Skip to main content

Teaching 21st Century Skills

I recently visited http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/. I found a lot of resources regarding what skills students should be taught in order to succeed in the 21st century. There were also several states listed that have initiatives to implement policies and standards that will ensure students are presented with opportunities to learn these skills.

I liked the recent news events of businesses partnering with schools to help further the students' education, but I was disappointed that there were not more states or businesses listed.

I was also looking for suggestions as to how to implement teaching these skills in my class, and did not find them. Did anyone else find good ideas here?

Comments

  1. Todd SeipJanuary 29, 2009 at 10:39 PM

    One of my favorite questions to ask my students is "What are you going to be when you grow up?" We often talk in class that the average adult has over 10 different jobs in 4 different careers. How is what they are learning in my science class going to help them as a welder? or chemical engineer, or as a mother or father? Just as classrooms are becoming non-traditional in nature, workplaces are also undergoing change. I recently read that Google allows employees to create their own schedules, design and decorate their cubicles, and give input on company decisions. How can we as teachers beging to prepare students to work at a job that more resembles a middle school lunchroom environment rather than a Fortune 500 company. Let us not forget that our students will one day soon be working in the stores and shops we frequent. They will be CEO's and politicans, and scientists. They will be wives and husbands and moms and dads. One of the best resources we can give them is a role model.

    Todd Seip

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Stere FamilyJanuary 29, 2009 at 11:46 PM

    I think you are right that there are many pieces to the organization's puzzle that are missing. I would be interested in knowing if they have approached all states and how they were able to get some, but not nearly all, states to buy into their mission. I would also be interested in knowing how they selected the companies that are involved currently and how, or if, they plan to recruit more companies and states in the future. They seem to have some great ideas to share but you are correct that they need to be able to offer resources to enable their vision to be accomplished.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Susanna RobertsonJanuary 31, 2009 at 12:12 PM

    I am also curious to know if these corporate sponsors believe that students who graduate from states committed to the partnership will be better prepared for jobs within their organizations. If Fortune 100 corporations begin to focus their recruiting efforts on state partners, perhaps that would encourage more states and school systems to participate.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Idea for my Classroom

I teach Introduction to Computer Technology in grades 5-8. So using a blog with my classes would be a natural fit. I would have the students blog about ways they use computer technology every day. The students would reply in a post on the blog site. Then, they could return to the blog later to see what the other students had to say in response to their post. In this way, we could have a meaningful class discussion over the internet. This blogging experience would demonstrate to the students the power of a blog and allow them to learn to use a blog.
7 comments
Read more

My GAME Plan-Week 4

During week 4, I need to evaluate my Action Plan using the following questions. Are you finding the information and resources you need? I am doing well finding information. I make time to read educational technology (ed. Tech.) blogs and listen to ed. Tech. podcasts. I have also signed up for our school district's instructional fair technology classes. I plan to attend sessions on Web 2.0 tools that work within my school district's strict filtering policies. I also plan to attend sessions on using Ebooks, and creating a web 2.0 web site, using our district-provided software.   Do you need to modify your action plan?  So far, I do not need to modify my action plan. Things are going well. I even have colleagues who plan to attend the technology sessions with me. What have you learned so far?  I have learned that I am using some of the teaching and assessment methods about which I am reading. I am feeling good about being a self-motivated and self-directed lear...
5 comments
Read more

Behaviorism in Practice

The book, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, made two “generalizations.” 1. “Not all students realize the importance of believing in effort. 2. Students can learn to operate from a belief that effort pays off even if they do not initially have this belief” (Pitler, 2007). Pitler continued by giving two examples of teachers who used spreadsheets for students to track and evaluate their own effort in relation to their grades. The teachers incorporated spreadsheet skills and graphing/charting with their regular math lessons. This use of technology showed the students with graphic representations how their effort was directly related to their grade (Pitler, 2007). The students recognized the correlation between their behavior, putting forth effort, and the desired response, a good grade. This is a practical application of behaviorism. Another instructional strategy mentioned in the book suggested using word processing software tools to research, not just write papers. ...
5 comments
Read more