Partnership for 21st Century skills

Browsing the p21 web site, the first thing I noticed was the list of corporate sponsors. Are these companies looking for potential market shares that come with the integration of more technology in the hands of students? Or are they genuinely concerned with training the next generation of future employees? Both?

"55 percent (of employers) say schools are deficient in preparing students with basic employability skills (such as attendance, timeliness and work ethic)" Who is responsible for teaching young people these skills? Is the school system really to blame? I think parents have, or should have, much more influence over these factors than the school. So is it the school not preparing students for the workplace, or the parents not preparing their children to be productive members of society?

I think that concepts presented on this website are definitely geared toward redefining public education to better fit the needs of the future. I wish I had the opportunity to try out some of the concepts in my own classroom, but I don't have a classroom. At this point, all I can do is sit and watch what the tenured teachers are doing and wonder how it fits into this initiative, or if it even does at all.

For Josh: I have not been ignoring your comment, I just got busy and a little behind on work this week but I think I am getting back on track now. To fill the rest of you in: For our week two discussion topic, I made a statement about our responsibility as educators being to teach students to be wise consumers. Technology is great, but it can be expensive and maybe having the newest fastest gadget is not more important than paying the bills. So then Josh and I made some comments back and forth. I proposed that I could live without my cellphone, and dared Josh to convince me that cellphones are completely necessary (especially for adolescents). Josh then asked me if I use my phone to listen to podcasts. Well, the answer is no. Although I admit that I should. A couple years ago my college professors suggested that it would be a good way to practice my Spanish listening skills. I did look into podcasts back then, although it was a while ago. I remember that I was intimidated by the "subscribe" button. I wanted to download just one podcast to see if I liked it. I was afraid I would become forever subscribed to podcasts that I no longer cared to receive. Then at that time I was still using dial-up. It would have taken a day and a half to download one podcast. Yes, I live in a very rural area and even in NY, USA, there are still places without access to broadband or cable internet. I currently have sattelite internet, which is a small step up from dial-up but a long way from cable or broadband.

My blog is blocked because it has been flagged as possible SPAM? or a terms of use violation? I only created this thing because it was part of a class assignment and now I am under cyber arrest? Really?

In our course video for this week, “Blogging in the Classroom”, Cathy Martin explained how she used a blog as a forum in which students used critical thinking skills to respond to hypothetical historical situations. I really like that idea and would use a Blog in my own class to present a similar scenario. In my high school Spanish courses, I could ask students to put themselves in the place of various oppressed peoples throughout the history of Latin America or Spain and encourage a discussion that would cause them to view history from a perspective other than that which is written in the text books. These are fascinating topics that are aligned with the LOTE “Cultural Understanding” Standards which never seem to get enough attention throughout the school year because the real focus is generally on language acquisition. Maybe, if we were lucky enough, a person with firsthand knowledge of the topic we are discussing might find our blog, join in our conversation, and share their experiences. That would certainly expose my classroom of little cultural diversity to multiculturalism in a very real way. References Laureate Education (Producer). (2010). Blogging in the Classroom [Course Media].

Mission complete. If you look to the right you will notice that I accomplished both of my objectives for today. I feel like a technology wizard! Seriously, I'm glad the techno geeks that design this stuff make it so easy.

RSS. Part of the assignment for this blog was to enable a link to activate RSS feed. Well, I have not yet found how or where to do that. But there is a link at the bottom of this page that says "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)" Is that the RSS feed link? The first classmate I have traded blog comments with is Lisa. I can click on her name and go to her profile, but I would like to find an easy way to link to her blog. Wouldn't it be neat to have a link to her blog right on my blog page. Sounds like homework...

Background: I am a non-traditional student who recently obtained a NYS initial teaching certification for adolescent Spanish. I chose teaching for my second career because I enjoy my two sons and want to be involved in their lives. I chose Spanish as a major because in my previous career it became evident that the ability to communicate with Spanish speakers was a unique and worthwhile pursuit. I currently work as a substitute teacher in my small home-town district.

Purpose: I am currently enrolled in my fourth course, Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society, at Walden University in pursuit of a Master's degree in Integrating Technology in the Classroom. As part of my assignment for the first week, I am exploring Blogs and RSS.  I'm not sure that I have anything interesting or unique to contribute to the world of blogging, but I hope to gain some ideas about how blogs can be used in the classroom to help students gain 21st Century Skills.