I have to admit right from the beginning that I downloaded and printed the whole Partnership for 21st Century Skills report. (http://www.p21.org/images/stories/otherdocs/p21up_Report.pdf) I had a hard time following the material when trying to read the information on the computer. With that said, I do feel the report made some key points about the skills students will need to know as our world has transformed into a global community. Students will need to become life learners due to the constant changes in technology that they will encounter. Teachers need to help students develop stronger critical thinking skills, learn how to apply knowledge to new situations, and collaborate to solve problems and make decisions so they will be ready to use next-generation technology.
I do not think many educators would argue the fact that we need to teach students how to use current technology. However, the main problem for most school district is how to fund the technology schools need to teach students. I disagree with the Partnership for 21st Century Skills when it stated that schools will see an end to current budget constraints. Schools and businesses need to work together to help bring the needed resources into the schools. The website does list specific steps that federal, state, and local policymakers, businesses, and parents can do to work together with education leaders to provide students with the necessary 21st century tools.
As a contemporary educator I will continue to work on having a classroom where collaboration and group work are an important part of the learning process. Students will continue to build strong communication and critical thinking skills as they work with peers on group projects.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Using Blogs in a Fourth Grade Classroom
One way I would use a blog in my classroom would be to display examples of students’ work. I teach fourth grade Science and Social Studies to 94 students. Students work on different projects through the year for each unit we are studying in both subjects. While I have examples of completed projects to show students what I am looking for, parents do not have the opportunity to see these examples. Utilizing a blog to post pictures of examples would be one way to help parents have a visual of a project their child is working on. I receive numerous letters, phone calls, and emails about projects even after sending home rubrics and detailed directions of what each assignment requires. Therefore, I would use my classroom blog as another way to communicate with parents.
Another way I would like to use a blog in the classroom would be to post a question of the week that deals with what we are studying at the moment. Students could respond to the question and each other’s responses. One way this enhances the lesson is that every student will have the opportunity to respond to the question instead of two or three students. Also, by reading each student’s response I will be able to make a quick assessment of who understands what we are discussing in class and who does not.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Learning as I go
Blogging is very new to me and I have already managed to delete my first post! I will try this one more time. I am very excited to be taking classes to learn how to integrate technology in my classroom. I do not want to be a teacher who is hesitant to try ideas and lessons with all the new technology resources that continue to become available. Granted, right not my classroom consist of an overhead projector, seven computers (which I am grateful for), and a digital camera. I am hoping to receive an Interwrite board some time this school year. I am amazed how some schools seem to have so much technology and other schools have a limited amount of resources. My colleagues and I are collaborating writing a grant to purchase an ELMO to be shared between the four of us. My question for anyone who would like to respond is what kind of technology do you have in your classroom?
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