21st Century Skills

My first reaction to the Partnership for the 21^st Century Skills website left me feeling excited about the future in education.  This website is a great resource for educators seeking the latest information regarding 21^st century skills in the classroom.  I am also encouraged by the variety of Strategic Council Members with partnerships ranging from successful businesses such as Dell, Microsoft, and Apple to educationally focused groups such as NEA, Junior Achievement, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 

I am proud to see that my home state, Ohio, has taken the initiative to partner with P21.  I enjoyed reading Ohio’s vision for our students’ future; specifically the new assessment system that is set to replace the Ohio Graduation Test (OGT) with a three part assessment that includes a performance assessment requiring students to show mastery of 21^st century skills.  It is refreshing to see that Ohio’s leaders are moving in the direction of performance-based assessments and away from pushing the paper-pencil test. 

Developing 21^st century skills within students will require a shift in focus from directly holding the classroom teacher accountable for standardized paper-pencil test scores to holding students accountable for their own skills.  No longer will a student’s G.P.A. or class rank indicate their ability to perform in the 21^st century work place as the education field continues to move towards performance-based assessments.  I see the classroom educator’s role developing into that of a hands-off facilitator that guides students through the learning process.  Occasionally I adopt this role in my classroom during certain projects with my students; ironically, these projects incorporate the 4 Cs mentioned on the website!

Blogging for Sixth Graders

I would use a blog in lieu of student journals in my sixth grade Language Arts class. 

The class blog would serve as student journals but also take on the role of a student discussion because students would have the opportunity to read and comment on their classmates posts.  I would include a variety of blog topics such as personal opinion topics, responses to content, and creative writing topics.  Each student would be required to post one response to a designated question or writing topic for the week and also comment on two of their classmates responses.  Each blog assignment would be a homework assignment required to be completed by Sunday of each week. 

This blog would be a good tool for the instructional context because it would create a digital classroom community.  This Web 2.0 instructional tool would hold my students’ attention while incorporating classroom content into their daily lives.  A blog incorporates the digital communication that my students crave with the class content they are required to learn into one learning environment.

WELCOME!

Welcome to the first blog I have ever created!  Please be patient with me as I familiarize myself with my account.