Thoughts on 21st Century Skills

I found this The Partnership for 21st Century Skills website to be full of interesting information. I feel that this is the path we must follow in order to prepare our students for the 21st century workplace. I like the Framework for 21st Century learning and how the outcomes are built upon the supports of Standards and Assessments which are already a huge part of what we do on a daily basis, Curriculum and Instruction which are constantly being updated and adapted to needs of students, Professional Development which is what we are doing now, and Learning Environments which I am constantly trying to improve to ensure that my students are learning in a productive environment. I was surprised by all of the resources based on promoting creativity in the classroom and how many are related to business. This is an area that I do not think to work on with my students, but would be easy to implement. The idea of incorporating life and career skills is vital to student education today. While I feel that it is extremely important, those also are not topics that I make a point to include in my curriculum. I did not find anything that I disagree with on the site.

What are the implications for today's students and teachers? More change. As an educator, one must expect change and welcome it with open arms whether you want it or not. Students need to become motivated to use technology and think toward the future. I would like for students to become more goal oriented. As a teacher I need to look at my curriculum and see what changes I can make to help ensure the success of my students. I feel that as a Reading teacher I have a great opportunity to use various texts to teach students information and build skills to help them be successful in their future careers.

On a side note...

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You both bring up great points. Utilizing blogs in the classroom will be a challenge and require much attention and work with the students.

deidson - I would like for students to post on a weekly basis. If I allot time during station work for blogging, this would be a possibility for all students. I would like for students to respond to other student's posts and share thoughts and hopefully create dialogue and/or respectful debates about books. This would of course require the teaching of proper computer ettiquette and posting respectfully to one another.

Cesar - You brought up a great point that I really had not thought about...cheating. I will have to put much thought into what I am asking them to post so that I can be sure that they are actually reading the books and not merely researching the book and copying what others are saying. I have used articles that are available as pdf's but have not used e-books. That is actually a great idea...I will have to check them out to see what is available for my upcoming lesson. Thanks for the idea!

Using blogs in 8th Grade Reading

There are a plethora of ways in which I would like to utilize a blog in my reading classroom. One way I would like to incorporate a blog in my current unit is to have students journal about what they are reading and learning throughout the unit. I have collaborated with the Writing teacher and together we have created a unit based on the Holocaust. We are using several pieces of literature such as the drama The Diary of Anne Frank, which is in the 8th grade literature book, I Never Saw Another Butterfly , a collection of poems written by children in the Terezin concentration camp, and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. There are also several pieces of non-fiction literature we will read throughout the unit. We will be viewing a couple of movies related to the same topic. I believe that students would learn from one another as they share their insights on these pieces of literature. In class only a couple of students feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and feelings about what they are reading. I believe that in asking all students to post to the blog that they would feel that the blog is a less threatening environment in which to share their thoughts. I would like students to treat each other and the topic with the highest respect.
Another way in which I would like to use a blog is for students to write book recommendations. I have students who are avid readers and even I have difficulty keeping up with all of the books they read. These students are constantly recommending new books that I should read. Some are extremely creative and captive in their descriptions of the books. I also have students on the other end of the spectrum which have great difficulty in choosing and sticking with a book. I believe that I blog such as this would promote more reading throughout the 8th grade.