Evaluating 21st Century Skills

This week's assignment was for us to look at The Partnership for 21st Century Skills website. I had never heard of this website, or of the organization itself. In today's society, it is important that not only are we teaching students the academic skills they need to be successful but also the skills that will help them thrive in today's economy and workplace.

My reaction to the website is that the fusion and collaboration is very important. If we want students to be prepared, we need to provide them with the information and the tools that they need. It is a great idea and strategy to team businesses and schools together. After all, the schools are the ones preparing their future employees.

The information that helped me develop a new understanding is that we can use the main academic components (3 Rs: ELA, Math, Science, Social Studies, etc.) as an umbrella to teach the 21st century skills. It does not have to be a separate curriculum, instead it should be fused together to help students be more successful in both areas.

On the website, there was not anything that I disagree with. Rather, I highly agree with the twitter feed that discussed how standardized testing needs to be reevaluated. Instead of using it as the one and only answer to determine students' success, we need to be discovering ways to assess student learning for the challenges that the digital world presents. I feel that all components are essential in creating prepared citizens for society. It needs to be a team effort between schools and businesses to help students be successful.

Implications that I may implement into my classroom after looking through this website is that I need to be focusing on more skills such as life and career skills, learning skills and informational/media technology. I need to work on implementing these 21st century skills into my everyday curriculum, which would be easy to do. I need to address needs of survival in today's society alongside their educational needs. By addressing these skills, I will be sure to fuse academics and 21st century skills together so it flows together. Students will be learning and addressing the skills without realizing it. If I do not address these skills, my students will not have the skills they need in order to thrive in today's society. It is my job to prepare them for life, and after reviewing this website, I have realized the importance of life skills along with academics.

Happy blogging until next time!
~Sam R.

Utilizing Blogs in the Classroom

I have to admit that once I created this blog, I kept coming back to it to see if it had any "activity". Since I was so curious to see, the first thing that popped in my head, was how my students would react. I teach third grade math and science. My third graders are becoming more and more curious of technology, and they love to explore new tools that I show them.

After really thinking about my students, and the content that I teach, I came up with two ways that I may implement a blog into my classroom. First, I would use it as a communication tool for home and school. The math curriculum that I teach is called Everyday Mathematics. It teaches the concepts in a new and different way, especially from how most of my students' parents were taught how to do math. I would use the blog to put the math lessons and concepts in terms that parents could understand so they could help their child at home more effectively. I could also inlcude assessment questions that could be reviewed to better prepare students for upcoming assessments. It would also be a vital tool to keep parents up to date on any events that are taking place in the classroom and the school.

The second way I wanted to implement the blog in my classroom is to showcase student work. When we do science experiments or math projects, I thought about scanning in any exemplary work to showcase to others. I would make sure parents and other teachers were aware so they could comment on any students work that is on the blog. I feel that this would be a great way to motivate students to do their best on everything. Students love to have their work on display in the hallways, and this way their work could be shown to more people and actually receive written comments.

I feel that both ways will improve the lesson that is occurring in the classroom. The first way would allow for parents to help students more effectively, therefore they would better grasp the concept I am teaching. By showcasing student work would cause students to be more attentive in class and also motivate them to give their work 100% because their project could be chosen for the blog.

I have many ideas running through my head about implementing a blog in the classroom. These are just two that I felt suited my classroom and my content area the best. If you have another idea that might work, I would love to hear it!

Happy blogging until next time!
~Sam R.

Impact of Technology on Education

Our world is beginning to consist of more and more technology. It is essential for classroom teachers to understand the technology that is developing in the world around them and expose their students to as much as they can. It is my belief that if we show students the appropriate way to use technology within the classroom, then they will be more responsible when they are exploring it on their own. I look forward to working with fellow teachers and learning about the many ways technology impacts our society especially how we can implement it into our classroom.
Anybody have any ideas on how to implement new technology into the classroom, please share!

~Sam Rivers