21st Century Skills? What the frig is that??

I was not sure what to expect when I first access the 21^st Century Skills website. There are many different parts which make up the theory and I was first combining some elements that were grouped in different areas. Anyway, everything was easy to understand after looking through all of the information and I was able to put together the parts which make up the whole. I’m shocked that more of these concepts aren’t being used or implemented in our schools. I’ve heard the term 21^st century skills before, but never really understood what they were and, honestly, was never motivated enough to look it up. I used to think of K-12 education and businesses as separate, but major companies have come together with educators to determine the skills workers will need and how schools can help prepare students for jobs during the 21^st century.

I was honestly surprised that there was less focus on technology and more on critical thinking and teamwork. When I think of the future, I think of more and more technology being integrated into the workplace. While that is an important aspect of the 21^st century skills, it is just a piece. There is also a need for life and career skills, goal-setting, independent and group skills, creativity, problem solving, and so on and so on. The skills students will need seem to go on forever and it is our job to use our curriculum as a platform to teach these skills.

The only thing I have found to disagree with is that the curriculum “teaches 21st century skills discretely in the context of core subjects and 21st century interdisciplinary themes.” For many higher level students who come to school with critical thinking skills and higher order thinking skills, 21^st century skills will be effortless for them. They are the students who would get jobs easily in the future anyway. My students with special needs often need information taught in a very explicit manner. They do not read between the lines and make connections unless I show them or use several examples. My students will need to be guided through these interdisciplinary themes, which I think can be successful, but they will need to be taught how and when to use these skills.

Although most of my students are planning to participate mostly in hands-on, technical, and blue collar jobs, they still need 21^st century skills. As jobs become more competitive and the world is shrinking, they will need to apply what they learn about learning and innovation skills, information, media, and technology skills, and life and career skills to be successful. Because of their different learning styles and educational needs, I will need to be creative when teaching them to use these skills. I will also have to encourage them to use these skills in and out of my classroom. They need to use these skills independently, applying them to different situations and circumstances, which can be difficult for students. My state is not on the list of states currently pushing 21^st century skills in school. When it does participate in this, students will begin learning these skills sooner and sooner, leading to more success in the future.

References

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). A report and mile guide for 21st century skills. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/images/stories/otherdocs/p21up_Report.pdf

The partnership for 21^st century skills. (2004). Retrieved September 30, 2009, from The Partnership for 21^st Century Skills Web site: http://www.21stcenturyskills.org

Blog to the Rescue! Improving CAPT Scores

Our statewide assessment results are in and our former sophomores performed well in many areas. Their Reading for Information scores, however, did not meet the goals set for them. Therefore, our school (and every department) is now on a mission to weave these non-fiction materials throughout our curriculum! We need to find a way to teach reading and writing skills related to this area, so we will be having meetings and breakout sessions to brainstorm strategies on how to improve performance in this area.

Blogs would be a perfect way to provide input and feedback on student responses in many ways. Example responses can be posted for students to read and discuss. They can use a rubric to score the answer and also determine positive and negative aspects of the response. Students can then give ideas on how to improve the answer.

Students can also be given a question based on information they have read and post their answer. Teachers from all disciplines and peers can give their reactions and write comments about the work, helping students revise and improve their response. By completing these on a regular basis, progress can be monitored and next year, I can blog about improving math scores!

High School Fun

The angels are back again and summer is a distant memory. This will be a different year, though, because I'm learning to incorporate more technology into my teaching. My students won't be able to help but be motivated by my lessons!