Profiling Today's Students

I have created a podcast that includes interviews from three second grade students, and it reveals how technology is already an important part of their daily home and school experiences.

Please take a listen:

http://podcastmachine.com/podcasts/12987/episodes/65697

Then, share your thoughts and comments!

Evaluating 21st-Century Skills

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has emerged as the leading advocacy organization focused on infusing 21st-century skills into education. The organization brings together the business community, education leaders, and policy makers to define a powerful vision for 21st-century education to ensure every child’s success as citizens and workers in the 21st century. The Partnership encourages schools, districts and states to advocate for the infusion of 21st-century skills into education and provides tools and resources to help facilitate and drive change.
—Partnership for 21st Century Skills

There is a profound gap between the knowledge and skills learned in school and the skills required in the 21st century workplace. As a concerned educator, I want to learn how to bridge this gap and utilize the best practices that will help my students acquire the 21st century skills that they will need to be successful in the global workforce. Educating myself is the first step to address the challenges associated with teaching 21st-century skills in today’s schools and in my classroom.

I have spent some time exploring the website of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. I have familiarized myself with their mission, the members of the partnership, and the various resources available on their site.  I have found this site to be extremely helpful and full of rich resources for educators.  I also found their blog entitled “P21 Blog” very interesting and informative.  Each month, this blog site invites two prominent educators to respond to a “driving question” about 21^st Century Skills.

The blog can be followed at:  http://www.p21.org/tools-and-resources/p21blog

I appreciate this site’s mission to provide students with the skills and knowledge they will need to succeed in this century.  They call their holistic approach to teaching and learning, the “Framework for 21st Century Learning”.  The framework uses a rainbow to represent the skills, knowledge and expertise that all students should master to succeed in work and life in the 21^st century. This framework supports the foundational skills of critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, creativity, and innovation. Furthermore, what I found most helpful about this site are the free, downloadable resources for educators.  One resource in particular that will be very useful is the “P21 Common Core Toolkit”. My district recently adopted the common core standards, and this toolkit provides a guide to help teachers align the common core state standards with the “Framework for 21st Century Skills”. This document provides lesson examples and assessment ideas and can be accessed at the following link: http://www.p21.org/tools-and-resources/publications/p21-common-core-toolkit. I believe that teaching 21st-century skills is vital, yet many of these skills are not clearly addressed in the common core content standards.  I think that this toolkit will be an excellent way to connect 21^st century skills with the content that we are required to teach in the classroom. I will most definitely share this free resource with my colleagues.

Overall, this site helps educators, policy makers, parents, and community members learn about and develop a new understanding of the issues surrounding 21st-century skills.  I did not find any information or opinions that I disagree with at this time. The topics discussed have great implications for my students and for me, as a contemporary educator.  I plan to utilize the resources and information this site offers to further my knowledge of the most current technology tools to help my students acquire the 21^st century skills they will need for survival in this complex, globally-driven society. I believe that it is possible to prepare our students with the skills that they will need to thrive in this century, and I am committed to learn strategies to bridge the gaps in education, create a 21^st century context for learning in my classroom, and prepare my students with the skills that they will need to compete in the labor market of tomorrow. 

If you would like to learn more about this advocacy organization focused on infusing 21st-century skills into education, visit http://www.p21.org/

Please feel free to share your experiences or challenges associated with teaching 21st-century skills in your classroom.  Can you offer any additional resources or insight to help other educators further their understanding of the ways to teach 21st century readiness skills for their students?

Utilizing Blogs in the Early Childhood Classroom

This week, I have been considering how I will begin to integrate blogs as an instructional tool in my classroom. According to Alan November, author of Web Literacy for Educators, “Blogging represents one of the many tools that pioneering teachers are using to empower students to take more responsibility of managing their own work and adding value to the world” (November, 2008). I am new to blogging, but through my experiences and research thus far, I have discovered their value to enrich the learning experiences of my students. As a kindergarten teacher, my students are new to reading and writing. Unfortunately, I believe this technology could be a little advanced for my five- and six-year old students' capabilities. They will not be able to interact with their classmates through written expression independently, but I still think that it is very important to expose them to this vital technology at an early age. A class blog could be a beneficial resource to involve parents and family members into the realm of kindergarten learning. 

My idea on how I could utilize a blog as a resource in the early grades is to create a “Kindergarten Home – School Connection” weblog.  Parent involvement, especially in the early grades is essential.  Research suggests that parental involvement is a huge indicator of a student's success in school (November, 2008).  I would like to start a kindergarten weblog to post class-related pertinent information like calendars, daily schedules, upcoming events, homework assignments, and various home enrichment activities.  This blog could be a forum for parents and families to check-in for the latest updates, stay informed of current kindergarten events, and ask any questions that they may have.  I already create a monthly newsletter that I send home in a paper version. I could easily upload my newsletter to the blog and use it as another great tool for communication. I always try my best to inform parents of the many ways that they can help their child succeed at school and at home. I could use the blog as another tool to point parents in the direction of free resources and opportunities available in our school and community, such as math and literacy nights, family game nights, free resource fairs, school supply drives, food banks, uniform swap meets, free tutoring services, etc.  Moreover, I could also use the space to share digital photographs of learning experiences and make comments on various class events.  Furthermore, I could publish examples of exemplary student work to showcase the learning and growth that is occurring throughout the school year.  Lastly, I could use the weblog as a resource page to link students and the families to vocabulary practice, grammar games, and helpful learning websites that they can use to practice and reinforce language and math skills. 

It was not until just recently that I was introduced to the world of blogging. I never knew how simple, effective, and powerful a blog could be when utilized as a teaching tool.  I am excited about the possibilities, and I cannot wait to employ a blog for use in my classroom! It will be so much fun to discover all the new directions this technology can take my instruction and my interactions with families.  It is clear that weblogs have the potential to enhance and deepen learning for students in the modern day classroom.  The possibilities for the usage of blogs in an educational setting seem endless. I’d like to know more about how other educators are currently using, or plan to use, blogs to support classroom learning.  What are you doing? What works best for you? What have you tried, but was unsuccessful? What examples of lessons can you provide that incorporate blog work? What suggestions can you provide me as a rookie to the world of blogging? How can I further develop an effective blog site that will enrich the learning experience for my young students and their families?

Your insight and recommendations are always appreciated,

Happy blogging!

-Cristina Stratton



Reference:

November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Chapter 6, “Expanding the Boundaries: Blogs, RSS, Podcasts, and Wikis”