21st Century Girl

This week, I've been asked to address the following questions about the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.

Your reaction to the Web site:

I think this website is a great initiative to get students and teachers all on board for the kids learning skills that are necessary for the 21st century workplace. I have often wondered how many of the skills we currently teach are preparing these kids for their future. Honestly, most of the social skills they learn in school will help them the most.

What information on the site surprised you?

I was actually (not that) surprised to see that Tennessee was not on the list of states that support this initiative. It's sad that we have to be the last ones to grasp on to almost everything dealing with education. For once, I'd like us to be the front-runners.

Did you disagree with anything on the site? Explain.

No way! I think it's a great idea and there were many helpful and informational articles on the site. It is also nice to see so many businesses who are partnered with this organization. Since many of our children will be working for these businesses in the future, it's good to see them taking an advanced step in the right direction.

What are the implications for your students, and for you as a contemporary educator?

By having this organization out there, the implications for the students are amazing! I wish we would adopt more of an initiative to teach these skills in our school. As one teacher, I can only do so much for the students in my classroom, but I know if all the teachers at my school got on board to teach these skills such as navigation, basic typing skills, and how to differentiate between websites that are helpful and those that are full of hogwash, our students would be more prepared to emerge themselves into future technology based assignments.

Blog Schmog

I have begun a new course in my Graduate class and here are the questions I've been asked to ponder this week:

What purpose would the blog serve? Is it a place for students to interact about content? Is it a showcase for their work? How does using a blog enhance the lesson? Include your grade level, content area, and your rationale as to why a blog is a good tool for the instructional context.

I have already set up a classroom blog and hope to use it in the coming year. It's my plan to have to students communicate with each other not only about curriculum topics, but everyday topics as well. I want this to be a place where they can build an online community and feel safe responding to each others opinions.

I think the blog will enhance lessons by getting the students to think more critically about topics. It is also able to be used in different ways, so the students will be differentiating their own instruction. We have a time during the day called, "Double Dose." During this time, I think I will allow the students to work on their blogging comments and responses. I would like to teach them various ways to respond other than by writing, but I want to get that skill down first!

As a 4th grade teacher, I will be taking on quite a bit of extra work, but I think the kids will pick it up easily. Since I teach all subjects, I look forward to incorporating each into a weekly/daily question. I think having a class blog will be a great instructional tool that will be fun for the students and keep them interested in our class and each other!

Finally...

The final CREDE standard, Emphasizing dialogue over lecture, is probably one of the hardest things for teachers to do. It is natural as an educator to want to lecture, but as we've all experienced going throughout our educational careers, we get BORED and begin to daydream. In the end, do we even remember what the lecture was about? NO!

Gosh, I hope I'm not one of those teachers! I don't think I am - I try to turn my lessons into more of a student-lead discussion than teacher-lead. Teachers should be facilitators. My students are usually in small groups, which goes hand-in-hand with strategy number 15: Partner Work (pg. 88). While students are engaged in partner work, they are more or less forced to create a dialogue in the learning process. This is an excellent way for me to be able to drift from group to group and eavesdrop on the many conversations. It is also an opportunity for me to steer the conversation in the direction I want them to go. Students have proven to learn more when they teach each other than they do by listening to a boring ol' lecture, (BUELLER....BUELLER) so by working in small groups/partners, dialogue is emphasized over lecture! Voila!

Back Off Jerry Springer!

In order to accomplish the 4th CREDE standard - Engaging students with challenging lessons - I think that strategy number 34 would work well. This is called the Talk Show (pg. 198). While I have not personally used this method in my classroom, I can only imagine how much fun it could be. On page 199, several ideas are given about how to use this suggestion. The ones I would probably use the most would be interviewing characters in books, historical characters and people in the news. I have very often suggested that my students make a list of interview questions for characters before, but I've always had them answer as the character themselves. I can't help but think how funny and fun this activity would be while the kids were working on setting up their very own "Jerry Springer Show" - except for the whole nudity, cursing, and fighting thing - pretty sure I'd get fired for that! Anyway, this would be a super way for the kids to apply some higher order skills as they analyze all aspects of putting the show together. This would also be a great way to incorporate other curriculum areas such as math for building the set and technology for learning how to record and present the program. I am definitely getting excited just thinking about it! I'm all over this idea for the upcoming year!!!!

I Heart Rap Music!

This is probably one of my favorite things to do! The third CREDE standard is connecting school to students' lives. I feel like I do this pretty well. I also feel like the younger you are, the better you relate to the kids. However, I realize they are not getting any younger and neither am I! So, I have to take some time to actually get to know the students and find out what their interests are. I also connect to the students by using manipulatives, which is represented in the 14th strategy (pg. 84). I have used Hershey bars for fractions, M&Ms for graphing, and even current popular music to teach pronouns. Of course students are going to pay more attention to lessons where I use things they like than they would a lesson out of a text book. It is also helpful to know what the kids like such as video games, music, TV shows, or actors/actresses so that I can use them to my advantage in discussions. I can't tell you how many times I have talked about Hanna Montana to my 4th graders and tried to relate the character to a math problem or a reading concept. While this example is not necessarily considered a manipulative, it is a great way to get them thinking about something they already know and apply it to something they don't.

A Little of This, A Little of That...

For standard 2, Developing literacy and language skills across the curriculum, I will discuss strategy number 8, Supporting Student Use of Language (pg. 50). This is where I believe a word wall would come in handy. If the students are immersed in new words and are able to see them and use them on a consistent basis, they are more likely to recognize and use them in the future, whether in verbal or written usage.

It is also important to remember to model and repeat (echo) what you want your students to accomplish. If my class is doing a group project, I can't expect them to know exactly what to do if I don't show them what their project is supposed to look like. I also like to give short and sweet directions and have the students repeat them to me - especially after I have gone through all the motions. That way, all the students are held accountable for knowing what I expect. I usually also post the steps on my projector, so if they forget a step in the process they can refer back to it. Hopefully, this is a good way for me to support the students use of language. I also like to write the main vocabulary words on the projector and ask the students to refer to them throughout the lesson. I think this is a good way to reinforce new language.

Give me some CREDE-T!

So this week, I have to look at the five CREDE standards and connect them to some of the 50 Strategies for Teaching ELL students. I will first list the five standards and then try to address one each day. Here are the five:
1- Teachers and students working together
2- Developing literacy and language skills across the curriculum
3- Connecting school to students' lives
4- Engaging students with challenging lessons
5-Emphasizing dialogue over lecture

For standard 1, I feel this can be addressed with Guided Reading (pg. 222) because the teacher and the student must work together in order to effectively engage each person in the lesson. In my classroom, I use small guided reading groups weekly because our reading series is designed to create small groups with teacher and student led interactive lessons. It is important for the students to feel they have just as much of a right to discuss as the teacher does. In fact, it is popularly felt that students should be discussion MUCH more than the teacher. This leads to higher order thinking and learning. It is still important that the teacher be there to facilitate and guide the students in the right direction.

I prefer to use small groups in almost all my lessons, but especially reading and math. I find I have more individualized time with the students for them to ask questions and get direct answers. Plus, it gives me a better understanding of where each student stands academically.

Until next time...