Partnership for 21st Century Skills

http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/

I was surprised that there was an actual organization promoting a different look to learning than mandated Virginia SOL's. I am glad that there is a focus on technology, and a direction that should lead us to provide students with real multi-dimensional skills for tomorrow's careers. It goes to show that even a teacher needs to be aware of public policy. I am teaching my students about public policy involvement and what it can do for our government. Change and developing some consistency could be good for educators, administration, and schools around the country.

I saw that Virginia was not on the list of 12 states supporting the organization and its' direction. This leaves me concerned with our school. We have no real standards that assess students and their learning with technology. We are to teach skills, but there is no assessment or blended assessment that goes with other core subjects. How do we keep up with other European countries like Finland? We struggle in science and show a decline in Engineering. Do we want to keep up with the Smith's and Jones'?

In the P21(Partnership for 21st Century), the organization has brought business communities, education leaders, and policy makers together to help with and ensure children's success as citizens and workers in the 21st Century. I see companies like Ford Motors and Cisco, along with all the major tech companies joining together for this important cause. I also see that the U.S. Department of Education and the NEA on the list of supporters. This is a good start, but will it lead to better direction in our country? I'd like to see our Nation create guidelines to have all states support this new wave in education. There are so many ideas and directions that educators are getting lost and confused. Who is right? Is it possible as a whole to start agreeing on the best approaches, and stick to some consistency across the board? If that means taking power away from state governments, then let's do it and get on board.

Right now, our school and VA for that matter, is not a supporter of this action plan. At my school the direction is Mastery and assessing often through quizzes and tests. We are to use technology, but it is really on the teacher right now. The other week, someone from the county came in to check how many teachers were using the Promethean boards. They took a brief snap-shot and left to report how many teachers were using technology at that time. While, we teach for Mastery in our school I do see some obstacles when trying to provide technology skills for our students. The issue is curriculum and time. Technology activities and problem solving take time. This also cuts down on collaboration and group work.

As a teacher, I have taken steps to blend some ideals from P21 that I've been learning form my graduate program. I have started using a blog page, to help students with creativity and problem solving. I am also adapting the site, learning.blogs.nytimes.com/ in my class. The site focuses on current events and issues going on in the world. It is great for adapting civic awareness and multi-user technology skills. It is vital we find ways for students to become civic literate. I am interested to see the direction of this organization as we move on toward