A Time for Reflection

    As I wrap up my latest grad course I am reflecting on what I have gained. 21st Century skills are so important to kids and I don't think I realized how important till taking this course. It is our job as educators to make sure we are preparing our children for their future. I think educators need to change and not make it so much about themselves but more about the children they teach.
    I personally have found myself looking at my own teaching practices and making changes. I have definitely brought more technology into my classroom. I have also looked for more opportunities for my students to use technology. It's so important! I think the course has helped to make me a better teacher, walking away with some more tools for the "tool belt."
    I have been challenged to go outside of my comfort zones which at times had frustration and discomfort. However, the end project made it more then worth it. I had to take the risk and that is definitely something I will be passing on to my students from now on.

We Need to Start the Education Revolution

     After taking my 21st Century Literacy grad course a lot of thoughts have been put into my head. I never really thought about how behind the times education really is. Yeah we go to little meetings and workshops to try and learn about the new math program or reading program. But can any of us honestly say it is going to get our kids where they need to be to be successful in life?
      I know that I had a lot of read, drill and test, test, test teachers in my educational career. I don't really think any of that helped me get to where I am. Did I learn something? Probably not as much as I could have. That in mind, I think it is time for a change. We as educators need to start thinking about how we can make our curriculum relevant to the times and children that we teach. We have to start embracing that big scary word.."technology." We need to teach children to take risks and communicate with each other and do it by example. Education needs to be more relevant to life.

Assessing the 21st Century Learner

    Okay, so they tell us we have to teach to these kids that are so technologically advanced. We need to make sure they have the 21st Century Literacy skills they need to survive in this world that we all live in. As a teacher you take a deep breath and plunge into the deep end. Well then comes along that old friend assessment and I know the first thought that came into my head was "How?"
   It gets really complicated, especially when a lot of us are teaching to curriculum's that don't necessarily make it easy to assess in a new way. I think teachers have to start getting really creative on their own. There are too many of us still willing not to change. We fear change like so many other things.
   Truth is, we have to change. We have to get away from the traditional pen and paper and figure out better ways to find out what kids really know that will allow them to be productive members of society. I know if I could streamline and bring into the 21st century my grading it would save me a weekend or two of grading with better assessments. It's important to be adaptable and if we are going to teach 21st century skills they need to be assessed in a 21st century way. It's time to step outside of the box and start figuring out how.

The Art of Blogging

Okay so this whole blogging thing is a little nerve racking! The pressure has been on to see what people have said about my posts. Always makes you wonder if your crazy with what you think or if there are people out there that think just like you do. I spread my wings a little further and decided to post on some other educational blogs. I gotta say I enjoyed reading the information but found it to be a little intimidating. The 2 sites I have below had some interesting points of view on 21st century literacy skills. Check them out.

http://21tl.blogspot.com/2009/03/where-beef.html

http://literaturecirclesintheclassroom.blogspot.com/2008/12/colorado-school-turns-homework-model.html

Why Today?!

Okay so I am all excited, I am going to bring more technology into my classroom. I had all these activities planned today for my Smart Board and it didn't want to play nice! Just my luck. Why can't they make technology more user friendly? I feel like teachers especially would use it more if some programs were not so complicated to use! There has to be some way to streamline. If I don't get it and I have to play with a program for an hour to get it to play nice, how is an 8 year old in my classroom going to react?

Lap Tops in the Classroom

So I decided recently that I was going to have my students use laptops more and more in the classroom. I have had them using the laptops to do some research on animals that they need to write a project about. I have to say, I was very impressed! The could use the laptops to build their projects as well. The projects that I have gotten back are amazing. I am so proud of my kids that really took a risk on doing something in a new way and they really had a lot of fun. I am definitely going to get a few more of these projects in before the end of the year.
    By the way check out these other blogs I have been following:
http://a-digital-diva.blogspot.com/

http://kindereagles.blogspot.com/2011/04/awaiting-what.html#comments

 http://a-day-inthelife-bigbswim.blogspot.com/2011/04/good-afternoon-all-happy-spring-break.html#comments