21st Century Skills

After reading the article, “Learning for the 21^st Century,” and viewing their website, I feel that they are taking big steps into making education real. They promote learning core curriculum standards using different medias that students need to learn how to use in order to be successful in today’s society. “In a digital world, students need to learn to use the tools that are essential to everyday life and workplace productivity,"(2004).

The website provided videos of classrooms that have adapted the idea of using real world applications in the classroom that correlate with the curriculum standards and 21^st century content. I observed a classroom that implemented longer projects for students to get the feel of what it is really like to be an engineer. The engineering component was broken down so that the students could understand the concepts and conduct experiments based on what they have learned. I especially like how the students were receiving the fundamental knowledge that they needed and then actually investigated, made predictions, and tried out their ideas to see if it would really work, just like an engineer would do. I was surprised to see that the videos that I watched based on classroom experiences were made by the George Lucas Foundation that supports teaching communication skills to students in new ways. (click on link below to see the video)

One area of concern is the economic crisis we seem to be in. While I agree that schools need to make radical changes in the way we prepare students for the 21^st century, not having the funds to move further make it harder to make these advances. I know that in the school district I work in a lot of changes are going to take place in the next year. With the lack of state funding we are going to have to cut back on certain aspects in our school environment and instead of embracing the tools we need for the 21^st century, I feel that they will most likely be placed on the back burner. The article states that, “While states and school districts now face a challenging economic environment, the need for 21^st century skills is not going away,"(2004).

As a contemporary educator my wish is for schools to embrace this technological change and change the structure in which teachers are trained. I want more workshops on how to prepare my classroom for the 21^st century. I want more hands on classes that the district should provide to show me new tools that I should be implementing in my classroom. I want to do more project based learning activities that use core content across the curriculum to explore real like implications in which the students will one day be involved in.

Here is a video clip that I viewed through the website: http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/

It can be found on the website: http://www.edutopia.org/engineering-success

It deals with students using real-life implications and allows the students to use critical thinking skills to solve real world issues.

Engineering Success: Students Build Understanding | Edutopia

References:

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. A report and mile guide for 21st century skills

http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/

Media Smarts: Kids Learn How to Navigate the Multimedia World | Edutopia

Media Smarts: Kids Learn How to Navigate the Multimedia World | Edutopia

Blogging in the Classroom

Blogging is an essential tool for teachers to be using in the classroom because it is something that the students will be using for the rest of their lives. Will Richardson explains in his book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcast, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classroom, that by using weblogs in schools, "they (students) are building relationships with peers, teachers, mentors, and professionals within the Weblog environment," (2009, pg. 20).

In my fifth grade social studies class the students will be doing a project called Historical Action Figures. The students task is to take a historical figure from the civil war, create the figure and the box in which the action figure would be sold in, and write a persuasive essay as to why children should buy this historical action figure. The tagline for this project is, "They may be old, but with your help we can get them sold!"

Instead of having the students write the persuasive essay out I could have the students create a weblog in which they are "selling" their action figure and blogging their persuasive speech. Students can respond to each others persuasive blogs and ask question, offer suggestions or idea, as well as leaving overall comments on the actual historical action figure. Instead of just having the students listen to the presentations, they will read why they should buy this particular product (historical action figure) and learn more about these important historical figure in the Civil War. When the students give their presentations in front of the class to show their actual product, the other students will already have background knowledge on the figure from reading and responding to the blogs. It will establish ways for students to interact with one another based on their projects as well as showcase their work.

Furthermore, my third grade class loves writing in their morning journals. What if once or twice a week the students wrote their morning journals using a weblog! They could then respond to other classmates blog. This would be a great way to teach the students how to properly respond to blogs, especially when other people will be reading it.

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

I have officially entered the blogging world! I am looking forward to blogging with fellow Walden classmates as I start my technological journey!