Application # 4

    I was initially overwhelmed at all of the information on the 21st Century Skills website. As if teachers do not have enough to think about when planning a lesson, now they have to make sure they are incorporating these skills as well. 

    Luckily, I have had the privilege of mentoring two teacher interns that both followed this framework for their college portfolios so we always incorporated one of these skills in their lesson planning. It has also been comforting to see as we make the cross over to the Common Core Standards, how many of these skills show up in the Common Core.

    One of the biggest pieces of information that helped me develop a new understanding of issues surrounding the skills were the skills maps for each subject. The Partnership for 21st Century website has a skill map for each subject as well as what each of the skills would look like at various grade levels. So, for instance, in the Science skill map, it shows how Creativity and Innovation can be used in a 4th, 8th and 12th grade classroom. Dr. Thornburg explains that students can learn from one another through collaboration during their discovery time while Dr. Dede says that in order for teachers to create a more collaborative environment, we must first change our pedagogy and instruction, while also changing our form of assessment (Laureate, 2010). 

     In the article "Virtual Schools and 21st Century Skills" found on the Partnership for 21st Century website, I agree with their statement that U.S. innovation is falling behind. We are finding that we are being outsourced more and more by innovators around that world that rival Americans and employers are alarmed at having to fill jobs with with people who don't display the necessary skills to complete a job (NACOL, 2006).  

    We as educators have our work cut out for us. On top of ensuring our students have the necessary academic skills to proceed to the next grade level, we must also ensure that they have the necessary technological, communication, and innovative skills needed to participate as a valued member of our ever changing society. 

Resources:

Laureate Education, Inc. (2010). Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). Virtual schools and  21st century skills. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/VSand21stCenturySkillsFINALPaper.pdf

Application #2

      Being in a kindergarten classroom, I would use the blog to review letter concepts. Every day our students learn  how to write a new letter both in its capital letter form and its lowercase letter form. Every day I will video a student writing the days letter as well as some links students can go so they can print out more practice sheets. Students can also leave their own comments with the assistance of their parents or through video of them practicing writing the day's letter as well. 

      As a visual learner myself, I would find a blog showcasing how to correctly write a letter very useful as well as engaging for both students and parents. 

Testing. Testing. 1, 2, Let's Get Blogging!

   

     Today I embark on a blogging journey thanks to my current Walden University course: Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work & Society. I will be using this blog to reflect, respond, share and collaborate with classmates throughout this course. But first, a little background on how I got to this point:

    Where to start? I am a Hoosier to it's truest form, having been born in Indiana. When I was 11, our family moved to Puerto Rico because of a promotion in my father's job. We lived there for 5 years and in that time I learned to speak Spanish almost fluently. When I was a junior in high school, we moved again, this time to New York. There I completed high school and then headed to the University of Vermont to pursue an education in elementary education. Straight out of college I got a job teaching in a little town in North Carolina. I loved teaching 1st grade for two years, but my heart was pulling me to Wilmington, North Carolina where I reconnected with a classmate from high school, who has been my husband the past three years. 

    While in Wilmington, I taught for 4 more years in various grades- 2nd, 3rd, 5th and then back to 3rd while majorly focusing on the use of technology in the classroom. After the 2010-2011 school year, my husband accepted a job offer to work with the Coast Guard in Virginia. For the past year, I have focused on being a stay at home mom after our son was born in November. It has had its challenges and has helped me realize that I really miss working in the classroom. As much fun as it has been being a stay at home mom, I made the decision to go back to work. 

     On the 10th, I will be heading back to work as a kindergarten teaching assistant. A huge change from being a full time classroom teacher. Eventually I would like to go back to being a classroom teacher, but for now, I get the benefits of being in the classroom, while still getting plenty of daylight time to enjoy my son without bringing work home with me and getting my Masters on top of that. Who wouldn't want that?

    I am excited about learning how to incorporate blogging into the classroom and sharing ideas with classmates. Hopefully I can run some ideas by the classroom teacher I will be working with and incorporate those ideas into creating a kindergarten friendly blogging experience.