Partnership for 21st Century Skills

21st Century Skills are essential for students to develop.  This website provides information regarding the movement to develop 21st century skills in our students.  I found the site interesting, however I was surprised at the lack of discussion on the site.  This site is primarily to inform the reader about what 21st century skills are, and also to outline the framework presented by this partnerhsip (which is composed of many educational and corporate groups!)

One of the most surprising things I noticed about the site (aside from the inability to engage in any discussion on the website) was that there are only fifteen states participating.  The importance of the skills needed to be successful in the workforce should be a priority of all states, not just the fifteen who have signed on with the partnership!  It is nice that there are resources available for teachers to use, but permission is needed in order to utilize content from the P21.  There are links to blogs, wikis, and other sites that offer training and various resources to bring 21st century skills to the classroom, but there is so much to navigate.  It would be nice to see resources broken down by content area or skill set.

The information presented was clear as to the mission of P21 and the importance of developing 21st century skills.  The website feels like an advertisement for a business model, more than it does a tool for educators to work together in order to collaborate and develop ways of bringing 21st century skills to the classroom.  As I mentioned previously, these skills are so important for our students do develop, that we should be working as a team to make sure that all educators are bringing these skills and tools to their classrooms.  This website feels more like it is selling something than helping out educators - trying to get us to "buy in" to their programs rather than allowing us to engage in meaningful sharing and discussion of these topics.

As an educator, it is very important for me to embrace and understand 21st century skills.  I will need to be able to model and use these skills to better myself and to further develop the education of my students.  My students will need to embrace the importance of learning - not only the content we present to them every day, but also how to use technology to learn and research.  They will need to take the reins in their own learning and drive change both in education and in the workforce. 

Are Our Students Motivated Enough?

In my post-workout daze, I stumbled across this article in which some schools in Miami-Dade County will be replacing teachers with online learning.  Now, while I am completely behind online learning (I am currently using it myself to pursue my Master's Degree) the idea of having only a facilitator in the room to address technical issues is a tad on the ridiculous side.  I have students who would do very well learning independently online, but most of my students would not utilize or even manage their time well enough to be successful.

There must be a happy middle ground in which we can encourage students to use online learning but still have face-to-face interaction with a teacher for support as needed (some students need that face-to-face connection).  There are days when I <almost> do not have the discipline to sit down and work on the materials for my class - but I know my responsibilities and always work to get the job done.  Do we feel that our teenage students have enough self-motivation to work on online learning with only a tech-support "facilitator"?  What do you think?

New England Winter...

June 7th...That was supposed to be my last day of school for this year...but Mother Nature has other plans, apparently.  Four snow days (and counting...) of wasted time and lost instruction.  Midterms were supposed to start today, but again Mother Nature decided to move things around a bit.  I guess she did not really like our schedule.

With all of the new technology at our fingertips, there should be a way to get students to log in and do some online learning while we all hunker down and wait out the wonderful "winter wonderland" that is happening outside.  Setting up classroom blogs would be a great way to put up review information to help get the students studying for midterms or even to get them to ask questions regarding material they are struggling to comprehend...

Or maybe I should just suit up and go play in the snow (now it's ice...) with my kids...

Happy Snow Day from CT!!!

Ways to use blogging in my high school math classes...hmmmmmmm

Honestly, I am having a little difficulty with this one.  I think it would be a great place for my students to share problem solving ideas and strategies, as well as for sharing ideas on how to stay organized and study.  It would also be a great place for them to discuss how to solve homework problems (as well as a great place for me to post homework for them).  I love the posts of Dan Meyer's blog.  In it, he poses questions and offers ideas for teachers, but honestly, I have been terrified to try some of them with my students (many of them do not have access to technology at home, and it is very difficult to book computer lab time for my classes.)  I also have not seen blogs for math classes...everything I have seen so far is the teacher's blog for sharing ideas with other teachers.  If anyone has seen one in practice, please let me know so I can check it out.

Hopefully, I will learn much from this course.  I want to have a cutting-edge classroom in which students are not terrified of math...

Thanks for "listening!"

First Blog EVER!

Hello World!  This is my first blog ever...please be patient - I'm new at this :-).

My first post will pose a question:

If many of our students do not have computers or internet access at home, how can we really integrate all of these wonderful online technologies in the classroom?  In Will Richardson's book, "Blogs Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms," Richardson mentions the idea of having a class blog in which the teacher and students can communicate and share ideas as well as post assignments.  I have quite a few students who do not have internet access outside of school, and was wondering if anyone has any suggestions.  I would love to use some of these ideas and technologies to not only streamline my classroom operations, but also to foster discussion of the math we're learning (they're too "cool" to talk about math in front of their friends in the classroom...)