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The Partnership for 21st Century Skills’ goal is to make certain that each student is equip with 21st century skills to ensure their readiness for the future.  Their objective is to provide educators with the resources and tools to create engaging lessons that incorporate fundamental skills (reading, writing, arithmetic) with higher level thinking skills (critical thinking, communication, problem solving, collaboration, and creativity).

The framework for 21^st century learning combines student outcomes with support systems.  Student outcomes focus on life, learning, innovation, and technology skills within core subjects and 21^st century themes, such as global awareness, business literacy, civic literacy, environmental literacy, and health literacy.  Support systems refer to state standards, curriculum, profession development, and the classroom learning environment. 

Basically, 21^st century skills help students to master content using technology, as well as other more student-centered approaches to teaching.  The point is to engage students in the subject matter by helping students to make real world connections. This increases the rigor, while allowing students to be creative.  The more developed the students’ cognitive abilities and problem solving skills are, the more successful they will be as they become the next generation leading our society.

 Module 4-2: Digital Literacy:

Summary:

Katie Klinger discussed how interdisciplinary events engaged students in the learning process while meeting state standards.  Teachers in a Hawaiian elementary school created the opportunity for second and third grade students to participate in a “Culture and Choices Day.”  The objective of this event is for students to “showcase three distinct cultures with hands-on, learner-centered activities in food, clothing, art, architecture, music, traditions, culture, and conversational and written language” (Klinger – Edutopia blog).  The core subjects of math, language arts, and social studies focused on helping the students to understand economic concepts, the role they play within the economy, and different types of economic systems.

On the day of the event, students come prepared with money that they have made.  They are placed into three multiage groups which each represent a different culture – Hawaiian, Japanese, and Mexican.  Each group then creates artwork, cooks food, and put on authentic costumes that are indicative of that particular culture.  They then role-play selling their “goods” (artwork) or buying goods, using their math skills in the money exchange.  Finally, teachers ask students to compare and contrast the cultures.  Finally, students reflect on the day via a survey.   The majority of the students enjoyed the experience stating that they would like to learn like this again.

 Reflection:

          I would love to create a meaningful and memorable interdisciplinary unit within the middle school setting.  These Hawaiian students will always remember this content because they interacted with it.  I think that this is the driving logic behind the 21^st century skills movement.  I believe that 21^st century skills could be utilized to make engaging interdisciplinary lessons that will also meet the state standards for each of the core subjects involved.  As educators, we must challenge ourselves to reach out to other disciplines and provide the students the freedom to create.  If we want our students to be able to compete in this ever-changing world, we must equip them with the skills necessary to do so.  Educational pedagogy must be revised to incorporate 21^st century skills into the teacher’s toolbox.

This week in W531, we had the opportunity to watch a few videos describing technology. The first video embedded below) is a clever portrayal of how technology, at every step, has always been a task to understand. It relates the “new” technology, a book, to how we first felt about navigating the internet. The video shows that no matter what the innovation, people have to work through their discomfort before mastering the tool.

The second video, “the piano stairs – the fun theory,” shows how technology can be utilized to make mundane or difficult tasks more engaging. This is such a cool idea. After viewing this video, I really want to try out those stairs. The implication for educators is that using technology can serve to create a higher level of engagement amongst students. Technology can be a catalyst to creativity and new innovations.

Finally, the last video I watched really pushed me, as a teacher, to think about how I can incorporate technology meaningfully into my classroom. The statistics and quotes in this final video, entitled “Pay Attention,” made me do just that. Although I currently utilize technology in my classroom, there are still many resources out there that I have not delved into yet. Therefore, my personal goal is to explore some technologies that are outside my comfort zone and incorporate them into my classroom and my tool set. I realize that my students are digital natives that thrive on the use of technology.

The video below brought tears to my eyes.  It’s about a school in Austin, Texas with a college-going culture.  Students attending this school are bascially promised to be prepared for and admitted into 4 year colleges.  The Yes School uses technology and college visits to help student research what college best fits them as an individual.  The school then has a senior signing event.  On this day, each senior signs their college acceptance letter in front of parents, teachers, and other students.  The stand up as individuals and state their accomplishment.  It is extremely moving.  

This college-going culture is something that we are attempting to create at my school through the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program at my middle school.  As the video suggests, simply talking about college helps students to begin to invision that opportunity.  AVID helps students to believe that they can succeed while also teaching them the 21st century skills that allow them to prepare for their future. 

Check out the video to see what you think.

Source: http://www.edutopia.org/yes-prep-college-preparation-video

I had a wonderful week.  My students worked hard, efficiently, and were nice to each other.  The are engaged in learning about viruses and I’m looking forward to their presentations.

Brain Teaser of the Week:

If a cork is put into a glass of water, the cork will almost always drift to the side of the glass. There is one simple way, however, to get the cork to float in the center of the glass (the horizontal center, not the vertical). What is it? Water, the glass, and the cork are all that is required.

I’m just trying to understand how to use all the blog tools.  I’m also going out to eat at Panera with Michael.