What is the Partnership for the 21st Century?

It is impossible to discuss the implementation of technology into the classroom without mentioning the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. If you haven't already done so, check out their web site at http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/ . This web site is dedicated to the implemention of certain skills into education. It is a partnership of businesses, community, education and policy leaders to ensure students emerge from our schools with the skills needed (http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/, n.d.). Please see the web site for their list of necessary skills.

Regardless of your opinion, this web site is extremely thorough. Their goal is to increase the knowledge of our students in various areas, which I find encouraging. They provide a solid explanation of their goals and the means of achieving them. The web site design is impressive and supports their message that through technology we have the means of achieving a school environment that is more similar to the workplace, thus better preparing our students.

When examining the site, look at who the partners are. I was somewhat surprised, although I'm unsure why, to find most of their partners to be technology based businesses. To me this decreased their validity because it seemed like the cause may have ulterior motives. To be fair, there were also many education based partners as well, but one would expect that.

To a certain extent I disagree with the expectation that public schools be held responsible for ensuring that all students acquire the six key elements that the Partnership deems important. Some of the 21st century content includes financial and economic literacy which I do not feel is pertinent at all age levels. In addition, another key element is information and media literacy skills. This is not something that has evolved through the years. As a country, we have been competitive without acquiring this skill during high school. Typically this skill is learned with life experience. Why has that changed?

There are many educational implications for students of today and teachers. Teachers must expand their methods of instruction to include the use of technology whenever possible. The more students are exposed to technology, the more prepared they will be for the 21st century workplace. As an english teacher, I must emphasize skills such as leadership, accountability, adaptability, people skills and social responsibility which are all part of life skills. Although I do feel teachers currently do this in the classroom, it will need to be emphasized. Students will need to acquire the ability to use technology as a resource whenever possible.

The Partnership has a point when they say the key to a stronger U.S. economy is closing the gap between the knowledge students acquire in school and what they will need in the 21st century workplace (http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/, n.d.). We need to make this our focus if we expect our students to be competitive in a global job market.

Integrating Technology into a Middle School English Classroom

When faced with the idea of integrating technology into a classroom full of middle school kids, what is the logical first step regarding an english classroom? In my opinion, the first step is to assist students in creating a blog. It's a fairly basic skill which can be used in different manners.

Blogging in the middle school english classroom serves several purposes. First, students can use the instructor's blog to write responses to questions asked by the instructor. Classes can discuss concerns about material learned that day and assist each other by discussing topics. In addition, students can publish their work. Other students are able to evaluate their peers' work and gain skills in revising and editing.

I'm interested in hearing from other teachers to see how they use blogging in the classroom? Please post your comments and solutions for me!

Blogging in the Middle School Classroom

I'm sure you can tell by the title of this post that I teach english to middle school students. It is a goal of mine to use this blog in my classroom in several capacities. First, I would like to have discussion topics initially posted by me and then feedback given by my students. They could do this as an out of class assignment either completed at home or during study hall depending on the technology that is available to them at home. This would give me another tool for assessing their knowledge about the current topic. It would also allow me to evaluate their writing skills.

Another reason to create this blog would be to publish student work. With their permission, this would be an excellent publishing tool for which I've been searching. Blogging would expand their audience like I've never thought possible. Along with publishing student work, we could use the blog for peer evaluation. Revising and editing are the most significant steps of the writing process. This outlet would create the desire to look over one's work once again and make it better.

Students with cell phones

So, this is my first attempt at a blog and I'm writing about what is currently on my mind. Why do students have to be attached to their cell phones?? The rules at our school have changed regarding cell phones over the years, and although we allow cell phones, they must be off. It never fails that a student's cell phone will ring right in the middle of class. Who is calling them? Mostly parents! So what is the sense in that? Obviously their son/daughter leaves for the same place everday: school. So who is the rule breaker?