Partnering with 21st Century Skills

At first, I really liked what I saw. The site was bright, which gave me the impression that it was full of useful information and resources. Before reading anything, I wanted to just scroll through the site and see what jumped out at me. Unfortunately, not too much caught my eye. At first, I could not understand the point of the site. I did notice I could sign up for a newsletter, but is that it? I started reading a few of the posts and clicking on their links. A few of the articles I saw were pretty interesting, but nothing I could not find posted on a union board in a teacher's lounge.

Over all, I did not disagree with anything on the site. Whether viewers have different political views or opinions is one thing, but the articles were current and generally informative. They basically stated that technology is moving too fast for education to keep up. I think a lot of us already knew this. There was, however, some good links to some interesting blogs. I thought that was a nice touch for any educators trying to keep in the fast lane known as technology.

I did like what I read in the overview and their ideas about supporting classrooms with the new 21st century technology. Everything was there, like standards, professional development, and curriculum. You just needed to do some "clicking" around all the announcements to find it.

Now how does this affect my students? Well a lot of this can be focused on demographics. Not only the type of neighborhood that my students live in but their age group. I teach in an inner city elementary school where there is not a lot of money for technology in the first place. And according to the chancellor, high school has seniority to any tech distributions, followed by middle school and then elementary school. The further my students move, the more exposure the should see... I hope...

Critical Thinking, 24-7!

I teach in an inner city section of New York City and the funds in my school are tight. Although we do get some money that goes towards technology, there are over a thousand students in the school, so it is not easy to get the latest gadgets in every classroom. 

I am surprised, however, at the number of students who have computers and Internet access at home. They are constantly telling me about their myspace pages and what-have-you. Although I am pretty up-to-date with the latest technology, I never got into those social networking sites. My students are always trying to get me to join something to that effect. No way no how, can you do that. With blogs, on the other hand, it makes for a great critical thinking tool.

Here, we can discuss so many interesting topics, arguments, concerns, interests, etc. They can post what the feel or believe and do not have to be bashful or shy, since they are commenting via the Internet. And let’s face it, they get to go on the computer. It makes it all the more exciting for them. It is such a great way for them to constantly keep in touch and interact, and of course, critical thinking!

I know the parents are not very active in the community I teach in when it comes to their child’s education. I consistently have parents not checking homework, signing progress reports, or reading with their children. Now that they can respond to a blog, they can constantly remain active with class and have fun doing it at the same time.