Partnership for 21st Century Learning

The partnership for 21st Century learning web site was created by the US Dept of Education to team educators with hundreds of stakeholders in the business world. The list of collaborators is impressive and includes representatives from AOL, Apple, Cisco and Microsoft, to name a few. The intention of the partnership is to “serve as a catalyst to position 21st century skills at the center of US K-12 education by building collaborative partnerships among education, business, community and government leaders.”

As I browsed the site, I was confronted with the globally competitive work environment our students will face in the future. Technology has shrunk our world, and Americans are becoming less and less desirable as employees. The Partnership addresses this problem with a solution- let’s find out what businesses need and train our students to be successful competitors in this technology-driven world. The workforce is changing, and so must our teaching if we want our students to be successful. The site points out that beyond the core subjects, our students need to be taught a whole new skill set, including:
* Information media and communication skills
* Thinking and problem-solving skills
* Interpersonal and self-direction skills
* Global awareness
* Financial, economic and business literacy
* Civic literacy

According to this pedagogy, all American schools need to be not only teaching these skills, but also creating statewide standards and assessments around them. We need to change our professional development to focus around these skills, since they will help our students stay competitive with our increasingly global workforce. The site lists thirteen states that have already joined the program.

I was surprised by how many well-known companies took the time join and collaborate in effort. As I thought about it, though, it makes sense that if a business wants to in-source their employees in this increasingly competitive world, the best way to do that is to be clear about what they need. The frustrating part about the web site is that it’s not super useful unless your state has already joined the organization. Clicking on the resources link, I found many links to expensive programs, curriculums, pre-made assessments, and staff development sessions. To truly become a partner in this process, it looks like your governor, superintendent, and districts would need to get involved.

I think all educators need to check out this site, whether our states take the initiative or not. As individuals, educators need to begin to restructure classrooms. We need to pause and envision the world our students will be joining when they graduate. Then, we need to find ways to incorporate global awareness, critical thinking and complex collaboration into our lessons in order to successfully prepare our kids for a changing future.

My Access

My Access

I skipped school today to go to a conference that I was nervous about, but now I’m so jacked I have to share. My classes were chosen to pilot a new writing program for the state. It’s called My Access, and I think it’s going to be amazing. The program allows students to type their papers online with the aid of an editor that helps them correct their paper in all areas. I’m not talking just conventions, here. The whole six-trait span is covered- conventions, organization, style, ideas, well you get the picture. Once the student finishes writing and revising with the help of the editor, they submit their paper and are instantly scored on a six-point scale in all areas. They are then given a revision plan (which comes with unlimited ideas for improving their work) and can begin revising until they reach the score they desire. Then, all of the information gathered is reported to the teacher.
How does this program work? Artificial Intelligence! I’m not kidding! The program offers over 1200 prompts that have been scored thousands of time by a team of professional readers. Also available are secondary prompts that have not yet been scored to the point of AI grading. For those, you can submit the papers to the actual graders. I think it’s amazing.
If this program is as amazing as I hope it will be, I can foresee a complete revamping of the way we teach writing. English teachers will be freed to have time to plan lessons to suit their students’ needs. Of course, we’ll still be reading the papers. We can just cut out the constant revision. Not only that, but our students will get instant feedback.
I can’t wait to get started and see what this baby can really do for my writers. I’ll keep you posted as we progress!

The Book Thief- Markus Zusak

Okay, I know none of us have the time for this, but... Even when I'm swamped with work, I have to find a way to escape. My favorite escape comes from finding a great young adult book to drown myself in. This week, I didn't mean to find the book. I'm way too busy to read for pleasure. Rick, my boyfriend, was ordering books on Amazon for his Masters' program, and this one kept popping up. I broke down and ordered it, and I am so thankful I did.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is an incredibly beautiful piece of writing. It tells the story of Liesel, a young foster girl who grows up in Hitler-era Germany. This is the first book I've read that came from the German perspective of WWII. It was well-done and eye-opening. More than that, though, is the colorful, poetic language. Did I mention that the story is narrated by Death himself? Amazing book! Take a break and read it!

Uncharted Waters

Okay, so my classroom is running smoothly. My writers are excited about writing. I think I may have convinced a few strugglers to pick up a book. I’ve spent nine years navigating through instructional texts, using the trial and error method to create a classroom where reading and writing are cool and fun. Why would I want to go out into uncharted waters and try to figure out this blog-thing?

I’ll tell you why. Last year, our tech guy spent a few hours during pre-class conferences trying to teach us how to create a classroom web page. I loved the idea. I spent hours putting up pictures and writing a bio that demonstrated my love of reading to my students and their parents. On the site, I created a blog section where I thought my students could post writing about their favorite books. When classes began last year, I was so excited about my web page. I told all of my students to go online and view my page; their job was to write a section on the page about the first book they finished during first quarter. As it turned out, my web site was only able to be edited by its creator- me. The kids got over their disappointment, and I forgot the whole experience until this year. Now I’ve discovered the blog. Now that I’m learning how to blog, I’m on the edge of my seat with anticipation, ready to try this with my kids. Give me a few months warming up to the idea, swimming a little deeper, and I’ll be ready to take my students to the deep end. Here’s the plan:

Ms. B’s Reading Class Website
(I'm working on a catchier title :)

This site will be the place where I can write reviews of all of the young adult books I read (and there are many). I’ll post a list of the amazing YA books that are available in my classroom and in the library. My students will have access to the site, where they can go to decide which book they’ll read next. One section will be devoted to my reading students. Here, they can opt to write their own reviews of the great books we read. This will be a great tool- kids choose books based on what their friends are reading. I can see them now, taking a break from ‘Facebook’ to take a look at the reading page. There, they’ll see that ‘Alyssa’, the cool girl in school, posted a blog about Fablehaven, by Brandon Mull, her new favorite series in the world. Maybe they’ll decide to cut ties with their precious computers to go to a quiet place and read. How fun! The options are endless, and I can’t wait to dive in. (Just give me a little time.) Has anyone else tried this in their classrooms? I need your help!

Free Technology for Teachers

I've spent a lot of time over the last week looking for usable, up-to-date blogs that inspire me or give me valid ideas for the classroom. It's been a struggle, since there are so many out-of-date sites to navigate through. Fortunately, my search hasn't been in vain. Richard Byrne's 'Free Technology for Teachers' blog has been useful already, and I just subscribed. Byrnes has been blogging since 2007, and he's put together an amazing compilation of useful sites that offer free technology. Just yesterday I was looking for a fresh way to address the 911 issue. This site gave links for beautifully done free 911 Remembrance films and a very cool site that is creating collective personal stories from the day. I'm excited to use the second site (called Making History- http://makehistory.national911memorial.org/) in English class tomorrow as a way to talk about capturing relevant moments in writing.
"Free Technology for Teachers" includes links for free technology to use in Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies classes. It's definitely worth checking out.

Ready to Dive In

So, it’s the first week of school. I have six different classes to prepare for this year, and I’m switching from teaching Social Studies and Geography to English and Reading at various grade levels. Beyond the all-new curriculum I must write, I’m also working on a Masters’ Degree program through Walden University. Needless to say, I have a lot on my plate. Why not add more, right? The more weighed down I get, the more I seem to need to take on.

I’ve been obsessing the last couple of weeks about setting up a Weblog site for my classes, so why not get it going now? My Masters’ study has me reading an interesting book by Will Richardson- “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms”. The book is inspiring me to stop and think about the vast changes school has gone through in the last twenty years. Remember when we were in Middle School- the ‘computer lab’ had two giant boxes with black and orange text on which we used to play the ‘Oregon Trail’ game. Now, eighty percent of our students have Internet at home, and millions of kids are creating their own content online. I think it’s about time we stepped up in the schools and started teaching kids how to responsibly access the insane amount of information at their fingertips. I’ve spent the last weeks pouring over teacher-created blogspots that do amazing things linking academics with technology. I don’t think I’d be ready to start the year without giving this a try.

My plan here is to share the sites I have studied and brainstorm which type of blog will work best for my kids. Hopefully, I can get a few of my colleagues on board to work through the technology with me.

Resources:

Richardson, Will. (2009). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. California: Corwin Press.