Follow up to 21st century skills
March 11, 2008
I did feel out of step on Monday talking about the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, ISTE NETS standards, and the role I believe both need to play as different content areas go through the curriculum review cycle within our district. Out of step because of the 57 people I was talking to, only 8 had any inkling of the relevance either of the organizations had in relations to education, or why the information they publish would have any bearing on what happens in classrooms. I don’t believe there is not room somewhere in our curriculums for things to change, for students to be given the opportunity to help create their learning, be part of their learning, as my hero Cathy Laguna does. Look at Cathy’s classroom, http://team8blue.wikispaces.com her students are doing wonderful meaningful work and best of all its FUN for them! How many times do you hear 8th grade students talk about having fun in science and math? Granted, Cathy is fearless and will try anything and always has a plan B if something doesn’t quite work out the way we planned, but she tries to engage her students using things they like in their lives. They make movies, podcasts, voicethreads, use smart notebook software, probes, graphing software. Her room looks like a studio, similar to what Clarence Fisher talked about in his K-12 Online presentation in October 2007. I wish I had more teachers like Cathy, Sue, Chad, Judy, theses are ones who make going to work a pleasure, always looking for ways to engage students more in their learning.
Our students are only with us a finite amount of time in their K-12 lives, they don’t have time for us to think about whether or not this may be a good idea to talk about for the next 5 years, we need to begin to move now. To bring teachers into the 21st century, then maybe they will see the possibilities for students. So where have you started in your districts? I have suggested holding an administrator’s academy on Web 2.0 this summer, what it means, what it has changed, and the implication for professional practice. Have not heard yet whether that is being considered a valid offering during administrative staff training days, but I hope it will be. What is anyone else doing in his or her districts to get conversations going, or are you having less resistance than I am? Any suggestions are truly welcome.
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March 11th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
[...] the rest of this great post here Author: Time: Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 at 8:22 pm Category: Skills Comments: You can [...]
March 11th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
I came upon your blog post via a Google blog search turned into an RSS feed in my Apple Mail app. (2.0 glue) You are blazing a trail for me. Starting March 25th, I am leading a group of teachers on a journey of technology curriculum rewriting. I too expected to show relevant links, organizations, videos etc, but without a sound understanding am I only creating confusion?
Just because I have drank the kool-aide and see the light, I am not “in” the classroom and teachers are the kings/queens of their domains. Getting admins on board would be a great first step.
Technology Advisor
Pella Community School District, Pella IA
March 13th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Hi Eric, thanks for your comment. I would still go ahead with the conversations with your teachers starting March 25th. I have some who have taken off with using different tools in their practice. It is very important though to lay the foundation in their understanding of why these things are important, and it’s not a once and done conversation either, in my experience at least. The conversations should happen with teachers and with administrators. There is nothing more disheartening than for a teacher to have great learning taking place in their classroom, collaborative projects, publishing etc, and to have their principal observe them and not understanding the implications of what is going on, or the effort taken to accomplish. I still have hopes for an administrators academy in my district in the summer, and in the meantime I support and encourage all others to dip their toes into the world of the read/write web. I would be happy to share any of the resources I have, let me know if I can help.
Robin
March 14th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
I am a secondary school teacher and I became interested in connecting education with how young people use digital technology in their personal lives I started a web site with another teacher http://connectingeducation.com where we try to share resources including assignments with other teachers. We just started the web site. Please contact us if you have any ideas or comments.
Thanks
Roger