I spent some time exploring the website of the Partnership for 21st century skills in order to learn more about what they have to offer. This is the first time I’ve heard of the organization and I was impressed with the collaboration of education, businesses, community and government leaders to provide information and resources to teachers and students about 21st century skills. I looked at the list of board member organizations that were teaming up and was pleased to see some very well known businesses getting involved with education. I found the sections titled Route 21 and the Resource Database as a potentially useful and helpful for me to use. There were many resources and links provided for a teacher to learn how to incorporate these skills into their lessons. I also found the Mile Guide very interesting and a great tool to help schools and teachers evaluate their effectiveness in teaching students the 21st century skills.
What surprised me about the site was the list of states that are part of the initiative and even more so, the states that were not. I was surprised that my state, New York, was not yet a state partner. Since New York is known to have many job opportunities and is considered to be a financial district, I thought they would have been one of the first on board to prepare students to become successful parts of the business/working world.
I think the teachers and educational leaders of today (and of the future) will have a difficult task of adapting education to align with the 21st century skills. An implication for me as a classroom teacher is that I will be responsible first hand to provide my students with an education that reflects these 21st century skills. This means that I will need to reflect on my current teaching strategies and make adjustments to how and what I teach. It is great to learn about and have access to an organization like the one that is trying to assist in this process of change. I look forward to re-visiting the website to spend more time reading the informative articles and start taking advantage of the great resources available.
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Vicky, I was also impressed by the vast amount of resources that could be found on the Resource Database and Route 21. I found a link to the Apple Learning Interchange which I think can be helpful in terms of networking and learning from others. I also liked ALEX (Alabama Learning Exchange) because I was able to search for math lesson plans. The lesson plans provided details such as objectives, standards, required materials, length of time, required technology supplies, procedures, assessments, and accommodations.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that it will be difficult for educators to incorporate 21st century skills into their existing curriculum. I think many teachers feel pressed for time to be able to teach all the content in order to prepare the students for state testing. It's too bad that there's such a huge emphasis on test scores. How do teachers begin to change the curriculum to incorporate these skills?