21st Century Skills?

Before visiting the Partnership for 21st Century Skills website for my class this week, I had some questions as to why they exist. Is the partnership necessary? Who is supporting it and why? I had never heard of it until this class. Should I have heard of it? What was I missing?

After reading their mission statement, I had a feeling that they might be onto something positive that might lead education in the right direction. As Thomas Friedman, wrote in his New York Times article, "The World is Flat After All," globalization 3.0 is shrinking the world from size small to size tiny and flattening the playing field at the same time. Our students need to be prepared to compete with a global talent pool in order to get a job or get accepted into a great university. At the heart of this issue lie these 21st century skills.

At first. the companies that are on board, supporting this movement, and the number of states that have initiatives to reach its goals, surprised me. Only 10 states, 20% of the states feel that there is a pressing need to prepare our students for the future global and technologically driven workplace. I was very glad to see that New Jersey was one of the states with an initiative. Taking into consideration that 21st century skills will help produce technologically literate students/citizens that can contribute and lead these very same companies into the future, it made sense in the world.

The only concern that I have is with the partnership is its support of NCLB as is. I really do not agree with the current form of NCLB. I guess that NCLB is not going away anytime soon, so supporting it is the only thing that they can do.

The implications of these 21st century skills in my classroom are numerous. My students need to be prepared, if they are going to be productive contributing citizens in this global society. All types of media bombard them at every turn. They need to be able to evaluate critically all this information. I must stay on top of all these new technologies if I am going to be able to help them. If they are not prepared to do their best because I have not prepared myself, then I have failed them. Our students and this country need, our educational system to change, to meet the demands of the global workplace.

Wikis

Well, this week in ITC class, our groups had to create a wiki for online educational resources. It has giving us a chance to work with this new technology. Now that I had had the chance to collaborate with my peers on this wiki. I know have a better understanding of how to handle wikis with my students. I look forward to having my students create a wiki, possibly on endangered animals. I believe it will be a great learning experience.

Blogs in the Classroom

How might I use a blog within my classroom? I teach 2nd grade and I have asked myself this question recently. I have previously discussed with a fellow 2nd grade teacher about possibly sharing writing pieces with each others class. The students from each class could read the other students' writing and then provide feedback, what they liked or disliked or any questions that the reader would like answered.

The idea of using a blog for this purpose, opens up more possibilities. The students can showcase their work and feel proud about what they have accomplished. They will see themselves as published authors. They can see that their is a point to their writing beyond having the teacher grade it. This will motivate them to become better writers. This is key to their development as writers. They will also have the opportunity to have an audience to write for. After reading the feedback, they can then go back and reflect upon their writing and develop it further. They can get new ideas from their audience to make changes to their pieces or create new ones.

The opportunities for learning do not stop there. The students will have a chance to read and learn from the other students' writing also. This will improve their own reading skills and they will learn to read critically. They can see what their peers are writing about, the different styles or the similarities that they may share with others. They can see that they are not the only ones that feel the way they do.

The students could work independently or with partners. By writing with partners they will learn through collaborative experiences. I would start this blog initially within the school, due to safety concerns, with the hope of connecting with 2nd graders in other schools.

Please let me know what you think of this idea. How could I make it better? What other things could I do to make it more challenging for my students? Also please share any of your own ideas for using blogs in your classrooms.

RSS Feeds

Already in week 1 of my master's course, The Impact of Technology in Education, Work and, Society and I have begun to use a great tool (RSS), through Google reader. It saves so much time, to be able to receive updates of all the blogs or news that I am following, instead of having to visit each one individually. I look forward to learning as we go along.

Welcome

Hello to all.
I'm ready to take another step forward in the use of technology within my own teaching and learning. I look forward to a fun ride. I hope that you will join me.