21st Century Skills: Yeh or Neh

As I started reading the article "Learning for the 21st Century," I found some good insight of how the educational system wants to start directing students of the future. Mainly what this article was about, was how students have gathered the core information, like your Math, Science, English Literacy, and History and then need to ask how can we use those skills to think at problems critically with self-direction and be able to communicate their ideas and answers to other groups. This article does a great job structuring what 21st Century Skills really are.

In the information world that we live in today it is hard not to even walk down the street and see a half a dozen people with cell phones in their ears. People want their information now and they want the fastest applications, the newest gizmo's and a way to be connected to them 24/7. It has already come and the new generation of students need to be able to adapt to the new digital world. There is no bout in my mind that these skills need to be implemented into our school systems, but this could take a very long time to implement into schools that are in poor communities that cannot afford new technologies for everyone. It seems that this article is very realistic and actually 21st Century Skills are installed in my District, but students will not learn these skills without teachers that have prior knowledge to the technologies used today.

I believe that we need to implement these skills not only for grades K-12, but at the collegiate level of learners also. It should be required for college students that are majoring in education to take a class on 21st Century Skills and how to implement them into the classroom. If students were to integrate these skills they would have a better chance of adapting to the real world when that time comes. "Today's education system faces irrelevance unless we bridge the gap between how student's live and how they learn."

Using Blog's to Discuss a Hot Topic

When I started to think of Blogging and how to use it in my classroom, my mind was blank. Then I realized in my Design and Drawing for Productions course most of the time a current event topic arises leaves time for questions and a discussion as a whole. Like for example, What would happen if photovoltaic cells ( a fancy word for solar panels) could produce more energy from the sun rays than the current ones used today? What would happen to society? Would it be the next revolution? Where would you see them? Questions that are always left up for discussion and I think it would be a great blog for a group of students to post and discuss on the Internet instead of circling the desks and having me talk and ask questions until I am blue in the face. Maybe blogging could expand students way of thinking on these certain topics. It seems to me this generation are more apt able to see what is on their mind through texting and typing then in front of a classroom.

New Blogger

I am very new at this and I just wanted to get a post under my belt. I am a Technology Teacher from Western New York, and have been teaching for 2 years now. I work in a wood/metal shop and teach high school students how to produce hands-on projects throughout the semester. I coach three sports and work construction throughout the summer. I like to keep busy but sometimes I tend to overwhelm myself with so much that is going on.