Welcome to the 21st Century!

           I want to begin by stating that I applaud the Partnership for the 21^st Century Skills after viewing their informative website that models passion for teaching all students the 21^st century skills. For those reading who are not familiar with P21, it is an organization that uses the student’s best interest as a factor.  Their main goal is to provide a brighter future for children!

          This website drew me to the tools and resources that they provide. As an educator and life-long learner, I acknowledge that literacy is not simply being able to write and read on paper anymore.  Richardson (2010) discusses how we can now apply various literacies in different ways because of the information age.  I thought it was great how the website provides a lot of information that can help educate the teachers, as well as the community.  We as educators need to discover how we can help all students reach their 21^st century skills.

          On the P21 website, it explains in order for students to have successful futures they need to possess these 21st century skills.  It is my mission to help prepare all my students for what lies ahead.  I am concerned about who skills change for work forces.  As educators, I think we need to consider what skills are important to give our students.  What are your thoughts?

           A brief overview of their mission includes the 3 R’s and the 4 C’s, which involve communication, creativity, critical thinking and collaboration, emphasize core subjects, learn skills, the use the 21^st century tools, the content, context and the assessments to measure the skills.  With that said, I feel this pairs with my ideas.  Dr. David Thornburg discusses that there are new skills needed to thrive in the 21st century.  Students need to learn different literacies, be fluent in physical and the virtual environments and they need to be trained in technology, math, engineering and science (Laureate Education Inc., 2008).  The implication I am wondering is how we can make this reality?

Furthermore, I think that this website has a great framework to help prepare students to be successful.  I like how the core subjects align with the 21^st century skills.  Teachers need to work together in order to bring this change about.  The Common Core State Standards is a big concept in our district and there are sponsors involved.  With that in mind, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of sponsors that support this organization, and how they invest to align themselves with the students that they may hire in the future.  It is imperative that this information is presented to teachers through professional development.  As educators, it is a vital need to be prepared for all of our students.

                Finally, technology is intimidating and complex.   I feel resistance will always be present for some educators.  Not everyone will be on board.  With that in mind, I don’t think it is just unwillingness being a factor.  I believe some do not know where to begin, which those teachers can begin right at the P21 website!  I also feel that there are other individuals who cannot jump on board and get their feet wet with the new technology due to the possibility that the resources are lacking because of budget constraints.    We all will benefit from this!

              If you have not viewed this website please take the opportunity to do so by clicking on my hyperlink: P21! You will not regret the vast amount of useful information that it will prevail! I know I will be taking the advantage of using this website! Hope you do too!

References:

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd
         ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). Skills for the 21^st century. Baltimore, Maryland.
  
Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). A Framework for the 21st Century. Retrieved from www.p21.org.

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What in the World is a Wiki?

I like to think of a Wiki as "I Learn, You Learn, We Learn!"

This week we learned that a Wiki is a collaborative website that has collective work from many authors.  A Wiki allows anyone in the group to edit, delete or modify content that has been placed on the page, and a person can make changes to another group members work.  

A Wiki is different from a blog because a blog is usually an individual author who does not allow visitors to change the information posted, and visitors can only add comments.

Here is a couple things I found that I hope you find informational!

Helpful Tips About Wikis For Teachers

 

 

Here is a video on how  to embed videos into a Wiki Space! 

Concerned About Blogging For ALL Students in 3rd-5th Grade...

So for this weeks assignment, I kind of talked briefly about my thought about blogs and focused on Edmodo, but we were to focus on discussing using a blog in our classroom.  Being an Elementary teacher- teaching all students in 3rd-5th grade, I feel a blog could be useful if used as a reflection tool or maybe a place for students to display their work, for example, their stories they type in MS Word so other students can read what they created and share their thoughts and give some tips.

However, I mentioned in my previous post that what I am hesitant about is not being able to keep an eye on outside posts especially with this age group, and they are still learning about internet safety.  Do any of you have any tips/suggestions on using a blog site for my age group?  My students also do not have an email address.  With Edomo they can create a username and password.  I guess that is why I really like Edmodo because I can lock the groups I create and I can monitor posts between the students. I think blogs would be great for older students and would probably work out if I only had one class to monitor, but seeing I have 15 classes (each with about 36 students from 3rd-5th), I feel like I would not be able to monitor as closely as I would like. What are your thoughts?  I do think blogging would be beneficial for us teachers at my school.  I think it would be a great way to share thoughts or discuss what we learned from our professional development meetings.

What Do You Think Of EDMODO?!

I think Edmodo is a pretty awesome site. It is a free educational/professional social network that brings teachers/students/parents together.  It is a great resource to help students reach their full potential.  I can join different communities that spark my interest or join communities that tie into my curriculum, and I  can share and collobrate information with other teachers all over the world.

EDMODO lets me set up groups for my students and lock the groups for their safety.  I love that I can do this, which is a big difference compared to blogging.  Edmodo also provides the opportunity for students to contribute in collaborative discussions.  The discussion can include images, videos, and link.  A feature I would like Edmodo to add is the ability to reply to a specific comment like you can in blogs. It can be a bit time consuming having to write a reply to someone who wrote something 10 comments back. There is also an assignment and grade book section. I really don't have use for this yet because I do not give grades in my class but I love how it could be used as a class management system. My students last year really loved the file sharing, which is very easy with Edmodo.  I can also create polls and quizzes to check for understanding on the material that I taught.  There is also a Library/Backpack.  For teachers, it’s called Library and for students it is called the Backpack.  Either way, it offers an easy to use file uploading and storing system, which is handy when you do work at home or school and want to continue it at the other location.   There is also a motivation award system through badges.  Badges won't be everyone’s cup of tea.  Kids love earning the badges that are animated! You can create your own, but it’s a lot easier to just grab badges already created by other Edmodo teachers.  I’ve collected over a 100 of them from my connections.  It is a great way to encourage or acknowledge student efforts you can simply select their name in your class list, select a badge and award it to the students!!

Click Here to Try Edmodo!!!

What is your favorite educational quote?

THERE IS A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING....

...and this is officially my first time blogging!  I never thought that I would actually start a blog.  In the past I have always read other insightful, and creative blogs.  I never took the initiative to create my own.  For myself, I never really knew what to write, and was not very good at being creative.  I suppose a good way for me to start is by introducing myself.  My name is Julie (Wellington) Cooper, and I am currently working on Master's Degree at Walden University.  I am studying Childhood Education and specializing in Integrating Technology into the Classroom.  I can't wait to use everything I learn in my classroom! I grew up in a little county town in New York, and achieved my Bachelor's Degree from Oswego State.  I then moved out here to Maryland!  Now, I am a Technology Instructor for grades 3-5! I love my job and work with the most incredible kids and staff!  I love to read, watch movies and spend time with my husband and our spoiled rotten Boston Terrier!  One of my favorite things to do is when my husband, Mike takes me on a motorcycle ride and I get the chance to just take in the beautiful scenery that flies by us.  I think this blog will be a great way for me to reflect on how I integrate technology into my curriculum. I will continue to shake the writer's block and work on sharing topics that pertain to education! Feel free to share anything that you would like to discuss about education! Thanks for reading!