Partnership for 21st Century Skills

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is a mission to get students to master the skills necessary to be successful in the 21st Century. If you have not checked out the website, you should. The vision has skills necessary for students to be successful in the 21st century, but also the support systems that are necessary.

I was surprised to find that my state, New Jersey, is part of this initiative since I have not heard anything about it. From browsing the website I found that New Jersey is incorporating some 21st Century knowledge and skills into their revised standards and using these revised standards to then review their standardized state test to ensure that these tests are also supporting and promoting the proper skills.

One thing that I would like to see as part of the 21st Century Skills is some idea of when things are supposed to be stressed. I would think that most of the core skills and knowledge would be in the elementary school with just a sprinkling of the other skills (Life and Career Skills, Learning and Innovation Skills, and Information,Media, and Technology Skills) in grades K-5. Then in middle grades 6-8 it would be more of a balance between the core skills and the more 21st century skills. Lastly, high school would be focused on those 21st century skills under the assumption that most of the core skills have been learned and you're just building upon those.

I do think that even without the individual state initiatives, these skills are come to the forefront in education simply because of the way the working world has changed. There is so much more technology and therefore there's more technology in schools. Since there's more technology, people are working, problem-solving, and thinking critically on a more individual basis and therefore those skills need to be improved. So, whether or not a state is pushing these skills, it's hard to avoid them as a teacher in this day and age.

Classroom uses

Since I am not too familiar with the blogging world, I am using this opportunity to see the capabilities of blogging and how it can be used in a classroom setting.

I teach 7th and 8th grade Math. We have block scheduling and it can be quite the challenge tryin to keep teenagers interested for 90 minutes, especially in Math. One hope I have for this blog is to share ideas with other teachers on how to utilize technology in my classroom for every day activities but also to improve upon my lessons.

I think having a classroom blog would be a great way to keep the kids more engaged and more interested. Over the last few days I have been thinking how I would implement the use of a blog to get interaction between the kids but also interacting with the content. Currently I have a POW (Problem of the Week) which my students complete on paper. Posting the POW on a blog and enabling the students to respond would get them discussing ideas as to how to solve the problem, but they could also submit their work through the blog. I would also like to use the blog as a way to keep the students and parents up to date on what we are doing in class as well as the homework assignments and upcoming tests/quizzes.

Most importantly though, I would like my blog to be a place where students can go to study. I envision one student, on a rotating basis, posting the main ideas from the lesson as well as sample problems completed in class and how to solve them. That person would also provide additional problems that can be completed individually at home when studying.

Lastly, I would use the blog as a way to share project ideas and work. We do many projects in my classes, most of which are cross-curricular, and due to the nature of these projects, there is not a good way to show off their work and ideas. Using the blog I would be able to upload pictures and have students write about their individual or group project.

I have many ideas but working out the legistics is the next step. I have several students who do not have internet access at home; therefore those students would not be able to do many of the things I hope that my students would be able to use the blog for. While there are many classroom uses, I also do not have the capability for more than 4 students (there are only 4 computers in my classroom) to be on the blog at once. I would be able to have many people on at once approximately once a month and that has to be scheduled well in advance. Any ideas?

Hello All!

This is my first blog EVER and I'm looking forward to getting started yet slightly unsure of what to expect. My hope is to become fully educated in the world of blogging so I can later incorporate blogs and other technologies into my classroom. I also hope to gain more ideas, feedback, support, etc. from other teachers - we all know how valuable that can be.