21st Century Skills and Our Students

I am very impressed with the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills website. It contains a wealth of information for educators interested in developing 21^st century skills in their students. One aspect that I really liked was that it described the significance of core subjects, such as English, math, and geography, along with interdisciplinary themes such as global awareness, civic literacy, and health literacy. In addition, the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills also emphasizes learning and thinking skills. This is an area I constantly try to address in my classroom. While I realize it is not specifically in the Ohio Academic Content Standards, I feel it is my responsibility as an educator to encourage the development of these skills in my students. These learning and thinking skills include critical thinking and problem solving, communication, and collaboration skills. While it is important for our students to know their content, it is also critical that they master 21^st century skills to ensure their success in the workplace as adults. In the workplace today, projects are more often done by teams; therefore, we must teach our students how to collaborate with and learn from others (Laureate, 2010). Creativity and collaboration will be key as our society progresses forward.

It was interesting to read through the expected competencies listed for particular grade levels. They are listed at 4^th, 8^th, and 12^th grade, so I focused my attention on 8^th grade because it is closest to the grade I teach (7^th). I agree that my students are competent and proficient in most of the skills listed. For example, a high majority of my students know how to properly use search engines to gather information on a given topic. They also are extremely proficient in presentation software, such as PowerPoint, along with being talented in publishing and multimedia creation.

I do not feel, however, that a majority of my students are proficient in the use of simulation software, nor do I feel that many of my students have experienced videoconferencing or interactive TV. While this is incorporated into 21^st Century Skills for 8^th graders, the reality is that many schools (including mine) do not have the necessary resources to provide students with truly proper training in these areas. In my school, we do as much as we can with the technology and time available to us. Therefore, while my students are proficient in most of the areas listed for 8^th graders, there are certainly areas we are not able to provide appropriate instruction in (for example, as mentioned earlier, videoconferencing).

So, what does this mean for me as a 7^th grade social studies teacher? It reinforces the fact that I must take advantage of every opportunity to prepare my students for the world they will enter in to. Twenty-first century skills are an absolute necessity, and while I may not have as much time or as many resources as I would like, in order to do what is best for my students I must provide them with opportunities to further develop these competencies. It might take collaboration with other teachers and administrators on my part, along with great creativity…but isn’t that what 21^st century skills are all about? My students must understand history but also be able to collaborate with others and display their knowledge in exciting and innovate ways.

References

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). Retrieved September 28, 2010 from http://www.p21.org/

Thornburg, D. (2010). "Skills for the 21st Century" [Video file]. Laureate Education. Unknown.

A Grade Level Blog--So Many Possibilites!

The ease with which I created this blog has showed me that a blog can easily be created for and implemented in my 7th grade social studies classroom. I already can envision blogging being a meaningful addition to my classes. I want to be sure to implement a classroom blog properly, and therefore will be "practicing" with this blog. As stated by Richardson (2010), "teachers should blog to show students that it is something of value and to model appropriate ways of doing it." I hope to be able to show my students the benefits of blogging through the use of my own classroom blog. On a basic level, a classroom blog would be a great place to post assignments and important class links; this is the best way to start (Richardson, 2010).

I teach in a large middle school. Each grade level is divided into three different teams of about 100-140 students (depending on the number of teachers). I work very closely with the other social studies teachers in my grade level, however, and we create projects and lessons together. As a department, I would like to set up a social studies blog containing videos, webquests, and other resources we all use. This would benefit the teachers, but also the students, as they would all have access to the same materials. It would be convenient for students who have been absent as well, as they would be able to visit the blog at their convenience to view videos or complete other activites they may have missed. While my eventual goal is to have a grade-level blog, I will start small and work towards this goal.

Blogging is a way we could allow our students to interact with students from other teams. I would like to see students from my class post their work (videos, PowerPoints, etc.) for students from the other teams to view and comment on. A grade level social studies blog could become a very interactive tool, with students commenting on other students' work and hopefully learning new things or looking at material in different ways. A social studies blog would encourage discussion and interaction amongst students, and also hopefully increase interest in social studies.

Before extending this to the entire grade, though, I will practice blogging with my students and hopefully begin by allowing them to respond to discussion questions, links, or videos. Once they are comfortable with this, smaller groups of students can then create their own posts relating to the topics we study. It will be very important for me to make my expectations clear to my students and spend time teaching them the process of blogging (Richardson, 2010). I am really looking forward to the possibilities that lie ahead with blogging and am excited to have my students become experienced social studies bloggers.

References

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin

Getting started...

I teach 7th grade social studies in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. In Ohio, the focus of 7th grade social studies is world history from 1000 B.C. to 1750 A.D. We focus heavily on geography and its impact on early cultures, along with the many contributions these ancient civilizations have made to the world we know today. We study Egypt, India, China, Greece, Rome, Islamic Empires, African Empires, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and Reformation, and Explorers. My goal is to help my students appreciate the uniqueness of each civilization we study and understand the relevance of these ancient civilizations to the world we live in. I want my students to be excited about and fascinated by history.

Technology plays a tremendous role in bringing history to life in my classroom. Through the use of interactive websites such as http://www.thebeijingguide.com/great_wall_of_china/index.html and http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html, history can be explored in a way that was not possible in the past. The excitement that I see in my students when technology allows them this type of connection to history is incredible, and I hope to continue to find ways to build their enthusiasm about world history. I feel I have only begun to explore the many ways in which this is possible and am eager to learn more about how I can continue to do different things with technology, rather than simply doing things differently.