21st Century Skills

I recently visited the website for the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/. The mission of this organization is to work with the business community, leaders in education and policymakers to ensure all students receive an education that prepares them for citizenship and careers in the 21st century. The organization provides resources to help support this goal.

At their website, a plethora of information is available. It is well organized, easy to navigate and pleasant to view. I particularly like their colorful graphic showing the 21st Century Student Outcomes and Support Systems. The links and details within the system graphic are extensive. I found all skills and content to be vital for a student's education.

I was surprised and disappointed to see how few states were listed as actively supporting this organization. Unfortunately, Ohio, my home state, is not one of the supporters. I was also surprised to see the lengthy listing of companies heralding this effort. It is impressive in its' length and scope. Many notable companies are included.

If there is anything I was disappointed with; it is placing financial education as an interdisciplinary theme. My experience shows that this tends to diminish the importance of the material and may be overlooked or undervalued by the classroom teacher in the core content areas. As a business educator, the students that take my personal finance course enter being very weak in financial concepts and skills. It does not appear they are receiving enough this through their core courses. With high stakes testing being at the forefront; teachers are forced to choose what will be covered. There just isn't enough time to cover it all.

Students will need to have world class content and skills to be prepared to be a productive member of our workforce as well as a contributing citizen. The content and skills must be mutually supportive of each other. When I think of how 21st Century skills will impact education, two thoughts come to mind. As teachers we desperately need professional development opportunities to learn how to incorporate the skills training in order to support the content. In order to provide this education, we will need the financial support of our community; something that all too frequently is sorely missing in this country. Fortunately technology is becoming less expensive; and that is good news for the future of our world-our students.

Soft Skills

Currently I teach grades 9-12. There are four courses I teach. They are Accounting, Keyboarding, Managing Your Personal Finances, and The ABC's of Investing. I have been thinking of how I could incorporate blogging in one of my classes. Here is an idea I have. Please let me know what you think of it. What problems do you foresee me encountering? How can my idea be improved upon? Here is my idea.

In Accounting, our textbook offers some materials where 'soft skills' of the business world are touched upon. There is usually a several paragraph article followed by several questions for student discussion. Being teenagers, my students are very hesitant to express any thoughts that appear to not follow the status quo. Frequently it is difficult to engage them in discussion, let alone higher-level thinking skills. Here is where I think blogging would work well. I would divide my class into groups of 5 students each. I have 25 students. Each student would be given a 'code' name. They would use this name in their posts. This would keep the post anonymous. In addition, it would encourage those quiet students, with so much to say, to do just that. The students would be given a scenario and would respond to it. They would also respond to at least two of their fellow teammates. I would read and approve all postings before being published. Following is an example of one of the prompts.

Scenario: You have a part-time job at a petting zoo. There's a strict do-not-feed-the-animals policy for visitors. You see a parent encouraging his kids to give some apples to a goat. You approach the parent and tell him about the policy. He says, "Oh, a couple of little apples aren't going to make a difference." How do you respond to the parent? What do you say? What else could you do?

This is just one example of helping students develop communication skills-one of the 'soft skills'. I think blogging would help them see a variety of ways to respond to situations. It would help them communicate their thoughts in a environment where they feel 'safe' from peer criticism. What's your suggestions?

Thanks for helping me on this!

ELL's and TLL's (Technology Language Learners)

As I think about my fear and frustrations with blogging; I get some sense of what it must be like to be a student that is an English language learner. There are so many new terms in technology that are 'Greek' to me. They say it is always good to walk in another person's shoes. For me I am just trying on their sandals.

New Driver

I remember my mother learning how to drive. She was 60 years old and I was a teenager, who already had her license. I couldn't figure out why she was so overwhelmed and frazzled. After all, what was the big deal? All she needed to do was turn the key, put it in drive and go.

Now I know how my mother must have felt. I am new to blogging and feel overwhelmed and frazzled at the other blogsites. I also know my age is showing, as this is nothing new for my much younger fellow teachers.

I was watching a program recently on the aging of the brain. Research shows that the best way to keep dimentia and alzheimers at bay, is to learn something new-to stretch beyond our comfort zone. So I have decided to consider this blogging experience as my anti-alzheimer medication. I'm only 56, yet it's never too soon to work on keeping the mind young.

Relax and learn

Welcome to my blog. As a teacher I am constantly learning how to teach. Blogging is a new experience for me. I love to learn and find the Chautauqua Institute a fabulous summer experience. I have spent one week there each summer for the last 4 years. Check out their website at http://www.ciweb.org/. It is like nowhere else I have been. For insightful lectures by leaders in their field, along with concerts, ballet, bicycling and a walk along the flower laden streets of Victorian homes, Chautaqua is a great place to unwind and expand your horizens.