Blog – The Partnership for 21st Century Skills

My initial reaction to the web-site is that it has quite a bit of information in regards to the overall concept or vision of what they want the learning environment for our students to give the impression of being like in the 21st century. It was interesting to view their vision displayed through the idea of rainbow.
The focus was not just on core subjects as being the focal point for a students’ education, but that a student that is ready to compete is this global world needs to be able to also have other skills that include the following: Life and Career Skills, Learning and Information, and Information and Media Technology (http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php).

This acknowledgement of skills moves beyond the traditional skills of the 20th century age. These skills are well-rounded and promote a new insight into the student of the 21st century.

This site promotes these skills for grades K-12 as being skills that must be integrated into our own classrooms, but what stunned me the most was the amount of support that was being given by major corporations as a wakeup call to the changes that need to be made if we want to have our own students be able to compete for jobs in these major corporations, since the it is now a global job market versus merely competing with the best of the best here in America.

What I liked most about the website was the link to various education journals and news feeds that delve into the various ideas and concerns that surround this idea of partnering for 21st century skills. On the website it posted the states that are involved in this initiative, but for me it only reaffirmed the obvious that as a nation if we want to make any head way into the advancement of this 21st century partnership that we need to institute a national partnership like many of the other countries have implemented throughout the world(Miners and Pascopella, 2007).

It seems that we are on the threshold of the beginning of change in our ability to transform our classrooms and educational standards based upon this new vision of student that will be prepared for the new workforce of the future. It is with great optimism that I believe that this partnership will shape a new future for our students in the classroom and beyond.

References:
Miners, Z., & Pascopella, A. (2007). The new literacies. District Administration, 43(10), 26–34.
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2004. Retrieved September 30th, 2009, from http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php.

Blogging in the Classroom

As I think about how I would use blogs in my classroom, the issue arises regarding how to implement the blogs in my classroom. As I read through the material, I began to develop a better understanding regarding the possibilities of how to use blogging effectively with my students. I had heard from other teachers that blogging is a very effective tool to access the teacher’s tool box, but that it can be very overwhelming if a teacher is not prepared for the new responsibilities regarding monitoring the classroom blog.
Personally, I would like to conduct a pilot program with a select group of my students regarding the introduction of blogging for journals, literature circles, and comments or thoughts regarding the Springboard classroom activity before I would introduce into to all of my classes. Due to the fact that I find that many students lack the time in class to have a real class discussion or some are not open to speaking a loud in class, I believe that blogging will open up a new set of possibilities regarding in depth and analytical conversations regarding the discussion topics. I believe that students will be able to begin to synthesize the information as they return to the blogs to view comments and questions, which in turn will take the information to a deeper understanding for the students. As a teacher, I notice that students in the classroom are not always willing to share or provide in depth conversation regarding the topic in front of their peers. But as students begin to write for me, I have witnessed over time in their writing a new level of depth regarding various beliefs and thoughts regarding a multitude of topics. I feel that blogging will open up that door for students to be able to communicate with out the feeling embarrassed or unintelligent. It gives the student an opportunity to think through their ideas before they present those ideas to their peers.
The classroom blogging system that I intend to use is on Google. I like the various tools that are available for teachers to monitor the blogging of students. As a way to thoroughly monitor the information that is being posted from each student, I will have to check through each post before it is submitted to be published to the class. Before I would even have the students begin to blog, I would definitely provide instructions and modeling appropriate blogging behavior before I would allow them to blog on their own. It is important that students recognize what blogging is intended to be used within the classroom. It is not meant to be a social tool for hanging out or seeing a friend’s latest post on their daily lives. It is a tool that is meant to help students to delve deeper into their understanding of the course material, whether it is a poem, short story, novel or movie excerpt. I look forward to my future endeavor of bringing blogging to my classroom as a way to establish a new set of academic bloggers to the read/write web.

Welcome to my Blog

I am an eighth grade Language Arts teacher at Ormond Beach Middle School. Currently, for my third Master's class at Walden University I had to create my first blog site for the class. I hope to use this blog as a way to grow professionally in the classroom. I also hope to use this with my students in the future. In the high schools, I have heard of teachers using this as a way to do breaking the ice activities. I have also heard of teachers using this as a way to expand class discussion beyond the classroom walls. I look forward to seeing how this blogging will help me with my teaching skills in and out of the classroom.
Dawn :)