of experience and training, which is a reason for failure, it is a difficult balance.  How much do you teach versus the student's discovery.  Another thing that he talked about was that PBL is a means to learn content but in reverse, backwards.  I guess I knew it but I think giving this more consideration will help me with implementation of PBL in the math classroom.  Both administrators touched on lack of training as a reason for failure.  This I agree with.  It is very difficult to implement a new teaching method without having sufficient experience and training.  Reading about it just isn't enough and hands on is essential.  I do have at least one teacher so far from my surveys that will let me come into the classroom and observe.  She is not in my content area, math, but like I said before experience is essential in any environment. There are a couple other teachers that I'm hoping to hear from because their classes would be awesome to observe.

Unit #2

Thought #1:
First I have to say I did the last Blog wrong since I didn't read the directions thoroughly.  Isn't that what we warn our students to not do. Life always brings about learning moments.

Thought #2
I'm wondering how other researchers deal with disappointments or negative attitudes with those that you interview.  I find it discouraging when an interviewee says that I may not get a response from teachers that I want to survey.  I understand that I need to be realistic that response rates could be low.  I felt though that my research may not go anywhere according to the attitude of my interviewee.  I told them I plan to be optimistic.  I told him my attitude is "My glass is half full."

Thought #3
Since I work at a private school and am not confined by pressure to get to a certain point in content by a specific time I have been experimenting with assessments, homework and demonstration of mastery.  I don't like busy work but I do feel that it is important to get enough practice so that success can be reproduced.  I teach math so I am giving a weekly cumulative assessment called "Independent Thinking" and then from that giving remedial exercises.  I call this remedial work - "Continued Learning".  I just started this in the past couple of weeks so we will see how it goes.  My students are still working on their work ethic so turning in their Continued Learning will be a chore for me.  This should be great for them though and reflective in their scores for the next Independent Thinking.