After watching the C-Content Speakers, I felt very refreshed and motivated in teaching in the 21st century. All four speakers had a common theme, a paradigm shift in education, going away from the "old skool" thought and practices and into a "new skool" of thought. Where once this "new skool" of thought was banned or deemed too radical, is now the main thread of thought that can lead the United States educational system into the 21st century and beyond. For example, Daniel Pink describes in his presentation of more autonomy within the classroom to enhance creativity and critical thinking in our students to prepare them for the future. Just like what Sir Ken Robinson said, "We have to rethink the fundamental principles on which we’re educating our children."
So far, the C-Content Speakers all relate and support everything we have been reading, researching, and discussing in class about education today and where it needs to go. In the book, The Flat World, first gave us a glimpse of our current education status with a positive feeling of what it could be. Now after watching these videos, these highly educated speakers gives me even more hope that our education can change for the better and better prepare our students for the rigger of the future. As for applying Mobley's 6 insights to help my students think creatively, it inspired me to be young again. I remember when I was a young teacher I had all these great ideas, great lesson plans, and great projects. However, over the years I moved away from those ideas due to the many pressures in the classroom to try to bring up test scores. Pressures such as No Child Left Behind or Race to the Top concepts. However, due to this class, it rejuvenated my creative brain to start creating projects that showcases student creativity, student movement around the classroom, and more student autonomy. By doing this, students learn more from this creativity compared to the "old skool" way of learning from the book and constant standardized tests. I believe that to solve 21st century problems, we must solve them by using 21st century methods. To have our students be successful in the future, we as teachers must teach them for the future! In education we can not go back to the past, but just like Dr. Emmett Brown once said, we must go "BACK TO THE FUTURE!"
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As Darling-Hammond said for us as a nation to move into the 21st century we need the "equalizing access to critical educational resources, including a steady supply of well-prepared and well-supported teachers to all communities and a system in which ALL school models in the system support serous teaching and learning." (2013) If we do not adhere to this idea, our students will be left behind.
One key element Darling-Hammond to achieve this goal is having meaningful learning goals. This is a very important element that all schools must have. Meaningful learning goals is like having a game plan in sports or having objectives within a classroom, and without it there is just chaos. Yet it would seem our political leaders do not understand this basic concept and are constantly changing student's learning expectations with every new buzz word such as No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, or even Common Core. How can we compete or prepare our students for the 21st century if our leaders are constantly changing the expectations of learning? The simple answer is that we don't. Another key element that goes hand-and-hand with having meaningful learning goals are schools organized for student and teacher learning. This element would create 21st century schools that would "integrate new technologies for learning and create personalized structures for supporting students" (Darling-Hammond, 2013) If teachers were properly supported by their school sites and their administration, and if school sites were properly supported by their District Office, this would create a "supportive environment" that would increase student achievement. If this would happen, teachers could become more creative, more innovative, and think more outside of the box in the classroom to get our students more prepared for the 21st century and all its demands. However, instead we have local, state, and federal level leaders who promote otherwise. It would seem we have leaders who make policy for education based on their pocket book rather than what is best for our students. Teachers all across the country do not feel supported in what they do, but yet teachers still work hard for their students. "We are not 'JUST' teachers, we are managers of the world's greatest resource: CHILDREN!" (Robert John Meehan, 2015) If teachers get the support that they need in the classroom, then teaching our students on how to be successful in the 21st century can become more feasible and Darling-Hammond's idea can come to fruition. When I first read the article about the summary of Apple Classroom of Tomorrow (ACOT) made me wish that I was around as a teacher when the first started this program. It is incredible, even back then, that we had this idea of integrating technology into the classroom and leading the next generation into the 21st century. I don't know if ACOT still exists today, but I do there are other forms of teacher education on technology in the classroom such as Google Apps for Education (GAFE) which I have attended multiple times over the years and always feel inspired to bring new technology into my classroom.
After reading about ACOT and TPACK my feeling of excitement turned a bit into stress because I realized, even though I use technology almost everyday in my classroom, I am no where near where I should be in integrating technology in my lessons. Comparing what I do to the SAMR model of technology in education I would be mostly in the "enhancement" area where I need to strive to be more in the "transformation" area of technology in the classroom. What I can do in my classroom/school to engender 21st century teaching and learning is to strive to reach the higher levels of the SAMR model and create more lesson plans that promote the 4 C's of critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. Just like in my case study where I watched students fully engaged with their assignment while having a lot of fun doing it. Students in this case study I found were learning and reaching their goals / objectives while having fun using technology. It is like that quote from Heath Ledger where he says "I only do this because I'm having fun. The day I stop having fun, I'll just walk away." Those students in the case study didn't realize how much they are learning because they are having so much fun completing their assignments while using technology. I think that is what a lot of teachers tend to forget when they teach, make it fun for the students and they will comprehend more and work harder. |
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