What do we need to teach our students to be successful in the 21st Century?
I think we need to have a positive frame of mind to teach our students. Many educators look at technology as daunting or difficult to implement so then they do not use the various forms of technology. Unfortunately they then are not helping students to be stronger learners. If educators don't give students exposure to 21st Century skills then they will not learn about or be prepared for what is out there in the world.
Take a look the Partnership for 21st Century Skills Framework. How could these be implemented in your classroom? What are the benefits of implementing these skills for your students?
I think starting small is a good way to get started with implementation. I would need to look at my students and see where they are and then add components as needed. They are doing well with the SMART board, computers, and searching on the Internet so it would be fun to now incorporate some other type of learning such as a blog or Think quest to advance their awareness of 21st Century skills. Also by incorporating daily life into our learning we can see how life and career skills are connected to what we are doing in our classroom. We had a discussion about iPods and they were amazed that I had one and used it often. I think it would be neat to put some school material on the iPod and bring it in and connect it to our SMART board and/or sound system.
I think one of the benefits to the implementation is having balanced well rounded students who are ready for the world around them.
I think that I need to work on how I can integrate career skills into daily lessons. I think that I do a nice job of contextualizing lessons as far as real life goes, but I need to do more with how we need be proficient with such concepts because they are a skill the students will need to know to be successful in later ventures throughout their life.
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