#problem-solvers

Learn to question everything

I love this George Carlin quote.  It should be a core focus for every parent, teacher, leader … Questioning things leads to achieving greater clarity of an issue or statement and is the basis for separating facts from opinions. I got to thinking about this when I received notice that Andy Borowitz, satirist for The New Yorker magazine is about to release his new book. It is simply titled…

1. What is useful for the children about the teacher/ faciltator acting in role? This way of teaching through role playing is brilliant for the children’s creative development and is a way of using stories/narratives familiar to them to open their eyes to the wider world and discuss any issues. By having the teacher/facilitator in role I think this makes the entire exercise different and exciting for the children: to have a real life character present makes the scenario seem more realistic and therefore more important for them to solve this problem. 2. What are the important things to remember/ consider when using role play? When using role play to teach children, it is important to consider that not all children will have experienced an adult role playing before, they may therefore act strangely to this by laughing and giggling due to confusion. In order to allow all children to understand the idea of the adult in role, it is important to remember to go with the pace of the children when the adult in role (AIR) is first introduced. The teacher/facilitator not in role could try the following: “Um, it is a bit funny. But I’m not sure Mrs Brown is doing this to make us laugh. I’ll ask her, Mrs Brown.” “Yes?” “Are you trying to make us laugh?” “No! This person is very upset.” “Oh, I see. Right then we’ll have to be careful not to laugh.” “She does look very upset. I wonder if we could ask her what’s the matter.” This way, all children are given the chance to understand the role playing activity and can all begin to feel comfortable becoming activity involved in the problem-solving to come.

Become a Problem-Solver! 

As February wears on, our inaugural set of Problem-Solvers are starting to prototype and test their ideas in the field. At the same time, we’re recruiting our next wave of T Lab participants to design and build new solutions in Child Care, Early Childhood Education and Prisoner Reentry.