Partnership with the 21st Century Skills

Partnership for 21st Century Skills is a great resource for educators interested in preparing students for the 21st century.  It stresses the importance of combining the three R's with the four C's (critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creative thinking.  The website provides many resources and publications on how we can implement the change in educating for the 21st century.  I was pleased to see that Louisiana has formed a state initiative and is committed to 21st century standards.  The list of strategic council members is very impressive.  It includes Apple, Microsoft, Pearson, Adobe, and ETS to name a few.  One of the publications that I read was http://www.p21.org/documents/policymakersguide_final.pdf.  "We need to commit to a more important goal than rooting out underperformance.  We also need to determine whether every child is ready to contribute in a competitive, interconnected world.  We need to commit to 21st century readiness for every student."  This should be our goal as educators.

How will I use this blog? good question

I would like to get my students involved but I am not sure that is possible at this time.  I teach 2nd graders who still have a difficult time logging into the computer.  I plan on showing them this blog and others when we return to school next week.  If they seem interested, I want to include some input from them and show them how to post if they want to.  I will mostly use this blog to showcase the students’ work and what goes on in the classroom that the parents don't always hear about.  Parent asked, "What did you do today?"  Student answers, "Nothing." This is what many parents hear about the classroom activities.  I want to show them some of the great work being done by their children because many times the work doesn't make it home.  I think it may encourage some of my students to take more pride in their work if they know that good work will be displayed on the blog.  There are also a lot of great projects and activities that I would like the parents to know about so they can have a discussion with their children about what they have learned.  I will also include links to websites that the parents and students might find helpful.  

Once I get a real feel for this and a little experience, I would like to try blogging with other classes.  I see how this could eventually grow to be an awesome classroom experience.  I hope to get many ideas from fellow classmates too.  There are still so many things going on in my head.  Stay tuned to see what happens next.

I'm still here

Made it through the week.  It seemed so long at times.  Have spent many hours trying to work out this blog.  This is something I really enjoy doing but I am a perfectionist and it's not perfect yet.  There is so much I don't know but want to learn.  I have looked at so many blogs the last few days.  There are some great ones out there.  I have added a few to my list.  I invite you to check them out.

I had to start somewhere.

Ok, so I'm ready to try this.  It's been a really long day.  Only 3 days until winter break!  I think I can make it.