Thursday, July 25, 2013

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills-Site Review

The P-21 website is one that I will visit in the future. It has given me resources that will help me work with teachers to develop activities to build student's skills. The common core toolkit shows how 21st century skills are already embedded in the Common Core, and where there are areas that need to have more focus on 21st century skills.  Being able to address the common core, and work on 21st century skills simultaneously gives teachers the chance to enrich their lessons and provide student's the opportunity to practice on many levels. The kit also show examples of what it looks like to align teaching with the common core and the 21st century skills listed. I find examples most useful for understanding how to infuse these skills into lessons, and will use this resource when I am working with teachers. The videos which show sample lessons will also be helpful to show teachers how small changes in their lessons can model and require the use of 21st century skills. The skills maps and literacy maps are excellent for getting a better idea of what these skills look liken when addressed in a classroom. These help me get a handle on what I need to do, how I need to guide teachers in writing lessons and developing activities that support learning the new skills.

The website provides resources for professional development, which will be most useful for my coaching next year. The most important will be to use 21st century tools which I will use while coaching and supporting and encouraging collaboration among staff members. If teachers are using the tools and experiencing how the enrich their own learning, they will not only learn how to use the tools but be more likely to use them in their classrooms. I will also work on supporting teachers "in their role of facilitators or learning" through my coaching. Moving from the teacher in front of the class lecturing to a facilitator or learning may be difficult for some teachers, but if they can experience the benefit of it and see student involvement increase I believe they will be willing to work at changing teaching strategies.

As I was watching some of the videos of sample lessons I saw some that made me wonder if they were really excellent examples. One was a kindergarten math lesson about story problems. The 21st century tools used were a document camera and a interactive white board. I don't think this was the best lesson to show as an exemplar of teaching and infusing 21st century skills. I believe that the resources on the site should be outstanding examples of what it means to teach and include 21st century skills. This particular video (and another I watched of a kindergarten math lesson) could lead teachers to believe that simply using technology makes the lesson 21st century rich. I would want to see more student activities and outcomes that require students to develop skills, even at the kindergarten level.

The implications of the information on this site for teaching in my school is that no matter what the content, these skills can and should be taught. They don't have to be the focus of the lesson, but using the right types of activities and asking for particular types of products from students will require that students use 21st century skills. During lesson planning, looking to see what the objectives of the lesson are, then simply adding (to the teachers awareness) 21st century skills can and should enrich them and give students the chance to practice and become proficient in these areas. They will need them to compete in the world of work they will move into after school no matter what work they choose to do.

6 comments:

  1. Mary,

    As I reflected this week upon the incorporation of 21st century skills versus Common Core, I have had much more exposure to Common Core than 21st century skills. I believe developing methods for combine the two is an important skill for teachers to develop in their lesson planning and instruction. Professional development that will coach and assist teachers in this area is a benefit to your staff.

    The world of education seems to frequently experiment with new methods and approaches. Often staff are resistant to yet another new theory and approach. As a coach presenting these new ideas regarding the incorporation of 21st century job skills along with common core requirements, having videos and resources will be a valuable benefit for your teachers.

    I found value in the Fine Arts Skills Map and hope to draw lesson ideas that will help incorporate the valuable skills of collaboration, communication, critical thinking and problem solving. Reflecting upon my own educational journey, it seems as if those are skills that have always been required to be successful in school. Have we really gotten away from teaching such things to our students? Something to really ponder.

    Julie

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  2. I certainly agree with you that 21st century skills should be taught within the context of the learning activities. You have made me realize that this site really does emphasize the use of technology frequently. Understanding current technology is a skill that is needed in the 21st century. However, I would agree with you that there are so many more skills that need to be integrated within the learning tasks.

    Ashley

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  3. Mary,

    Thank you for pointing me to the common core toolkit, it looks like it has a lot of useful information.

    I agree that the Kindergarten math lesson example you described does not sound like a good example of incorporating 21st century skills.
    If the students are just sitting there looking at a smart board and projections from a document camera, what skills are they using?


    I don't have a technology supervisor per se. I speak with a colleague who also teaches computers and she told me this year that we are suppose to be following the common core standards. Meanwhile, I wrote the district's computer curriculum based on NJ's Technology core curriculum requirements. I have always taught my class by teaching students computer skills like keyboarding, word processing, spread sheets, and multi-media presentations and I would incorporate core content where I could.
    She confused me a bit with this information. She said to me, that we (computer teachers) should be teaching students skills that they need to attain the common core standards, like research skills.

    Now we have the 21st century skills to consider. I appreciate your comment that states these skills don't have to be the focus of the lesson,
    but if you can choose activities where students have to use 21st century skills to produce certain types of products, this will be needed preparation real for the world. I believe I already do incorporate most of the 21st century skills into my classroom activities, but this course and your post has given me more awareness of their importance and I will be more certain that I am incorporating these skills into my lessons.

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  4. I think your observations about the sample lessons are spot-on. I personally found the entire site to read more like a gigantic advertisement with superficial content and a lot of ideas without the detailed information needed to implement them. So it is interesting to me that you found the sample lessons to be sub par.

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  5. I certainly agree with you that 21st century skills should be taught within the context of the learning activities. You have made me realize that this site really does emphasize the use of technology frequently. Understanding current technology is a skill that is needed in the 21st century. However, I would agree with you that there are so many more skills that need to be integrated within the learning tasks.

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  6. Mary,
    I agree with your post. I also found the tools tab useful and plan on using it in my planning. Additionally,I agree that the instructional videos used on the P21.org site did not exemplify excellence in 21st Century teaching. As I was watching, I was looking for the collaboration and inquiry piece that was missing. Were the students required to identify a problem? No. Did students collaborate to determine solutions to a problem? No.
    According to Richardson (2010), we have to teach our students to be "critical consumers of information." In these lessons the teacher was simply telling giving them information with the aid of technology. I feel 21st century teaching keeps evolving and has certainly surpassed the style of teaching seen on the exemplar videos we viewed.
    When thinking about excellent 21st century teaching skills lessons should include authentic problem solving, inquiry, and collaboration. It is these social skills that will prepare them for life in the information age.

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