21st Century Skills to Challenge Myself

I used the School Library Monthly compilation of generational information to find an article written by Don Tapscott. He discusses a need for a different mindset in the way universities present information. He encourages teachers to tailor the education to their students' individual learning styles, shifting from a broadcast style and adopting an interactive one. Tapscott (2012) states, “A $150 textbook is obsolete compared to the rich information available online, both inside and outside the classroom” (p. 37.) In a world of public school budget cuts, I can definitely apply this to my third grade classroom. Print books, especially class sets, are extremely expensive. However, instead of buying books for all my students to do research on the human skeleton, I can let them use the computer lab to do their research on the Internet. Because my students are eight and nine years old, I will need to do a lot of scaffolding of how to do research and maneuver the Internet safely. This is a life skill that they will always be able to use, though.  Also, print textbooks in content areas such as science and history quickly become outdated. When I was in middle school our history textbooks said that the Berlin wall was still standing. With all of our technology today we have news at our fingertips almost at the moment when it happens.

Also through School Library Monthly I found the website I am Generation Z. There was a posting here about kids under the age of 13 blogging. This site has tutorials on how to teach children to blog, Internet security, and many other topics. For several years I have wanted to start a blog with my students. This is another opportunity to teach life skills such as typing, Internet safety, citing sources, and real authentic purpose for writing. I could incorporate this directly into our unit about the 13 colonies. Students will have to write a blog as if they are colonists. They will be using good writing skills, adding historically accurate facts, and showing a deeper understanding of the content area. This is also an easy way to share their work with their parents, other students, and the community.

I found a video of a fantastic lecture given by Michael Wesch. He was addressing a large group of teachers about how to better engage their students. Students learn very differently today than they did some years ago. Society has trained them differently. All of kids’ TV shows and video games today cater to a very short attention span. Studies show that children cannot pay attention to direct instruction lessons for much longer than their age. So ten year olds can listen for ten minutes without a break. My challenge to myself is to incorporate more movement and technology in innovative ways into my lessons to better engage my students. In his lecture, Wesch (2008) asks “If students learn what they do, what do they learn sitting at a desk?” I would love to get my hands on some GPS units and teach coordinate graphing in math having the students on a scavenger hunt around the school. This is not just about memorization: it is all about application. Using GPS units is a life skill that shows my students how math applies to their lives, while getting them up and out of their seats and teaching them a new technology. 

I stumbled upon an article that asked if readers had “googled” themselves recently. Kathy Fredrick continued her article to say that we need to be aware of our online presence. Why should this be any different for our students? Many things fall under the umbrella of teaching our students to be safe online, but this is specifically monitoring and modeling how to be smart about what you post online. When you put some piece of data online, it is out there for the world to see, even after you take it down. As an educator, I am very aware of my cyber-footprint. I know that my students’ parents could google me at any time. It had never occurred to me to teach my students about this, and better yet, model it for them. I have a class website that I continually update for parents’ benefit. However, I would like to get my students on my website as well. I could post my example of a personal narrative that we are writing in school. Students could use this as they are writing their own personal narratives, and we could discuss how this formal and edited piece of writing is something that I do not mind having on the World Wide Web.

I have been doing a lot of research on flipped classrooms this year. There have been a lot of rumors floating around about flipped classrooms, and Aaron Sams, one of the founders of the concept, clears things up in an article I read. The premise of flipped classes is that students watch instructional videos for homework the night before. Then, when they come into school the next day they have the background information they need for the teacher to do more activities and practice with the concepts. This is not something I can implement by myself. However, I am in the process of talking to my administration about piloting it for my school. It would require admin and parent support. Lastly, Sams reminds us that teachers should always be re-evaluating what they are teaching and how effective it is. No teaching method or curricula should be followed blindly.

Bibliography

Fredrick, K. (2012). Forging a positive cyber reputation: Who are you? School Library Monthly, 28(2). Retrieved from http://www.schoollibrarymonthly.com/articles/Fredrick2011-v28n2p24.html

Judy. (2011, January 3). Do your kids want to blog? Retrieved January 8, 2013, from I Am Generation Z website: http://www.iamgenz.com/2011/01/do-your-kids-want-to-blog/

mwesch. (2008, July 10). A portal to media literacy [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4yApagnr0s

Sams, A. (2011, November 11). The flipped class. Retrieved January 10, 2013, from The Daily Riff website: http://learni.st/learnings/

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Tapscott, D. (2012, December 3). Discovery learning is the new higher learning. The   Globe and Mail. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don tapscott/interactive-learning_b_2231594.html