Evaluating 21st Century Skills

As an assignment this week in my integrating technology class we were asked to explore the website of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Over the past two days I have been spending time investigating the sight in order to learn more about this innovative and about what the Partnership for 21st Century Skills really stands for. The first thing that I discovered was their mission statement. I discovered that their mission “is to serve as a catalyst to position 21st century readiness at the center of US K-12 education by building collaborative partnerships among education, business, and community and government leaders” (The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2010). What this essentially means to me, as a teacher, is that they are striving to help states get the jumpstart that they need to incorporate ideas from business, community and government with a strong emphasis on technology.
Upon learning this I definitely wanted to know more.

My initial reaction to the website is that it is very useful to all those that are in the educational field. As I looked at the many resources that are available it is also beneficial to all those that work with technology and young children. This website can also be a useful tool for parents that want to understand the integration of technology in the classroom. As I looked harder at the site I became increasingly impressed with the concept of making this a statewide initiative with a strong focus on “critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation” (The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2010). When answering the question, “who are your members?” The partnership stated, “We succeed when we work together to transform education. P21 urges business, education and government leaders to join this effort, think strategically about fusing the three Rs and four Cs, and work long-term to create an education system that best prepares today’s students for tomorrow’s workplace” (The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2010). There is a strong significance placed on the idea that everyone must be involved in the technological education of our students. I have only been teaching for three years but even I know that without the support and help from those around you it is almost impossible to get an entire class of students to succeed. You need the help from the government, the community, the parents, and your fellow teachers. This site places the importance on all these figures in the child’s life.

As I got more and more excited about the idea of state participation in the education I started to look and see what states have signed on to this membership. I was shocked to learn that out of our 50 states only 15 are members of The Partnership. I discovered that in order “to become a P21 Leadership State, a state demonstrates commitment from the governor and chief state school officer, and submits an application to P21 that describes the state’s plan to fuse the three Rs and four Cs within standards, assessments and professional development programs” (The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2010). Upon further inspection I also noticed that my state, Pennsylvania, was part of those 15 states that are members. I feel that more people need to be made away of what The Partnership is trying to do and state officials need to be told that we want to become members.

All the ideas and concepts that I found on this site would be beneficial to my students. As I have mentioned before, I have one student that is not able to be in a regular math class because of his disrespectful behavior and inability to sit quietly. Through the ideas that are present on this site I can work with my student to integrate him into the classroom using technology. This way I am able to have him work with the other students but not be the distraction that he currently is. Through the use of chats and web blogs I am able to ensure that my student is collaborating with the other students in his grade level and is discussing the information that I am teaching him. Through this I am also able to work collaboratively with a fellow teacher; therefore, bettering our students’ learning.

http://www.p21.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=505&Itemid=189

My Blog...My Classroom

Through out the last two weeks I have been learning more about the ways that internet and technology interact with students in the classroom. One such way that I have spend the past week looking at is this blog. I am currently a 6th, 7th, and 8th grade learning support teacher. I teach a 6th grade math class, a 7th grade math class and a 7th grade grammar class.

As a teacher I think that interaction between various students is very important. Therefore as a learning support teacher with smaller class sizes; sometimes 5 kids in the room other times 1, I need a way for my students to interact with others their age. With the use of a blog my students can work with others in their school as well as with people all over the world. Throughout my graduate class I have had the opportunity to watch some great videos about technologies influence on society and vise versa. Dr. Thornburg in the video "Technologies Influence" states that we need to create technology in the classroom and be ever changing because "society effects technology in the way that we create things as we have needs" (Laurette, 2010). If society is always changing we must always be changing as well to meet the needs of our students.

This blog would be a way for my smaller classes to interact with other students learning the same thing. While my student that is one on one needs to be because of behavior issues, he would still be able to interact with others and not be effected by his behavior. I also feel that the students need to work with other that are learning the same things but maybe on a different level. I have often found that students work best when they are being taught by other students. This can be done through working with other grade level math classes or with the same level class within my building.

Through the use of a blog the students will be able to interact better with each other while focusing on the content and learning other valuable skills. Through using the internet and the computer, students will be able to learn more about typing and navigating the world wide web. This is something that they will be using on a daily basis as we progress further into technology. Students will also be able to interact with the curriculum from anywhere at anytime. With today's technology students are able to access the internet from their phones and from home. With this kind of technology students will greatly benefit from the use of mobile technology (Laurette, 2010).

Welcome!

My name is Erinn and I am a middle school learning support teacher in central Pennsylvania.  I am currently working towards my masters in Integrating Technology in the Classroom.  This blog is focused on increasing the understanding of technology and education in the classroom.