The Partnership for the 21st Century Skills website is a very well organized attempt to bring together the business community, educational leaders and policy makers. The Partnership for the 21st Century Skills has a clearly defined mission to position 21st century skills at the center of the United States K-12 education by building collaborative partnerships among education, business, and community and government leaders. I couldn’t find anything that I would disagree with on this website. As a teacher who is only in his sixth year of teaching, it is not hard for me to see the need for the 21st century skills set infused into the United States education system. This will not be an easy infusion of skills, but with all groups working together some excellent advancement can be made in 21st century education.
I was shocked at how much information was presented for teachers on this website. I can’t believe that I haven’t heard about this website before today. My favorite resource on this website was using the online guide from the Route 21 link. I explored and found some excellent information on how to implement ICT Literacy skills and support for global awareness into my fifth grade classroom. In this exploration, it was nice to be able to watch a video clip of a teacher implementing these ideas. I really enjoyed watching the video clip on a lesson called Journey North, which demonstrated implementing ICT Literacy within a science curriculum.
As an educator, I ensure that every student has the opportunity to become successful citizens and workers in the 21st century. I will need to continue learning and implementing new knowledge and skills into the classroom. I will seek and participate in professional development programs. Students will not get a free ride on this journey through the 21st century. Students will need to take responsibility for their learning as collaboration; self-direction and accountability are a part of the skills needed.
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I reviewed a video called "Welcome to the Digital Generation" about how the classroom instruction has changed from the "Chalkboard Ages" to a Digital Age".
ReplyDeleteYears ago, when I was in school I would have loved using technology to create projects.
How do you think your life would have been in your school years if you were able to engage with technology?
Not only would it have increased my engagement into the content, I wouldn't feel so anxious about using new technologies with my students.
ReplyDeleteBryan,
ReplyDeleteI was very excited about the information on this website, also. I found it was easy to manuvor.
I watched the same vidoe clip and thought it was very interesting. Ms. Koontz created a perfect learning environment, sophistiated technology and an organized lesson. What an incredible experience for a chid. When the film was following the monarch butterfilies, I kept thinking how fortuante for some childern, wheo never get to experience vacations or see the world. The game "team of classes" reminded me of an international spelling bee, but with no traveling.
As an educator, do you ever feel we have a lot of work to do in a short amount of time?
Terri,
ReplyDeleteI had this same discussion with my grade level team on Thursday this week. I was telling them about this lesson and all the cool things that this website has to offer. The first thing one of my co-worker said was that sounds great, but I don't even have time to fit in the general curriculumn. Until we view these learning opportunities as a meaningful essential part of the curriculumn we won't have time.
I was also quite shocked that I had not heard of this site before. Of all the teacher websites that are out there this is definitely a website that has a lot of information on it.
ReplyDeleteTo continue on with Terri and your conversation, I was sitting here right now wishing I had an inservice day to myself, or an extended long weekend with nothing to do, where I could just lesson plan. I feel as though with everything else going on in the schools (meetings, inservice activites, student activities, etc) that I do not have time to implement everything I want to implement into my classrooms!
I really like your last paragraph where you talk about the students taking ownership of their learning and becoming active participants in the process.
ReplyDeleteIn my district I think there has been a lot of feeding the information to the kids. I had a student on Friday ask me why I ask questions that make them think. He was taking a test and told me that I should put more of the true/false or multiple choice questions on the test because it would be easier. He spent an hour after school talking with me about how this question was too hard or how that question made him actually read the book. I told him that I commiserated with him and that he could only expect that I would expect him to be able to answer even harder questions as the year goes on.
He left my office smiling, happy, and feeling proud of how hard he worked on that test. I think that our kids want that even when they say they don't. They want that challenge and ownership. I wonder if it is us who get in the way some times.