Partnership to 21st Century Skills

“The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has emerged as the leading advocacy organization focused on infusing 21st century skills into education. The organization brings together the business community, education leaders, and policymakers to define a powerful vision for 21st century education to ensure every child's success as citizens and workers in the 21st century. The Partnership encourages schools, districts and states to advocate for the infusion of 21st century skills into education and provides tools and resources to help facilitate and drive change.”
—Partnership for 21st Century Skills

When I first stumbled upon this site, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I had heard of the Partnership for 21st Century skills initiative, but had little additional knowledge. One reason why this is, is because the New York School systems have not embraced this framework into the state curriculum. However, after reading and exploring through the website, it has given me much more insight on the initiative and has sparked an interest in their mission. I thought the website itself was very well organized and easy to navigate. It seems like such a resourceful tool to help educators better develop more meaningful and useful classroom curriculum. Not only the content itself, but the ideas and thoughts behind how to teach life-skills and why. This site contains a plethora of knowledge that has obviously been quite a successful with educators throughout the nation. There are a number of links and sources to use in developing instruction and helpful feedback on reasons of use. I found it very difficult to disagree with much on this site, or with their mission itself. As a technology teacher, I am fully committed to preparing our students for the future, and using well-developed lessons to incorporate the technological skills and insight that will someday be very useful for our students. Although standardized testing and school curriculum have strong barriers and guidelines to follow, it is our job, as educators, to provide our students with the most knowledge on life-skills and real-world situations to better prepare them for their future careers. This "program" is a very vital resource that can help link students to possible career discissions and will help develop the necessary skills at a young age, rather than just obtaining content/subject material. The many links and online resources provided act as a wonderful reference for students to link with other students nation-wide and can help students link their educational strategies to that of their peers. With the ever-changing technological world, it's crucial for our students to learn not only what's written in their text books, but also to obtain knowledge and skills that will help to provide them for the future. Using this mission, along with the website, can help to create the ideal situation for students and develop them into successful individuals in society.

How to incorporate blogs in a classroom

It seems to me that using blogs in the classroom can be quite a wonderful resource for students. It is a great way to incorporate online-technological resources with course instruction. Students are able to interact both in and out of class while posting and responding along with their peers. It allows students to interact with one another outside of the "typical school setting". Using blogs will allow so much more learning because it is not restricted to the four walls of the classroom.

It can be a good resource for continued classroom discussion, assignment information, or even just casual, friendly interactions with classmates to make the learning experience much more inviting and open. It also may allow students to display/present projects or other student work to fellow classmates and teachers which will allow for instant feedback and a terrific form of student reflection.

As a 7-12 Technology teacher who teaches both middle school technology and high school electronics, it is evident that using blogs can truly help the overall performance of a class. It helps to create a stronger rapport with those students who are more timid and shy in class and have more confidence behind their input through the internet. Using blogs in the classroom will make for a much richer learning experience due to the fact that students are free to comment and post their ideas and opinions of course content and group discussions. It will also help to develop the necessary skills most students will someday face with the ever-growing and expanding technological world we live in today.

I can't believe it's already May, and my first year as a teacher is coming to an end. I hope that every year does not go as quickly as this one did! It seems as though it was just yesterday that I gave my introductory speech to my classes. As this year comes to a close, it seems like such a great time to reflect on everything (positive and negative) that I have done. We've covered a wide range of topics and completed a plethora of projects. When I look back at all my students and I have accomplished I can't help but to have a great feeling of success. Although there are many areas in my early teaching career that need improvements, I feel as though this is such a wonderful learning experience. It seems cliche, but I feel as though most everyday I am coming away with newly gained knowledge. Whether it be content specialized or even techniques and strategies to better provide for my students. I will never forget my first year as a teaching professional, and will certainly carry on everything that it has taught me!