21st Century Skills

Not long ago, my colleagues and I were discussing the students on our team and the skill that they need to build for their journey to middle school next year. No, we were not talking about the dictionary skills, or the math facts, we were talking about the skills that they would need to work their way through the organization and life skills needed to survive those dreaded Middle School years. This week, my masters class is discussing and learning more about the skills that our kids will need beyond school. Have we got our work cut out for us.

Luckily, there is a web site with numerous resources to help us along the way:
http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/ I spent some time this week taking a look at some of those resources and have a few reflections. The site is set up to link educators to in-house sources, as well as, sources submitted by viewers like you. I was intrigued by a website sponsored by Intel , set up to help educators foster skills that the technology based company is looking for in its employees. The programs that I looked at were designed to integrate the thinking skills needed into already existent curriculum.

As we move our students into an age where we are not sure what technology will bring us next (maybe a smoother transition to middle school?), we need to make sure they are ready with the thinking skills that will help them figure their world out.

Web Log classroom uses

As I learn more about blogs, I have been mulling over in my mind the need to take them one step further and how to implement a blog in my own classroom. My students love to use the computer and need the appropriate place to practice writing and thinking critically about other's thoughts and ideas. I think I have found a place where a blog would be appropriate and would allow my students to safely share their ideas with our class.

Each morning, we have about twenty-five minutes where the students are slowing trickling in as the busses shuffle through their first drop-off. My students are usually met with a warm-up for the day while they are getting ready for the day. I would love to have the computer lab across the hall open for them to stop in and respond to a 'blog question of the day'. Much like other writing prompts that I have used for my class, they could be responding to everything from what we have learned in class to a fictional story starter.

As the moderator, I would be able to see the students responses to the question, as well as their responses to each other. At first I would like to start with the requirement to respond one of the questions for the week and then move toward the students needing to respond to the question and to each other. Experiment week here I come, first though comes the search for a site to host the blog. If you have suggestions to a great site to start out a classroom blog, please let me know.

-Melissa

Week one-back!

The new year has taken me by surprise. I remember in high school writing a letter to myself as an assignment that would be delivered in 2010. That seemed like a million years away and here we are with less than a year to go until 2010. It should be interesting to see the thoughts of that high schooler that was ready to take on the world with no real idea of what that meant!

Well 2009 has had it share of new experiences so far. I have started the year with a new student teacher, a new master's class, and new set of reading curriculum to design.

My student teacher had been great so far; within the first week she has taken on teaching snip-its of math and social studies, and has helped design and layout our fifth grade research project. Teaching on a team of three has given her the challenge of ninety names to learn ( almost like teaching middle or high school) and she has our homeroom names down to within one or two... I am even trying to remember a few after break.

My master's class is the motivation behind the new blogging phenomenom. I would love to use a blog as a morning warm-up/communication activity, but would like to have a better handle on it myself before I set it up for my class. What a learning experience!! So here I blog.

The reading curriculum that is currently in place has been working for the last several years, then my new reading group showed up and they can not get enough of reading, discussing, analyzing and devouring books. They are keeping me on my toes. I have been redesigning the current curriculum to meet there needs and must continue to be one step ahead of them. So off I run to find something new to feed their hunger, if only I has this problem in all of my classes!

I wonder what the rest of the year will bring...

Starting a blog

I am new to the blogging world, but am already imaging the doors it could be opening. I am taking a graduate class in technology, which is expanding my horizons and allowing me to bring new ways to use technology in my classroom. I teach in a district that has been blessed by a technology bond that has allowed some of the newest technology to be installed as a our building was being built four years ago. It is amazing that you don't realize what you didn't have until you can't live without it. In a course of one summer, I went from a room that didn't have a board to write on to start with to a classroom with a projector and document camera. It has been an eye opening adventure and a learning experience for all. I am feeling very comfortable with my technology now and am ready to "take it on the road" and use it to continue to enhance my lessons.