Schools today are very concerned with raising test scores and making sure that students are meeting standards at each grade level. Now there is an organization that is looking beyond the test scores and even beyond the curriculum itself to the skills today's students will need in the future. This organization, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills has a vision that students will not only be equipped in the content areas of education but also in skill areas that will be needed as they become the next generation of workers in our country.
This is important because the skills that are needed in the workplace today are vastly different from those needed even a decade or two ago. I found that this site provided many great tools to help inform schools, businesses, leaders etc... about how they might be involved. I was surprised by the amount of information and appreciated that some of it was broken down by state to give more specific information.
This is helpful to me as an educator so that I can see where my students are as compared to where they should be concerning skills they will need to be able to perform. I can then make more informed decisions about areas where I can improve my teaching of these essential skills to my students so they can achieve success!
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With the emphasis placed on standards and testing scores within school districts, do you think that will hinder educators from addressing the skills mentioned on the site? It seems like a lot of time is spent on standardized testing. When looking through the site and at some of the things the teachers were doing, I keep thinking what a great idea, but then I thought how can I spend some much time on a project when I have so many standards to cover. One I looked at one in particular the teacher spent 6 weeks on a collaborative project. The things the students learned were great and the real life application was priceless, but I found myself wondering how did she get everything covered before the project was started??
ReplyDeleteI found the site helpful and hope to incorporate the some of the ideas and skills mentioned in the classroom. Maybe one day I will be brave enough to undertake one of the projects mentioned on the site.
The Partnership for 21st century skills website shares their partner schools' successful project-based activities that integrate technology, critical thinking, and student collaboration. Can teachers also integrate the mandated standards into a project's objective as well? Teachers can decide what they want the students to learn and include the appropriate subtasks into the project unit. Am I oversimplifying the process?
ReplyDeleteI really liked the website as well. It gave so many great resources, many I had heard of, and many I had not. It was a real eye opener. You mentioned that it gave you the opportunity to see where your students stand. I did this as well and my students have a long way to go. I hope that many will see this site as an opprtunity to do the same and to focus more on teaching these skills as we prepare our youth for the real world.
ReplyDeleteThe Partnership for 21st Century Skills website is very informative resource for educators to see where we currently stand within our schools on an instructional standpoint and what direction we should be going. I thought that the information and examples of collaborative projects can assist teachers in modeling the structures of their classrooms while addressing these new standards.
ReplyDeleteWhat I thought was particularly interesting was the plan for my own states plan in participating to recognize and incorporate these new skills in education to better prepare our students for the globalization formats that are increasing in society and business. I believe my school has begun to take small steps in achieving their overall purpose but as you stated a large amount of focus is placed on standardized test which too often do not provide educators with a clear picture of our how our students perform. What are your thoughts? How valuable can these tests be when we have already begun to move away from this type of assessment within our classrooms due to new ways 21st century learners learn? As it has been reflected in this website that our classrooms need to be transformed don't you think these tests should be redesigned to fit these 21st century skills as well?
I think that anything that can help our students become more successful after they leave school should be our highest priority. I think a good teacher is one that has their students prepared for the job world. Maybe that is just my field of industrial arts speaking. I think that it would not be hard to use their concepts, once you start using them, I bet that you would not want to go back to the old ways. It is just getting the ambition and know-how to use technology successfully in your classroom.
ReplyDeleteMike
Thanks for all of the great responses. There is definitely much to consider as we seek to implement these essential skills into our classrooms. There is obviously a conflict between preparing students for standards and preparing them with skills that they will need as they leave the school setting for a work environment. There must be a way to bridge the gap between these two schools of thought. I absolutely agree that we need to do whatever we can to best prepare our students for life in the 'real world'!
ReplyDeletePreparing the students for the real world is always tough. As teachers its not just the books, we are dealing with their real life problems. When we look at this we are their second home at school. So many times I feel that there is not much support from the home, so it becomes a battle. Then we need to show them how to use skills that will make them become productive citizens in the real world.
ReplyDelete