Evaluating 21st Century Skills

After looking over the web site Partnership for 21st Century Skills I thought that is was a very informative web site I thought that there mission was right on with what is needed in the 21st century in regards to the education of students today. The mission was “Serve as a catalyst to position 21st century skills at the center of US K-12 education by building collaborative partnerships among education, business, community and government leaders”. In order for students to be successful in the workforce they need the knowledge and skills for the 21st century. If not then when they get into the work force they will not be ready for the highly competitive work force, and if the students in our society are not ready then there will be students from around the world that will take their jobs. That is why it is my job to prepare the students to the best of my ability.
The thing that surprised me about the site was all the partnerships. The big one that surprised me was that the U.S. Department of Education was on the site as a partner. Also Apple, AOL, and Dell to name a couple off the list. That was just a little shocking to see that is not what I thought that I would see as partners. I thought that there might have been some no name companies as partners. But to see that the U.S. Department of Education was a partner was just shocking.
The implementations that are set forth are that as educators we need to make sure that the students have a much higher understanding of the core subjects, so that we can interweave 21st century themes and technology. An area that I would like to focus on is communication and collaboration. The website states that if students are able to articulate their thoughts and ideas that will help with their speaking and writing. I believe that whole heartedly. The better speakers that students are the better communicators they become which then leads into the better that they are able to work collaboratively. Communication is a huge part of society today. If you are not a good communicator and you cannot articulate your words then it is seen as a sign of not being educated. So as an educator I think that is a important quality and even if I personally do not have the technology and some students don’t have it either. If they are able to communicate and collaborate that will get them farther than if they are not capable of those traits

Blogging in Math

One way that I think that a blog would work in my classroom would be to use it as a question and answer session. There are a lot of students in my classes that I teach that I think are afraid to ask questions or they may get home and they might not know how to do something. I think that the blog would work great as a way for the students to ask each other questions for example on an upcoming test or quiz. The blog could be another way that I could communicate with the parents of students. As a seventh grader I think that they are old enough to be able to blog and take it seriously. Blogging is a new concept that I think will take off in the next couple of years with the advancement technology. So if I am able to teach them how to do it properly while they are in seventh grade I think that it will follow hem for the rest of their life in to college and the corporate world. Having a place where students would be able to go and possibly get notes from class when they miss or a possible podcast of a lesson would be a great resource for the students. Does anyone have a good idea of a way that a blog could be implemented into a seventh grade math class? Has anyone ever had difficulty getting approval from their school district for setting up a blog?

About me...

Hello, my name is Desiree and I am new to this whole blogging thing. I hope that through the class that I am taking at Walden University that I will be able to better be acquainted with this technology and that I will be able to implement it into my classroom. This is my third year teaching math in a middle school that is all seventh graders.