21st Century Skills

http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/ is a very informative website that I think all educators need to be aware of. For me, it gave me a better understanding of what is to be expected from me as an educator that will help me gear my students to be the children of tomorrow. I was very shocked to see that only 9 out of our very own 50 states gave a commitment to revise their standards, create assessments, and implement the 21st century skills in their classrooms. No wonder our nation’s students are being outperformed by foreign countries. If we want our students to adapt and be able to use these skills we need to be able to provide them with the necessary tools on a daily basis.

I do not disagree with anything on this website. I wish more people would get on board with implementing the 21st century skills in the classroom. Team work is a big part of these skills and if our government, school boards, administrators, teachers, and community can not work together as a team how do we expect our students too? Again, implications that I see my district running into, is not have the technology resources needed in order to make our students successful for life beyond high school. Not only do we need to get these students ready for the real-life we need to get our students ready and wanting to go to college. They are going to need these skills for both.

Blogging in the Classroom

Blogging in the classroom, I would start off simple. I would use the blog for homework. Allowing it to be a place where students could interact with one another to obtain help on their homework. They would also be able to get the assignment off the blog page if they lost the assignment or just didn’t write it down. I would put examples done in class on the blog for them to use as a second resource other than their classmates or myself. My main intention would be to spark some interaction between my students outside the classroom. So often, students do not want to talk or discuss problems face to face because they are afraid of getting the wrong answer. By using this blog, it will expand the walls of my classroom (Richardson, 2006, pg. 27) and allow students to get help with their math around the clock.

I currently teach 10th grade mathematics and I feel that a blog for my class would be a great tool in which it would get my students interacting; students would be able to get help if they were to get stuck on a homework problem, and hopefully it would enhance quiz and test grades if students are able to obtain answers to their questions right away. With research still being gathered it is my hope that my students will show more interest in their work, they will enhance their ability to locate and reflect upon their work, and expand opportunities for collaborative learning (Richardson, 2006, pg. 28). I love teaching, I love technology, and together I can and will produce successful students of tomorrow.

Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousands Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.