21st Century Tech Skills

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is an organization designed to build partnerships between companies, schools, the community, and government leaders for the sole purpose of integrating school course work with the real work environments of the 21st century. This organization has developed a framework of skills that students should mastered by each grade level. They have also created assessments for their standards, all of which are aligned with skills students need to enter the 21st century workplace. 

While researching the organization and the resources that are available from 21st Century I was surprised that I had never heard of or seen any of these resources in my school. Looking at the English standards and the literacy maps under the list of publications I was thrilled to see example where students were to use a wiki or blog to create and maintain a dialogue journal discussing the reading of a shared text with a partner or group. This student project/assignment aligned with standards for reading, writing and technology skills. Working on an assignment like this with my students would be something I am trying to plan on for the next novel we read. 

I did not disagree with anything on the site. I am sure that not all of the student outcomes for literacy meet the standards set by the state of Kentucky where I teach but they could be easily aligned with work from the department of education and teachers throughout the state/community. 

Seeing all of the contributors such as Disney, Lego, Apple, Ford, and other major companies this organization is working with major businesses to develop lessons for students so they are educated to succeed in the 21st century workplace. I could not believe how many of the companies have major offices in my area and are contributing to this organization because they want to make sure their workforce is trained and exposed to the skills necessary for their jobs. Implications for my students are that currently they are behind schools/districts who are involved with 21st Century. As an educator I need to find a way to become involved with these types of lessons so that my students have a chance of succeeding when they graduate from high school or college. This organization is one that I would like to partner with and have our teachers begin looking at aligning our content standards with that of the partnerships'.

Possible Novel Unit??

     After reading all about Blogs and creating this one I finally have an idea of  how I plan to incorporate this into my lessons. In a few weeks I begin a unit  with my seventh grade advanced language arts students using the novel Forged by Fire by Sharon  Draper. Usually, I have the students read the novel as a class and individually  they explore some of the topics discussed such as child neglect, alcoholism,  drug abuse, etc. while working on different story  elements.While reading the novel students  complete and individual research project to present to the class.
   To use the Blog I thought I  would have students complete their discussion questions for every section of the  novel on here. Students could post their reactions and thoughts to the events in  the novel while discussing character development and conflict. I would love to invite the author,  Sharon Draper, to be a part of the discussion as well. If the author was involved students could ask her  questions about writing and other books from the series.
    Students could then set up  their RSS feeds to search for topics for their individual projects as well. They  could find all of their research for their presentations by using Google Reader.  I would have to plan several lessons to teach the students how to set up each  component but I think once each student had a mini lesson they would be able to  use the blog for future units as well. I would  like to use the Blog for this class because I am positive all of the students  have access to the internet at home and will be willing to try out this new  technology in a class. These students would also be able to use the Blog  correctly and I would not have a lot of worry about the content they were  posting.

Presidential address to students

Today my school viewed the Presidential address to students. Well when I say my school.... some of my students participated. It was amazing to me how many parents had an issue with their students hearing a "stay in school" message from the President of the United States. I even had a student tell me their parent thought about keeping them home from school today so they did not take part. How is this providing the best education for that child?? A parent really wanted to keep their child home for a half hour speech?? I may just be open minded but he is the President whether people voted for him or not andwhether they agree with his policies or beliefs  or not. Does anyone else find this totally absurd?

Introducing the Blog.

This is my first post of my regular blog. I am excited about enhancing my knowledge and use of new technologies in my classroom. Tech Pro Wannabe was started to reach out to my fellow educators for information, advice, and comments on technology use in the classroom.

So I am not a total stranger you are writing to; here is a little bit of information about me. I am a mother to a wild ten month old son, a wife of five years, and a pack leader to my dog. We live in our house that my husband and I built four years ago. I teach seventh grade integrated language arts teacher to 130 students each day. In my free time I am working on my master's in technology integration, love to go walking with my friends, visit with my family, and work around the house with my husband.
Feel free to share any information about yourself when responding to a blog post or adding a comment!