Gabbing Gandee

Something I have discovered while completing my final project is that it is not as difficult embedding 21st Century Skills into projects and lessons as I once thought! In my opinion, a lot of what we do with paper and pencil can easily be changed to power point presentations, diagrams online, reflections with blogs and the list can go on and on! When I began this class I had concerns with how to implement many of these ideas with a class of 25 to 30 students. Now that I am at the end of this class and actually planning a lesson with these skills I realize. . . it’s doable!!!:)

Like any other teacher, I was afraid of change and something new! We need to think about this as we begin thinking about the resistance we are going to face from administrators and other teachers as we discuss embedding these skills into  the classroom.  I feel that it is going to be important for those of us who believe in these skills, to pass on the passion! Show how it can be accomplished in classrooms and the benefits to both students and teachers!

As we move into more 21st century tools and skills we now must also move away from all paper and pencil assessments. I have taught for almost ten years now and have seen a variety of different assessments come and go. It seems to me that everything that goes around, eventually comes back around.  When I began teaching everything was assessed through performance based assessments and tests. Then came NCLB and we moved into multiple choice, short answers, and basically factual recall.  Besides problem solving in math, their really aren’t assessments that monitor students’ application of skills.

As I reflect on the different assessments that I have seen over the years I have to say that I thought performance based assessments gave the best overall “picture” of a student. I felt better as a teacher knowing that my students could apply their skills instead of just recall them. I think that performance based assessments will be a great assessment to measure how well a student understands and applies 21st Century Skills. When students get into the real world, there are few jobs that are going to give their employees a paper pencil test. The real world will assess students on their job performance, ability to communicate with others, and ability to produce. As teachers we must prepare students for this type of assessment. I feel that performance based assessments are a good start as children move into more 21st Century skills and tools.

The first blog that I visited was one called “In Practice.”  I was intriqued by the title because I feel that a lot of educational programs and practices sound great but are harder to implement or actually do than originally thought. I enjoyed this blog. The author was concerned about the mandationof programs and lack of real teaching going on since the implementation of NCLB. Like most schools, instruction is being driven by data. Which is wonderful, BUT, too much data is taking away from instruction.  The amount of time I spent my last year of teaching giving assessments, running records, QRI’s etc was mind blowing! Alot of the assessments seem to assess the same things and were redundant. The author of this site felt the same way. It was nice to “hear” that other teachers are concerned about instruction being pushed aside to collect more and more data. I did feel a nice connection with the author. I will return to the site to see what other things she has to say.

The second site I commented on was http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/. I found this while searching for sites that showed WEB 2.0 applications.  He had a previous blog on the best web 2.0 applications for school. It was a  great list and had good explanations for each site. The comments started almost a year ago and yet they were still going.  He lists website of the month too!  I like that he also sent me an email thanking me for my post and inviting me to view other things on his site.

Overall, I liked commenting. The only problem is I feel like I want feedback on my comment. I did get it from one site but have not seen a reply or comment on my comment from the first site. Either way, I have discovered that there is a wealth of information out there, and many people like to blog about it!

Jen

While taking a class on teaching 21st Century Skills I have found that I am becoming more of a risk taker. I have created my first power point type presentations, used google docs, uploaded a video to You Tube, and so much more (o.k not really so much more but a little more).  I have really been proud of myself for trying new things and experimenting with new sites and programs. Then I created my first Blog site. It was very easy to do and easy to post messages. The problem is. . . I can’t figure out how to find other blogs. Now, I am frustrated! I went to forums and searched using key words. I only received a few sites that matched my search. Am I doing something wrong? Searching in the wrong area? Here I was feeling so proud of myself and now I am brought back down! Grrrrrrrrr!! I am not going to give up! This class has really helped push me into being more of a risk taker. Wish me luck!

P.S. If anyone knows what I am doing wrong, feel free to let me know!

Jen

I am currently taking a class on integrating 21st Century skills and technology into the schools.  I have found all of the information very useful and I think students would find it very engaging. I feel like some of the technology is geared for middle and high school students. Those that can be more independent. I am wondering what technology is good in elementary school? I really liked digital stories and also feel that slideshows and presentations can be done easily, too.  But what else? Has anyone else found some great sites for elementary aged students?