Saturday, January 31, 2009

21st Century skills important to flourish

I found myself lost in http://www.21stcenturyskill.org/ , not because I couldn't navigate the site, but to the contrary, I was engaged by each article I read and wanted to see where each link would take me. For some reason I was surprised to see a link to an article from The Christian Science Monitor. When I clicked on this link, I found myself agreeing out loud as I read. "In a knowledge economy, the ability to articulate and solve problems, to generate original ideas, and to work collaboratively across cultural boundaries is growing exponentially in importance." Yep. Of course this is the premise that each of the 10 states that have States Initiatives posted have also bought into. Why isn't Ohio one of these states? Is the governor the reason we are holding back, or is this really because our Department of Education in Ohio is not quite to this realization? From all that I have read about President Obama, I believe all states will start to feel the push from Washington to get on board. Yes, It is going to take money and time, but these 10 states are paving the way. I find this to be exciting to me, my students and my future in teaching. I want to see us forge ahead at the speed of light. Being a project facilitator fits the style of teaching I have become accustom to. I want my students to want to ask why and what if and leave rote memorization for the history books.
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2 comments:

  1. CathhgyFebruary 1, 2009 at 7:17 AM

    For my students, I think working across cultural boundaries is one of the biggest challenges. I teach in the most rural school in our district in which the student body is very homogeneous. Many of my students are very opposed to varying life styles, religions or cultures. Of course, that's all the more reason to get them interacting with other students across the world. As a more liberal thinking teacher, I have to carefully present new ideas in a way that fosters tolerance without offending personal beliefs. Use of technology offers this in a safe way.

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  2. Carla LimingFebruary 1, 2009 at 6:15 PM

    As a language teacher in a rural community many times I have to confron the fears of the unknown before I am able to get my students excited about learning a new language. Many times I hear the question: "Why can't everyone learn English?" It is not only language barriers that our students are going to have to learn about though. I agree that cultural boundaries are a major challenge facing our students. This site mentions the need to croos the cultural boundaries but when I tried to find lessons and helps for this, many of the videos and lessons that came up were confusing. I wish the site would offer more information on their helps other than simply the title. Exposing the students to cross-cultural situations would help pave the way for them in the 21st century workplace.

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