The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has an informative website http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/ detailing the skills our students will need to develop to be successful in the future. Our education system can no longer be based on the agricultural or industrial ages, if we hope to prepare our students to live and work in the 21st century. I heard of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills at a meeting, but had not viewed the website until this week. Interestingly for me, the gifted education program I am a part of focuses on the skills described on this website. The semester progress report that we use to evaluate our students correlates closely, as our main areas for evaluation are critical and creative thinking skills, and independent and interactive learning skills. The students’ progress in these areas are indicated on a rubric and we consider growth over the two year period that our students attend our center.
The information on this website is presented in clear, understandable language and it is easy to navigate. There are numerous links to news stories and articles supporting and discussing the need for the 21st Century Skills. The link to Route 21 is my most favorite, http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/route21/ as there are links to excellent resources for activities and lessons to develop 21st century skills. I plan to explore these resources further, but already have identified an activity I plan to use to practice and encourage both collaboration and creative thinking. The lesson, “Solving Problems With Simple Machines” http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/2870 will also reinforce science concepts.
The more we, as educators can incorporate multi-disciplinary, hands on problem solving activities into our lessons that encourage collaboration, critical and creative thinking, the better we will prepare our students for the 21st Century.
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I am very interested in the program that you run at school. Are the students in traditional math, science, English, and SS classes or are the subjects taught in conjunction with one another? I think it is great to have schools that are already focusing on these main concepts. I think it is important that the students are tracked based on progress in these categories over a time frame. It is important to have a baseline understanding of the students’ skills before they are judged. Do the assessments that your program make of the students performance in these categories correlate to their overall grades or are the grades as additional assessment category? Is your State one of the ones that are listed on the website as working to incorporate these 21st century skills?
ReplyDeleteI guess it is important to note that while this website reflects a top down theory for implementation of these skills, there are many successful programs already working on teaching our students these skills around the country.
Thank you for your questions. My state is not one of the ones listed. My students come to my class one day a week for enrichment and extension. The other four days, they are in their regular education classroom. The progress reports I complete are in addition to their regular report card and only evaluate their learning skills demonstrated in my class, their gifted resource setting. I teach many of my students for a two year period, so I am looking for growth in these skills over that time period.
ReplyDeleteIn your gifted classroom, do you teach mulitple grade levels? How can you evaluate the progressof students when ou only see them for just one hour each week. That must be extremely difficult to assess. Do you assign additional homework/research projects that the student has to complete in addition to his other classwork?
ReplyDeleteI teach 4th and 5th grade students. I teach students from six elementary schools, so when they come to my class they spend most of their school day in our center setting. They don't have outside work as part of our program. Thanks for your questions.
ReplyDeleteWhile I do not teach elementary or middle school students, my wife does and what she tells me they are able to do with technology shocks me. The young kids will be so advanced in technology they will soon be teaching the teachers. I do agree however, that I role is to insure that they are going in the right direction and that is where we come in.
ReplyDeleteJohn
I have always been fascinated by the enrichment learning program know as gifted. What kind of technology do your student use when they are in your class? You must have the ability to implement some great learning environments with such a small class size and spending the majority of the day together. I am curious as to what types of assignments you assign your students to complete outside of the classroom. I would imagine the growth that you see is quite rewarding after spending the better part of two years together. Nice post and thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI also am intersted in the gifted program. I plant to get my gifted certification in the next couple of years. My son has been in the program since kindergarten, and has been able to really broaden his education because of it. I do have a few questions. Do you give grades for the program as a whole, or do you teach, for example, a gifted social studies class? Also, how do you integrate technology into your program?
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed exploring the Route 21 link. I plan to make time to explore it in more depth. I like the way it is laid out. It is easy to search.
It is exciting to see the progress my students make over the two year time period. Students use technology in their independent center work in many ways. These include watching streaming videos, using the internet for research, word processing to go through the writing process, creating PowerPoint presentations, using digital cameras,and using software programs relevant to their center topics. I'm planning to use podcasting as a culminating activity for our weather unit.
ReplyDeleteI would highly recommend pursuing gifted certification to anyone who is interested. I originally took my classes for certification while I was a 4th grade classroom teacher and the strategies I learned for differentiation changed the way I taught all of my students.
Thanks for the questions on grading. I don't evaluate my students using traditional letter grades. Instead, I indicate on a rubric their progress in specific areas under four main skills: critical thinking, creative thinking, independent learning, and interactive learning.
ReplyDeleteI do not assign any work outside of class although at times, just like in the regular classroom, my students get excited about a topic introduced in my class and choose to explore it further at home.
I am glad to see so many top companies investing in our student's futures in technology. This alone should prove how important the technology industry feels about the trend our nation is heading towards. I just hope these companies spread the funds to students everywhere and give every child hope for a brighter future.
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