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For an assignment in my online class, we visited the Partnership for 21st Century Skills website. There are many changes taking place around us in the world today due to technology. Because of technology, certain job opportunities are changing, and with that different skills are needed to become successful. The Partnership for 21st Century recognizes that many schools are far from teaching these 21st century skills, so their goal is to promote the education of these skills in classrooms across America.
Today, I looked through the different pages and information on the Partnership for 21st Century Skills website and found it to be well organized and easy to navigate through. I enjoyed looking through their tools and resources page, especially where they had videos posted with different ideas for integrating the 21st century skills into the classroom.
I was somewhat surprised that more states have not partnered with the organization. However, I had never visited this website until today. According to the website, there was actually a conference promoting P21 in my state a couple weeks ago, and I was not even aware that is was going on. They have a great deal of support from big name companies, so I found that to be encouraging.
Reading through the site once again reminded me of the importance to teach critical thinking, communication, and creative skills to our students. It is imperative that they learn how use these skills so that they can be successful in an ever-changing world. I need to remain up to date on integrating technology in my classroom. It will be good to use this website as a reference for my students’ education.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Blogging in the Classroom
Reflecting on how to use a blog in the classroom has brought several ideas to mind. In
Alan November's book, Web Literacy for Educators, he discusses ideas to effectively use blogs in the classroom. One idea is to "build a body of knowledge" (November 2008). I love this idea, especially for 6th graders. My students are extremly social and creating an opportunity for them to communicate, share, and acknolwedge one another's work would be a great project for them to participate in.
We are currently studying Rome in history, so creating a weblog on the many aspects of Ancient Rome would be a great idea. If I assign students a partner, they could then create a posting about their particular topic relating to Ancient Rome. They would have to include links, pictures, and summaries of the information they found. Then, the next part of the assignment would be for them to comment on other's postings and ask questions to further the exploration of knowledge.
Not only would they learn research skills, they would continue to improve their skills of cooperative learning by working with a partner. They would learn how to appropriately respond to their classmates and also ask questions to further the learning process. When students read their classmates postings, they have the opportunity to encourage their peers in their research. At the end of the project, we would have a website containing all sorts of information on Ancient Rome. Students could then reflect back on our unit of study and they could visually see all the work they accomplished.
November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Alan November's book, Web Literacy for Educators, he discusses ideas to effectively use blogs in the classroom. One idea is to "build a body of knowledge" (November 2008). I love this idea, especially for 6th graders. My students are extremly social and creating an opportunity for them to communicate, share, and acknolwedge one another's work would be a great project for them to participate in.
We are currently studying Rome in history, so creating a weblog on the many aspects of Ancient Rome would be a great idea. If I assign students a partner, they could then create a posting about their particular topic relating to Ancient Rome. They would have to include links, pictures, and summaries of the information they found. Then, the next part of the assignment would be for them to comment on other's postings and ask questions to further the exploration of knowledge.
Not only would they learn research skills, they would continue to improve their skills of cooperative learning by working with a partner. They would learn how to appropriately respond to their classmates and also ask questions to further the learning process. When students read their classmates postings, they have the opportunity to encourage their peers in their research. At the end of the project, we would have a website containing all sorts of information on Ancient Rome. Students could then reflect back on our unit of study and they could visually see all the work they accomplished.
November, A. (2008). Web literacy for educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
My Very First Blog
Welcome to my new blog page! I titled my blog, "Learning As I Go," because I am always learning new things in my classroom. Sometimes I learn things NOT to do, while other times I learn things that work really well! I want this blog to be about the things that can make my classroom a place where learning is fun and students can become successful.
I am currently working on my Masters degree in Education, specifically Integrating Technology in the Classroom. I am learning new ways to use technology in the classroom to accomplish things that could not be accomplished before the new technology. I am learning that any time I try to incorporate technology in my lessons, the students are excited and ready to learn. They are surrounded by technology in their lives, so naturally when we bring it into the classroom, they are willing to participate and see if they like it.
I just recently had a new smart board installed in my classroom; it is called a Promethean Board. I only have it for a 60 day trial, so I am trying to learn all I can about it in a short amount of time. My students and I are having fun using it. Last Thursday I introduced our new unit on the Roman Empire, and I used the interactive board in my lesson. We were able to use interactive maps to explore the geography of Italy and visit websites that gave us "tours" of some of the ancient ruins in Rome. The lesson was great because it allowed the students to learn visually and allowed for them to understand on a better level the area of the world we are about to study.
Well, that is all for my first post. If you have any experience using a smart board, or know great ideas for teaching with one, leave me a comment and let me know!
I am currently working on my Masters degree in Education, specifically Integrating Technology in the Classroom. I am learning new ways to use technology in the classroom to accomplish things that could not be accomplished before the new technology. I am learning that any time I try to incorporate technology in my lessons, the students are excited and ready to learn. They are surrounded by technology in their lives, so naturally when we bring it into the classroom, they are willing to participate and see if they like it.
I just recently had a new smart board installed in my classroom; it is called a Promethean Board. I only have it for a 60 day trial, so I am trying to learn all I can about it in a short amount of time. My students and I are having fun using it. Last Thursday I introduced our new unit on the Roman Empire, and I used the interactive board in my lesson. We were able to use interactive maps to explore the geography of Italy and visit websites that gave us "tours" of some of the ancient ruins in Rome. The lesson was great because it allowed the students to learn visually and allowed for them to understand on a better level the area of the world we are about to study.
Well, that is all for my first post. If you have any experience using a smart board, or know great ideas for teaching with one, leave me a comment and let me know!
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