Chapter 7- 21st Century skills

I loved the bicycle model that was used to explain 21st century project learning. I think that it will be a great visual to share with my teachers when I start discussing 21st century skills and how we really need to collaborate together to integrate them into projects that their students can work on. Some of the language used to describe 21st century project learning (Define, Plan, Do, Review) sounded really familiar (Big 6) which we use in the Green Bay district. I will admit that I was not the best at using the Big 6 process or language with my students and teachers, but I really like the bicycle model and think think that my teachers will understand the idea of project learning with that visual, so it will be one of my goals for next year when working with teachers on developing some projects to collaborate on.


I appreciate the importance of creativity, invention, and innovation when working with students. My master's is in creative arts in learning, and as a teacher I always focused on integrating the arts into my teaching methods. But I feel that there is such a disconnect between valuing creativity and innovation in students between elementary and high school. It seems that creativity is encouraged more in elementary school than in middle and high school. I know that we all focus on curriculum, it just seems that many high school teachers don't give their students the freedom think out of the box (I know I'm generalizing, but it comes from observations of my own 2 children in middle & high school). Is it lack of understanding (importance of creativity, how motivating giving students more say can be) on the teacher's part or just fear (students won't produce quality projects without explicit instructions, hard to grade creative projects, don't know how to be facilitator and coach, time constraints?) that prevents them from utilizing project learning in the higher grades?

I also noted another source to site that supports the importance of the Arts in education, specifically in the development of creativity. Yet sadly, the Arts are what is usually on the chopping block first. I'm almost afraid to see what the next 5 years brings to our schools with the continuing budget constraints getting tighter and tighter.

Reflections of 21st century learning, chapter 5

As I read chapter 5 in 21st century learning, I made a few notes of thoughts I had as I was reading. I looked at the Employee evaluation worksheet (table 5.1) and was struck by how concise it was, this was the first year that we had new evaluation rubrics in our district. And while I appreciated the fact that the librarians had their own evaluation rubric separate from the teachers (first time since I became a librarian), my principal mentioned how lengthy it was and how in encompassed "so much". Again, I appreciate the fact that my district acknowledges all the various aspects of my job, but I wish my eval wasn't 4 pages long! I also noticed how student evaluations really don't align with 21st century skills.

I appreciated when the ability to deal with criticism, setbacks, and failure was discussed in this chapter. It made me feel better about both my parenting and teaching, as I have always told both my children and my students that failing is not bad, but not taking the time to figure out why you failed and learn from that experience is what is bad. My son was having issues with being afraid to try new things in school because he didn't want to fail. This was holding him back until I told him that I see more value in failing than getting straight A's on assignments. Failing forces you to look at what you did and figure out what you did wrong (problem solve) and provides opportunity to learn from your mistakes. Getting an A on an assignment doesn't necessarily mean that you learned anything new. I think that as parents and teachers, we don't want to see our kids fail, yet when we don't allow them to experience that, we are depriving them of learning opportunities that will stick with them.

Finally, this chapter also discussed social and cross cultural interaction and mentioned that educators are taking more time to "build connected and respectful learning environments" and exploring methods for students to resolve conflicts. Does this really happen? I know that my district was pushing for all teachers to be "Tribes" trained and yet I see inconsistent application of the Tribes philosophy. I almost think we need to have 9 hour school days because there just isn't enough time to fit it all in and unfortunately, what I see being cut out of the day are some of the activities that kids need most (arts, community building, conflict resolution, ect).

Collaboration, creativity, and innovation, oh my!

I think for many teachers, collaboration, creativity, and innovation are just as scary as lions, tigers, and bears. I get so frustrated when my own children come home from school with assigned projects that are specifically outlined and there is no room for being creative or coming up with an idea that deviates from what the teacher expects. My son worked on various projects in 6th grade this year that were solid projects, but pretty much used the computer for researching information and word processing. There are so many web tools available, I just wish that some teachers would trust the process and trust that students do learn when they are allowed to think out of the box and be creative. Their resulting project may be what they expected, but may far exceed their expectations. Why are so many teachers unwilling to let go and give students permission to give input, modify, and innovate to show their learning in a different way? Unfortunately, if our students are not encouraged to be creative and innovate, they are going to be left behind in the 21st century.

Reflections of Chapter 2-21st century skills, learning for life in our times

As I read Chapter 2 I was struck by the five key findings from research in the science of learning that was indicated could be used to reshape learning for our times. Specifically, authentic learning, mental model building, internal motivation, multiple intelligences, and social learning. This reminded me of the alternative school I taught at in Green Bay for 14 years prior to becoming a librarian. We focused on educating the "whole child" and project based learning. Much of the projects were put in real world contexts. We also took into consideration Gardner's work on multiple intelligences when developing curriculum. Our report cards were not graded, they were all annecdotal, as we believed that it was important that students be internally motivated to want to learn. All this was part of our philosophy, which was developed in 1976, when the alternative program was started. I guess this program was ahead of our time. That much of what we were doing for years is finally being accepted in mainstream education shows me how slowly education changes. In our current world where technology puts information at our fingertips immediately, you would think the system that is educating our children how to use that information would come up to speed more quickly. I can only hope that by working with teachers, I can help break down the resistence that slows down moving into 21st century skill development.

Observations from camp

As I work around the Lake Owen campus, I stop to observe and note changes here (a summer camp) in just the several years that I have been coming here to work. I see staffers and campers pretty much all over with their laptops, cell phones, or ipods. The entire campus went wireless this past year. Sitting in the staff lounge, all 6 of us staffers have some sort of digital device in hand, ranging from ipods, laptops, ereaders, and ipads, and some even have 2 devices they are multitasking with. There is really no conversation, but everyone is extremely focused on whatever they are working on. Six years ago, when I came into the staff lounge (one of the few air conditioned buildings on campus) there would always be a crowd hanging out, watching tv, playing ping pong, or cards.
My first year at Lake Owen (6 years ago) I was a camp couselor mom and often dealt with homesick girls in my cabin. We actually had a pay phone in the cabin hallway and parents were instructed that if they wanted their child to be able to call home, they should send a pre-paid phone card. I recall one little girl using up her entire pre-paid card because she didn't understand how to use it to call home. Boy have times changed in 6 short years. Now, I don't know many campers (even the very young 5-6 year olds) that don't have a cell phone and there are no longer any pay phones in the cabins.
New this year, the camp now has a media center where the kids can check out video recorders and put together their own videos and movies. I see kids walking, skating, and biking all over with video recording device in hand, recording their own camp memories. They then upload them in the media center and work on editing them. I suspect most will most likely end up on YouTube. A big change from the disposable cameras that were once sold in the camp Canteen. It is quite obvious that not only have schools had to adjust to the growing world of technology and teaching digital natives, but other places have had to as well. This summer camp is a business, and to keep their business viable in this day and age, they have had to adjust to their client. Today's kids are living a digital lifestyle. I wonder how many campers they would have if they asked kids to check in their digital devices at the door and weren't allowed to use them all week? Why can't schools take a cue from summer camp??

kindle vs book

I have started reading our book, 21st Century Skills: learning for life in our times. I purchased both of the books we need to read as ebooks on my kindle, keeping in mind that I would be traveling a lot during the course of our class and it made more sense for me to bring my kindle vs 2 books. However, I didn't realize there would be a learning curve with textbooks on my kindle. Up to this point, I have used my kindle for strictly pleasure reading, ususally when I travel. I really didn't take the time to learn about the features of my kindle and now find myself reading an academic text that I need to reflect on and respond to and am trying to figure out how to bookmark, add a note and highlight the text as I am reading it on my kindle. (and then retrieve and review my notes, and I don't have any idea where I even am in my book, since I don't have page numbers on my kindle, but rather "locations") One other mom in my cabin also has a kindle, but it really doesn't look like mine. (Not sure if it is newer or older than mine and we didn't really have any time yet to compare them) She said that she likes the fact that she can hightlight a word and search it on the internet. I didn't even know that my kindle had that function! (maybe it doesn't but I guess I'm going to be finding out!) So, now I am not only reading our textbook, I am also figuring out my kindle too. Maybe I should have let my kids use it prior to me and they could have taught me all the ins and outs of my device!!

Ok, I will be the first to admit that at times I procrastinate, but always meet my deadlines. I just seem to be having an especially difficult time with this class, due mostly to the fact that it is summer. Part of my issue is that I have not been home much the past two and a half weeks (Gymnatic Nationals in Toledo, Ohio, camping with the family 4th of July weekend, bringing daughter to FCA camp in Madison, and now working gymnatic camp in Cable, Wi), and when I was, I focused on the assignments that were due that particular week. Now find myself in the situation where I really need to get focused on the assigned readings/books I need to post my repsonses on my blog, as well as respond to my peers blogs. So, here goes, I begin my journey this week with these goals in mind.