Thought of the Day - Partnership for 21st Century Skills

This week we have been discussing 21st century skills that our students will need to become successfull in the ever-changing technological world. To be successful in the future, our students will need to know skills such as information literacy, critical thinking for problem solving, proper global communication skills, teamwork, information technology, leadership, ethics, professionalism, social responsibility and most of all, life-long learning skills. As a teacher who studied how to teach in a more technological world rather than the industrial world of the past, these are all skills and values I personally try to instill in all of my students. Even though I have tried my best to teach these critical skills to my students, I was unaware that these skills were actually referred to as 21st Century Skills. On top of that, I was instructed to observe The Partnership for 21st Century Skills website at http://www.21stcenturyskills.org. Let me tell you, it's an impressive organization and an impressive website.

While first examining this website, I now realize just how big this organization and movement has become. On the website, you can find a bevy of articles stating everything they have done to speak to schools, influence educators, and supply resources for teachers, students, and parents to help foster strong 21st century skills. What really suprised me and impressed me is the impressive line-up of supporters on their roster. Companies like Adobe, Intel, Apple, Dell, Atomic Learning, HP, and even Lego lends their support and have current members of their companies serve on the board.

What I don't understand is why aren't more states on board with this company and this way of educating? Only ten of the fifty states support and are implementing this program. What's even more disappointing is that Maryland, the state in which I teach, hasn't adopted this yet. We were just named one of the top states in the US for elementary education, I'm not quite sure how long that title will last if we don't fully embrace the ideology of 21st century skills.

As stated previously, this website made me feel a little bit better about the teaching I've been doing these past four years. This website makes the importance of 21st century skills widely known and I hope that through this website, I can fine tune my 21st century skills so I can properly convey this important message to my students in the future. I suggest you check it out. These are my thoughts.

Thought of the Day - Blogging Lesson Ideas

Ok, here is my thought of the day. After reading a few chapters in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for the Classrooms by Will Richardson and by examining the discussions of Dr. Thornburg in a recent class video, I have a couple ideas that involve using blogs in my fifth grade classroom. Feel free to comment, criticize, or use any of these ideas in your classroom. The first was the use of a weblog that I utilized for the past two years, but didn't even know that I was blogging, and according to Will Richardson, it isn't true blogging. To keep all my students and parents abreast of homework, due dates, field trips, etc, I utilized a website titled www.schoolnotes.com. I updated this site daily and it proved to be immensely helpful for the students who were absent or for the parents who's children tend to forget to write down their due dates in their assignment book. This also alleviated the "I didn't know it was due" excuse that drives many teachers up the wall.

Now lets talk about the future. Next year, I plan on utilizing a class blog to aid with my literature circles. My school is lucky enough to have a mobile computer lab with over 25 laptops available for my fifth grade class (by the way, only the fifth grade is allowed to use this particular set of laptops). As we get into more complex novels like Stowaway by Karen Hesse and Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O'Brien, we conduct our small groups with a lot of discussion on character development. I think a fantastic use of a blog would be to have each group select one character and contribute a thought to the characters development after reading each chapter. By the end of the story, it will be a complete narration of the development of that particular character written by my students. Although the authors of many of the stories we read in class are either deceased or probably have much better things to do, since these blogs can reach a "global audience" it would be amazing to get feedback from the actual author's one day. Much like Will Richardson mentioned in his book.

To go along with the global audience idea, I feel the idea of having a child become an author to a global audience will really motivate the students who struggle with writing motivation. I was thinking of a weekly creative writing prompt to place on a weblog to have students respond to each week. This will hopefully motivate the students who aren't interested in simply writing for a class audience, or even a more introverted student who is afraid to share his writing in front of a class of peers. Having my students write a more global audience will also have them analyze their writing a little more and make them a little more motivated to proofread each assignment before submitting it. Like I said, feel free to comment, criticize, or use these ideas. These are my thoughts.

Intro into the mind

My goal is to establish an open forum for discussion about our thoughts on education. These discussions can be thoughts about new teaching ideas, new teaching technology, recent trends or studies, questions about anything in the teaching profession, or just a place to vent. Basically this blog will depend on the feelings of the day. We need a place to speak our mind, express our concerns, or ask the questions we have always been afraid to ask our collegues. This will be our place to celebrate, to look for enlightnment, or to find that shoulder to cry on. These are my thoughts.