Partnership for the 21st Century Skills

I found the site of the Partnership for the 21st Century Skills to be very interesting. It is a great site that has useful information and I encourage all educators to use it. 

What surprised me is that only 9 out of 50 states gave a commitment to revise their standards, create assessments, and implement the 21st century skills in their classrooms. If we want our students to be able to use these skills to be successful in college and in the work place, then we need to begin training our students now. If these skills are not viewed as important enough to even be on the standards, then had do we expect students, parents, and even educators to take it seriously?

One quote that I do not entirely agree with is "The paper notes that the greatest challenge to incorporating technology into learning environments is not finding time and money, but finding ways to adequately support the use of these tools. Technology can only make a difference when students, teachers, and administrators are provided the necessary supports to proficiently integrate it into daily routines." The part of this I disagree with is that the greatest challenge is not finding time and money. Money is one of the biggest challenges of all. If you don't have money, then you probably won't have technology or the money to pay for the teacher training. Without these two necessary elements you have nothing to build on.

The implications for my students and myself as an educator are that we have quite a bit of work ahead of us. I am fortunate enough to have the technology in my classroom and the training is at my fingertips. Finding the time, on the other hand, is another issue.

Using Blogs in the Classroom

I teach 8th grade Language Arts. In the district where I teach every teacher has their own classroom website. One of the features we have on our website is to create blogs for our students to respond to. When I post a blog it is usually with the purpose of students responding to an assignment we have already completed. For example, in my class every 8th grader is required to write a 5-7 page research paper on Illinois history. It is a huge assignment for students this age. Recently, upon the completion of the final copy, I posted a blog asking students how they felt about the assignment - how much value they thought the assignment had, how they thought they did on the assignment, and how it will help them in the future. This was valuable to me as a teacher because I now know that the students found the assignment very worthwhile and they are sure it will help them when they get to high school.

My 8th grade students are required to read independently every day. They spend the first 10-15 minutes of every class period reading their self-selected novels, and of course they are also encouraged to read outside of class. Throughout the quarter they have reader response prompts that they respond to, and at least once per quarter they are required to write a book review and record it as a podcast. These assignments not only encourage them to reflect on their reading, but will also enable them to use the technology skills they have acquired over the past three years and share their book with others when their podcasts are presented. This is the first year I have approached independent reading this way, and I have to admit that my students really seem to be enjoying it. It is a great way to enhance our independent reading program and show off the students' technology skills at the same time!

Read, Write, Podcast!