Evaluating 21st Century Skills

Overall, I am impressed by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. They certainly have an impressive list of members and partners; groups which should be on the cutting edge of technology. Identifying and describing the "Six Key Elements of 21st Century Learning" and illustrating the "Bridge to 21st Century Learning" was helpful to educators like myself who are new to learning about technology integration. Additionally, I liked the fact that the Partnership has created "Nine Steps to Build Momentum" rather than just telling teachers that they need to figure out a way to implement those key elements on their own. A quote I appreciated from the Report and Mile Guide said it best; "Infusing dynamic, real-world contexts into classroom learning will invigorate teacher and student engagement." (http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/images/stories/otherdocs/p21up_Report.pdf p. 5).

Some states that are involved in Partnership initiatives surprised me, since they are not as well known for their educational standards. By no means do I intend to write off all the hardworking teachers in more rural states like West Virginia or Wisconsin, but I know the realities that schools everywhere face when it comes to getting the equipment and access needed to get a program like this off the ground. Largely, it seems as if these states' participation is supported by their governors. This is important because we all know that schools depend on political actions and is instrumental in building said momentum and preparing citizens to one day be productive contributors to society. 

One aspect I thought was a bit odd were the missing success stories. A link is provided, alas, no success stories! Also considering how many publications cover the Partnership for 21st Century Skills as referenced on the homepage, I am curious as to why my state, Maryland, hasn't become more active. On the Tools and Resources page, the Partnership claims they "conduct extensive, ongoing outreach to a broad range of individuals and groups within the education community, including education experts, teachers, administrators, students, businesses, community groups, university faculty and researchers, under-served community representatives, after-school program representatives, and policy makers." So what's the deal Maryland? I'm new to technology integration, but surely someone more significant than me knows about opportunities such as this. What can we do to get involved?

I suppose that classroom teachers like myself are responsible as well. We can't push all the blame on our state curriculum writers or Boards of Education. Like new employees bring technologies to the business world, teachers need to maximize student exposure and create assignments as well as assessments that use Information and Communication Technologies in the classroom in order to prepare our students for the real, 21st Century world. If we do it in our schools it will trickle up!

Now What Do I Do With It?

I teach sixth grade social studies, which is ancient history in my county. Our enrichment students use something called an Interactive Student Notebook (I.S.N.) which is a part of the History Alive program and encourages text interaction, creation and use of graphic organizers, journal activities, and other higher order thinking activities. Immediately the I.S.N. seemed like a way for students to use blogs as an alternative to the actual notebooks that get lost, aren't completed, or are simply rushed through. 

The I.S.N.s are collected only twice per quarter so they are nice to grade just a couple times. However, you can imagine that some students don't keep up with assignments day to day since long-term projects are difficult for new middle schoolers to transition into. I am excited most about using blogs as a way to collect student assignments, or at least monitor their completion more easily. In addition, parents could access their child's blogs to verify that work is done on time. I could create a class blog to post the assignments and other class information. Another benefit would be that students would not have to worry about losing their work and furthermore would be able to monitor their progress throughout the year and refer back to it as they begin a new I.S.N. in seventh grade. 

I would love to try this with one of my three enrichment sections at least as an alternative for the few who are failing because of poor I.S.N. grades. I know there are downfalls such as limited home Internet access and several students may be inexperienced with technology. But I'm looking forward to hearing your ideas and suggestions for this application of blogs! 

What's a blog?

Can you believe that's what my students said when I told them about this endeavor? I thought I was the only one who was new to blogging. So I told them a blog is an online journal of sorts. Being the mature sixth graders that they are, they said something like "Who would want to read your journal Mrs. Thompson?". Ha! I'll have to inform them that (eventually) I'll have quite the following here! Thanks classmates! :)