Welcome to the 21st Century!

For part of an assignment in my Master's class at Walden University, Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society, I visited the Partnership for 21st Century Skills website. Otherwise known as P21. P21 was created to support and provide tools and resources to prepare students for life in the 21st century. After navigating the website, I find it to be quite resourceful and informational. As a teacher, I struggle everyday with finding time to teach my students the proper tools and skills that they will need to know about technology to be successful in their future.
The P21 website provides various online links with tools and resources for teachers. One of the best link I found was Video 21. This link has a variety of videos that show what 21 century education looks like in the classroom. The Science lesson I watched modeled critical thinking, problem solving, and technology skills by the students. This is a great resource for teachers who are striving to bring these critical skills into their lessons, but aren't quite sure how.

The website states, "P21 Leadership States design new standards, assessments, and professional development programs that prepare students with the 21st century skills they need to be successful in school, work, and life. I was suprised to see that only 14 states are part of this state initiative. Preparing our students for the 21st century is something that should be done across the board, not just in 14 of our 50 states. I teach in Georgia and it is not one of the states. This is something I would like to research more and find out what initiatives my state is actually taking to prepare our students. In the meantime, I can definitely use this website as a resource in my own classroom.

website: http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/

Blogging in the Classroom

I am very new to blogging and still learning the ins and outs of the whole process. I am always thinking of ways that I can incorporate what I am learning through my master's class into my own classroom. I am currently teaching second grade and I am fortunate enough to be at a school with wonderful technology and I teach students that have access to computers at home. This week I was going through the units I wanted to teach for the next nine weeks. Every year we do a big unit on Charlotte's Web. Part of the unit requires the students to keep a discussion journal. Each night they read a chapter of the book and write their thoughts in the journal and share with the class the next day. I realized that this would be a perfect time to bring blogging into my classroom! I could like to set up a Charlotte's Web blog for my class. Instead of having students write in a journal each night, they can blog. Then, each day in class I can pull up the blog on the SMARTboard and we can discuss each other's thoughts and opinions about the book from the blog. I think that this would keep the students interested and it would be a great introduction to blogging. I can't wait to start!

Teaching with Technology

And so the journey begins...

I just recently began my graduate degree at Walden University. I am specializing in Integrating Technology in the Classroom. I have been a classroom teacher for 7 years, and with each year I have taught, more and more new technology has come about in the education world. I decided that this degree would be the perfect way to learn how to effectively integrate technology into my everyday teaching. I am excited to begin this journey and look forward to sharing my thoughts and ideas with each of you!