How can I better prepare my class for the 21st century?

Are we equipping our students with the skills they need to succeed in the 21st Century? As life long learners and educators of today’s youth we must be aware of the skills necessary to survive and thrive in our high- tech, global society. Partnership for 21st Century Skills is a partnership of educators, businesses and community and government leaderships. The website offers many resources and tools that assist in the implementation of their mission. There are many opportunities to network with other educators and professional within our field of study.


Their holistic approach and program design of student outcomes and support systems is very informative and enlightening. We must prepare our students with the basic core subjects by using new innovative and creative hands on approach. The students must develop the skills to be self directed and engaged in a more global minded classroom. This 21st century model or approach helps us to integrate life skills and knowledge. This approach also encourages the use of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in the class.

I was surprised how easy they make it sound to integrate the skills into a daily classroom program. How are they able to fit so much into an already crowded schedule? I was also surprised how fast my mind started evaluating my techniques and classroom environment. What can I do to implement the changes needed? Will my school administration allow me the flexibility to implement some of the new ideas and techniques I was able to observe through the online video library? I was surprised about various feelings of excitement and fear that overcame me. Am I ready for the next step in education? I was also surprised how easy it was to access the online tools and resources to encourage me on this journey. The resources include professional development conferences, publications, educational articles and a video library. The videos were demonstrations of the 21st century approach in action K-12th grade.

The program encouraged me as a contemporary educator to continue my journey of lifelong learning and embrace change. My students learning gaps can be achieved if they are able to engage in collaborative, multi-media enriched learning environments. This approach will allow for many diverse types of assessments: standardized, formative, portfolio and technology based. The students need programs that will teach them to leap outside the box to discover new ways of doing, thinking and communicating with their fast paced, never sleeping, global world. Check out Partnership for 21st Century Skills and post your thoughts.

Blogging in the Classroom?

Class web pages are mandatory in our district.  Each homeroom teacher must design and maintain a class web page.  It is even monitored by our district and school principal.  This year they have added the Fusion Tools to our web page.  It allows us to add podcast, slideshows, and blogs to our web page. Many of my students do not have internet access at home so blogging is limited to school time.  I have just added a blog discussion to my web page.  My students have been using the student blog page on scholastic.com but class blog is new.  They seem afraid to respond.  We have also lost our classroom computers to a flood.  Our old radiator heater burst the week before Christmas and destroyed my classroom library (over 800 books) and all four of my computers.  Any way, my students have not been able to play with the blog options too much.

My question for you is how young is too young to blog? What about a blog for parents?  Let me know what you think?  Check out my class page and provide some input for blogging discussion ideas.

Lewis Class Web Page

What technology is a must in your classroom?

The world of technology is changing every day. It is hard to imagine life without the Internet, digital cameras, and social networking. Our classrooms however, are not on the cutting edge. If our classrooms have computers in them for student use, they are probably dinosaurs meaning windows 98 or before.

I am lucky to be in a school that is incorporating new technology tools each year. All of our classrooms are equipped with SmartBoards, Smart document cameras, and Smart Airline tablets. Our third grade is implementing IPods in our curriculum. Each class has 6 IPods for the students to listen and create podcastings. Our K-2 grades were provided Smart Tables, interactive tables for 4.

Smart Boards and the document cameras provide information at our finger tips. These tools allow me and the students to retrieve information from around the world with only a keystroke. Last week, we observed a baby panda bear at the San Diego Zoo through the video cam http://www:sandiegozoo.org/videos/. Many of my students have visited a zoo. I placed this website on our class web site along with other links. The excitement was carried over to their new animal research project. A template for their project was also placed on the class website for easy use. The afternoon was filled with excitement as they researched using videos, and other link web pages.

The problem is having time to learn and teach the technology to staff and the students. We are so overwhelmed with "test preparations" that we cannot incorporate time needed to become proficient in the technology. I know that if we can learn to use these tools we will all excel.

What do technology do you use? Let's share web sites and other ideas to enhance our classroom learning experience.