Reaction to 21st Century Skills Website

After viewing the website, Partnership for 21^st Century Skills, I am very impressed with the amount of information and resources that are available. I love the framework “rainbow” that is illustrated. Everything that is in the illustration is exactly what our students need to learn for success in their future. One aspect I really like about the “framework illustration” is not just how it works for students, but ways that can help teachers to be prepared to teach our students the 21^st century skills. A lot of times, we as educators are told “you need to make sure your students can do this, this, and this”. Well, then teach me on how I should teach them those skills! A lot of times there is a disconnect of professional development for the teachers. One negative aspect is that I noticed under the “State Incentives”, I did not see my state listed. I wonder what it takes to have a state listed. I think overall this website is a great resource that I can use as an educator in several ways to teach my students the 21^st century skills they will need to be success in the present and future.

Utilizing Blogs in my Social Studies Classroom

In my classroom I could use a blog in several ways. Being that I teach 7th grade World History, blogs could be good for "Get Started" (bell ringer) assignments, collaborative projects, and/or journal writings. I believe that I would probably get my students to use a blog more for collaborative projects and journal writings. It would definitely be a place where students would interact about the content that we are currently studying about in class. For example, my students study about the Enlightenment philosophers: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. I could set up a writing prompt where each student has to post a response to the prompt and read and respond to at least 3 classmates. Just like in this week's learning resources DVD, "Spotlight on Technology: Blogging in the Classroom", the teacher mentioned that before blogging she had to teach her students blogging etiquette. My hope is that I would be impressed with my students, like she was with her students, in the critical thinking responses they would have with each others' posts in using the blog. In addition to journal writing, I would post student work so not just students would get to see each others' work, but their parents would get to see the published work too. I strongly believe that blogging would enhance the learning in each lesson by several reasons. First, I believe this is a better way to keep students more accountable with their assignments because they know it is not just the teacher and them seeing the classwork anymore--it is everyone, including their peers and parents. Second, of course, any form of technology I believe improves the level of student engagement in the lesson, which in returns enhances their level of learning. Plainly I believe that by utilizing a blog in my classroom, a higher energy level for those students who normally may not get excited about school anymore, this would provide a renewed sense of learning and inspiration for them.

Reference:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010). Technology and Society. Baltimore: Author.