21st Century Skills

I recently was researching a website about teaching 21st century skills in schools. The group, The Partnership for 21st Century Learning, suggests that schools need to enforce the skills students will need to live and work in the 21st century. The group discusses on their website that their is a disconnect between the skills taught in schools and the skills needed in our community and workplace. With their partnership, they work to help create a set of skills that allows to students to be well-rounded in all aspects. They discuss the importance of teaching the core subjects, life and career skills, learning and innovation skills, and information, media, and technology skills as an interconnected curriculum. I agree with everything this website suggests in order to help create more well-rounded students who are ready to live in our communities and work in our technologically advanced environment.

I feel that my students are at an advantage when it comes to this. I feel very fortunate that my students have the opportunity to use computers on a daily basis. They have recently learned how to email and blog. My students find these things to be "fun". Through their "fun", they are also learning many things. We are learning how to be professional online through email and blogs, how to edit our typing because others will read what we see, etc. I believe that as more new technologies are created, we need to incorporate them into our teaching, in order to help prepare our students.

Resources: www.21stcenturyskills.org

Using Blogs in My Classroom

I have recently been thinking about how I could utilize this blog in my fifth grade classroom. It seems as though it would be a great tool to help foster more learning and discussion amongst my students. One way in which I could see myself using this blog in my classroom would be to post a discussion question or topic. Then, I could tell the students that their assignment (for either class or homework) is to get on and respond to the discussion question or topic. I could create a generic rubric for students to follow when posting to our classroom blog.

One area that I could see this being a huge benefit would be in my reading class. I try to foster student learning through discussions and this is such a technologically advanced way that the students could discuss their thoughts. For example, we are reading Bridge to Terabithia as a class novel. Right now, we are focusing on the differences in the two settings, Lark Creek and Terabithia. The students could each post a difference they found between the two settings. The would allow not only for me to see if they are understanding the information, but they are also able to read and respond to everyone else's responses.

I am interested in learning other ways to incorporate blogging into everyday learning. If you have any suggestions, please let me know!

New to Blogging

I am new to the blogging world, as well as the teaching world. This is my second year teaching fifth grade and I absolutely love it! I feel very fortunate this year to be working in an Emints classroom. In my Emints classroom, I have a laptop, 15 student computers, a printer/scanner, and a SMARTboard/projector. I also get to use the Senteo Response clickers often, and I just recently found out I will be getting a document camera, as well. I have so much technology at my fingertips; it is unbelievable! In order to have all of this great technology, I do have to go through a certification process. This means that I have two years of training, and in just the first year, I have 100 contact hours. It's going to be a lot of work, but worth it in the end!

Other than teaching, I have started working on my master's degree in education through Walden University. (Training plus school means lots of extra work!) I also tutor after school and work at a church on the weekends. I tend to keep myself busy. I also just got engaged over the summer!!! We have our wedding planned for next summer, which means wedding planning during the school year. It is going to be one crazy year!

I have started out the school year trying to get used to working with the students plus the technology. The internet has become a great friend, as I search for great ideas and websites to use in my classroom. I look forward to learning more about teaching, as well as blogging throughout this school year!