MODULE+4

=21st Century Skills=

Description: I believe the premise of this module was to focus our attention on the need to prepare our students for the 21st century by providing them opportunities to master 21st century skills. These skills include deeper understanding of real world issues, increased understanding in available technologies, increased competency in using those technologies, increased higher order thinking skills, etc. Within the textbook, it is stated that the technology leader should develop units and lessons that facilitate 21st century skills within the classroom, that the tech facilitator should aid the teachers in implementing these lessons within the classroom. Such lessons should focus on real world and environmental issues, utilize critical thinking skills through collaboration, and integrate technology in a manner that emphasizes these goals.

Impact: I believe this module reflected the changing face of education in today's public school system. Clearly, it is no longer enough to teach our students the 3 R's. Rather, students now need to know how to navigate the internet successfully, how to analyze and choose useful information from a vast sea of knowledge, how to work collectively as a group to complete a task, and how to think through real world problems and come up with solid solutions to those problems. In order for students to be prepared to the 21st century job market, teachers need to redesign how they teach core curriculum. Integration of technology should no longer be a luxury. Rather, integration of technology is a necessity if we want our students to not only be successful, but be able to compete in future job markets.

Intent: After reading this module I realized several things. First, I need to spend more time reading and learning about 21st century skills. This concept is new and I am not yet comfortably familiar with it. Secondly, I can see that I need to increase the amount of real world scenarios I use within my life science class. I began a unit a few months back that focused on energy conservation. I had wavered from this unit because, though I felt it was important, it did not align with our district curriculum map. However, I now see that my hunch was accurate--students need to be exposed to real world problems and be given opportunities to use higher order thinking skills and collaboration to come up with solutions to these issues. I remind my kids weekly that by the time their children are in middle school, there will no longer be polar bears in the wild. This is a reality that they need to face, and as future leaders, this is just one problem that they will have to solve. My job in the classroom will be to prepare them for their future by teaching them how to think and work together.

Strengths and Weaknesses: As I stated previously, I still need to spend some time reading through this module. I also need to implement, or rather, reinstate those real world lessons that emphasize 21st century skills within my classroom. One roadblock I perceive is the curriculum map for our district. I will need to spend some time evaluating these real world lessons so that I can be certain they are satisfying the standards for the district.