The Partnership for 21st Century Skills

The website can be found at http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/ **
I can appreciate the mission behind this company's stance to create collaborative partnerships among education, business, community and government leaders to address the needs of 21st century children which are my children and your children.
They point out that every child in America needs 21st century knowledge and skills to succeed as effective citizens, workers and leaders in the 21st century. They claim that there is a profound gap between the knowledge and skills most students learn in school and the knowledge and skills they need in typical 21st century communities and workplaces. They espouse that to successfully face rigorous higher education coursework, career challenges and a globally competitive workforce, U.S. schools must align classroom environments with real world environments by infusing 21st century skills.
How do they address these concerns? They have well over 500 resources and tools that can be utilized to foster 21st century skills which are touted as being:

Information and communication skills (information and media literacy skills; communication skills) , thinking and problem-solving (critical thinking and systems thinking; problem identification, formulation and solution; creativity and intellectual curiosity), interpersonal and self-direction skills (interpersonal and collaborative skills; self-direction; accountability and adaptability; social responsibility), global awareness, financial, economic and business literacy, and developing entrepreneurial skills to enhance workplace productivity and career options, and civic literacy.

They have a lot of big companies behind them such as AOL, Verizon, Apple, Dell, Microsoft, the National Education Association and even the U.S. Department of Education.

This site seems to take its job pretty seriously. I believe in the mission as I am aware that technology is only going to become better, faster, smaller and inundate every facit of our lives one day. I do not believe that day is too far off. I will avail myself of the information on the site to better equip my students to possess 21st century skills. There is a on-line summit in June that I have signed up for and it will be fascinating to be a part of the global conversation regarding 21st century skills. They will address important education reform initiateves concerning 21st C.S. I do believe that as far as technology is concerned, the United States are laggards. As a somewhat new educator, I have seen very little technology integration into the classroom. Where does the disconnect lie? Is it the lack of funding? Lack of vision? I don't know. I do know, however, that I can make a difference in my own classroom.

Yeah! I can blog!!

Good news blog fans, my principle gave me the A.O.K. and thumbs up! Technology kind of scares her and I assured her that I could moderate everything coming and going from the blog site so she was happy with that. We all know how kids these days are savvy enough to corrupt what should remain innocent and I think she didn't want that liability.
I can now start working on my summer reading blog. Thanks for the encouragement!
Ruthie

Technology in my classroom

I would like to create E-portfolios for my 9th and 10th grade intensive reading students. I believe it will be a good learning tool. They will be able to see where they started with their writing and where they developed to by the end of the year. Writing is such an important aspect of being a good reader.
I could also create on-line reading passages for my students to read and react to. Another thing I would like to do is post tasks on a classroom blog to carry out project-based learning tasks with my students. I think this would be very convenient and save my students from having to ask for the assignment paper over and over again.
Lastly, I would like to create a classroom newsletter. I could do this on the classroom blog as well. Now, I just need to get the principle's permission to have a class blog.
Ruth Crawford

No Blogging

Hello everyone!
I send out an email to the principle's secretary asking her to forward a message to the faculty soliciting any one's help with blogging. I get a curt message back: The principle wants to see you. Ut oh am I in trouble - "The principle wants to see you" always has an ominous tone to it. I rush down to her office after school and alas she has left already. I steel myself for possible bad news and sheepishly ask if I were in trouble but tried to sound like I was kidding. Well, (Barb - the nice secretary)- says, she does not want you blogging in the classroom. She specifically said no blogging at Mainland. Okee Dokee I say, I'll see her tomorrow. Oh she won't be here tomorrow, you will have to see her Friday. Guess what, she left before 7th period was over again.
So there I am, no blogging at Mainland. I think I shall put forth a good pro and con list and see what she says. There are ways to moderate what gets posted to and from the blog am I right? If that is her fear I should be able to ameliorate her with that news. I certainly read enough on other educator's blogs on how they use blogging in the classroom. It can't be that harmful can it be? While it may be innocuous in the elementary level maybe high schoolers can't be trusted with it. Any advice before I see the principle Monday would be greatly appreciated.

Blogs in the Classroom

I found a lot of wonderful ideas in chapter 5 of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (Richardson, 2009). A few that really appealed to me are to provide online readings for students to read and react to, publish examples of good writing, and build a class newsletter. Much to my chagrin the principle at my school called me into her office today to tell me that I could not utilize blogging at my school. She was unable to verbally tell me this herself as she had left for the day before 7th period but her secretary enlightened me. I am going to meet with her and give her all the pros of blogging such as the fact that comments from around the world are powerful motivators for student writing and that students show more interest in their work when blogging and what a great opportunity blogging is for collaborate learning. I know there is a moderating issue but as I arm myself with blogging information and how other schools are using it I can't see a much of a problem. If I set the blog to only publish after I have approved it then that will solve the problem of putting something out there that is embarrassing to the school. Do any of you forsee a problem? Maybe my principle is just not blogging savvy and I need to calm her fears.
Ruthie

Blogs in the Classroom

I teach intensive reading to 9th and 10th graders. I would love to integrate blogging into the classroom experience. I am not quite sure what to have them blog about, maybe the books we are reading. That might be a good idea. They could share their thoughts on the Bluford series.
Does anyone else have any good ideas?
Ruthie

Yeah, That'll Teach You A Lesson: Education is Tasty!

Yeah, That'll Teach You A Lesson: Education is Tasty!

Technology

I am looking for a creative way to use technology in the classroom. I am wanting to bathe my students in all there is to do with regards to podcasting, wikipedia and blogging. Any ideas are welcomed, thank you.
Ruthie