Application 4: Evaluating 21st Century SKills

I spent a considerable amount of time, exporing http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/. This is a site dedicated to informing others on the process and importance of incorporating an adequate level of innovation in the world of education. It focuses on bringing "together the business community, education leaders, and policymakers to define a powerful vision for 21st century education to ensure every child's success as citizens and workers in the 21st century"(http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/). Upon first viewing this website, I thought it seemed like a valuable resource. However, as I looked a little closer, I realized that I was unable to view a large portion of the content. I realized that it required a written request for some of the subject matter, stating your intent. It also needed a state wide committment to be considered as a "P21" school. So therefore, although I think this site has a lot of valuable information, I really wish that I was able to see it. I did enjoy the "Online Tools" and the "Publications". Route 21 was very informative, I liked reading about and exploring this section. I was surpised to see that it contained a professional development link, and I was very curious to know what resources it provided. I really do disagree with the requiremnts needed to view most of the site. I definitely agreed with the site's mission statement, as well as the content that I was able to view. In the 21st century, we as citizens of this country, must be better educated than in the past. Our current state curriculums do not include the skills that Americans need today. As a teacher, I think it is imparitive to take responsibility for myself and my students. I have committed to being a life-long learner, and the need for 21st century skills to be implemented in education, is a perfect example of an issue that requires me to be. I believe that I must be my students, and my own, advocate. I need to seek out learning opportunities and find ways to start providing skills and meeting the needs of my 21st century students.

Sarah Horner 5/13 Post: Blogging in the Classroom

I have really grown to enjoy blogging. As I spend time in my current course, I am beginning to see how beneficial they can be. I would say that if I taught a higher-level, I would use blogs in my classroom for student's writing. At a higher level, I think it would be neat for them to use a blog as a journal. Not only would using the web, as opposed to paper and pen, be motivating, they can also collaborate and share more easily among themselves. I would assume also, that students could read other students entries and that could be a great way for higher ability writers, to model for others who are struggling. As a teacher, it would be a great place to archive work samples!
Unfortunately, at the Kindergarten level, I do not think my students could perform that task, at least not until possibly the 2nd half of the year, on a much smaller scale. However, I tried to think of a way that I could differentiate the idea of sharing or journaling through a blog. An idea that I did have was that my kindergarteners could dictate a story, even a sentence, or a journal entry, and I could type for him/her. Realistically, I may only be able to do 1 or 2 student's a week, but it would still be beneficial, just at a different level. The purpose would be that I could keep track of different skills, for example; language use, sentence structure, creativity, voice, etc, and the individual growth of my students. They could even possibly continue a certain blog across grade levels, and track their own writing progress eventually. I also thought that if I did this at the Kindergarten level, they could share what they/I typed, in a show-n-tell type setting. This would provide an opportunity for them to share and collaborate among peers. Using a blog across grade levels, could provide tracking capabilities for both teachers and students. Using any form of technology really enhances any lesson but giving that added motivation for students is what really makes a difference. Students are motivated by anything new. If we differentiate what we teach to meet students needs, why not differentiate how we teach content?
I truly think that blogging could be a great tool, at any level, including Kindergarten. Not only does it provide an opportunity for me as a teacher to collaborate with other teachers, but they can be beneficial for students as well. I am teaching at an early childhood level, and I am teaching all content ares. I truly think that it could be valuable to let them experience blogging and its benefits early. Even though it would take a large amount of assistance, it will give them that base-knowledge to use in the future, when blogging becomes something they can do individually.

Sarah Horner

Hello! This is my first blogging experience!