21st Century School Teacher

Are ya kiddin' me? Matthew Yglesias correlates US dropout rates to parents redshirting their kids in The Cost of Redshirting...  Personally, I find this laughable.  Yes, a small percentage of parents are redshirting their children--enrolling their kids into kindergarten a year later than necessary--typically at age 6--to give their children a perceived advantage academically or athletically.  But to try to explain our nations stagnate test scores or drop-out rates based in redshirting is quite a stretch...  To better understand where we stack up in the larger global perspective, we may need to look at educational practices, family values, and economic status.  Cultural trends--where are we as a nation relating to the needs of our students?  Our educational practices are simply outdated--methodologies steeped in theories and psychologies of yesteryear... As educators, we need to look closely at our own pedagogy--change is hard, but to keep pace with the rest of the world, we are going to need to do more than enroll our kids in kindergarten at age 5 instead of age 6... 

Another interesting article from The New York Times: The Biggest Issue by David Brooks reasons why the US became the economic power of the 20th century, and uses data from education research to explain why our nation is losing this power position.  According to Brooks, it adds up to a “skills slowdown.”

    "America’s edge boosted productivity and growth. But the happy era ended around 1970 when America’s educational progress slowed to a crawl. Between 1975 and 1990, educational attainments stagnated completely. Since then, progress has been modest. America’s lead over its economic rivals has been entirely forfeited, with many nations surging ahead in school attainment."

Brooks points to a report by James Heckman:

    “Heckman directs attention at family environments, which have deteriorated over the past 40 years.  Heckman points out that big gaps in educational attainment are present at age 5. Some children are bathed in an atmosphere that promotes human capital development and, increasingly, more are not. By 5, it is possible to predict, with depressing accuracy, who will complete high school and college and who won’t."

How tragic is that?  A point to reflect on!  As educators, the progress of a nation rests on our shoulders—how do we grapple with such persuasive evidence…  Can we really predict a child’s future with such accuracy? 

Recently, I read some research about twins that were separated at birth—the study had to do with relative IQ.  It was interesting to note that at about the age 5, the difference in IQ points between two separated identical twins was the largest…  I would have thought it to be the opposite.   But, as separated twins grow older, they are more likely to move IQ status closer…  If I’m understanding this data correctly, then educators have more influence than Heckman credits—coupled with Brooks rationale as to why America is lagging behind, that give educators, IMHO,  a boost in motivation!   No, educators do not have the kind of influence on a child that parents and family do, but educators do make impact.  It’s just so hard to measure intervention... 

If it’s true that “the skills slowdown is the biggest issue facing the country,” then what is our response going to be?  We can’t keep doing the same thing as we’ve always done and expect a different result…

 

Okay, so one of the many things I did today was to add a picture of myself on this blog--Scott said it was obvious I took the picture myself--although I did put some effort into trying to make it look like more of a candid shot--failed... I still think it isn't that bad :)

I've also been working with Pageflakes--check out my page... I see tremendous potential to use this site or netvibes in the classroom...  It store so much information in one spot--when we ask students to synthesize a variety of print and non-print texts--what better way to do so?  I am going to put together some document based questions using Pageflakes to see how easy it is...  Exciting!

Gardner says about blogging... "I also try in several ways to encourage the class (encourage=give heart) to blog as part of the journey to the magic."   This is a eloquent blog post about blogging in the classroom--share with a teacher that is on the fence!

The Siemens Foundation, Discovery Communications and NSTA Announce Major Partnership to Launch First Ever K-12 Sustainability Education Initiative, Siemens We Can Change The World Challenge

I was surfin' the web a bit tonight and stopped back by THE TWAIN BLOG.  A recent post titled  Whale of a time!  really resonated with me...  I related to his metaphor, and I appreciate someone saying what I'm thinking--where is the divergent thinking?  I agree that the majority of blogs that I'm reading are saying the same things--and I'm totally at fault here, too...  Why is it that we can't seem to get on with it?  Move beyond the rhetoric and drive more change in the classroom.  As I spend more time on the web, which isn't much as I have a 3 year old daughter, I am astounded by the growing number of tools that are available to educators and students...  I thought that I was doing a pretty good job incorporating Web 2.0 into my curricula, but I really had no idea how many new possibilities could be leveraged by educators...  I spent some time today on slideshare--wow!  I happened upon a website by Marta Z. Kagan... self-proclaimed social media evangelist--take a look how social media is influencing the world outside of education...

So I guess I'm wondering, what's next? Where do we go from here?  How do we move the conversation along so that more educators and students are benefiting from the dialog?

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(Top video is a remix of the one below...) Download file for clearer version... Another fun video about 21st century education...

A recent blog post by George Siemens leaves me thinking... give me a break.  I couldn't leave a comment on his blog, so I'll recreate his post and leave my opinions as well...

Siemens says...   (does that make anyone else chuckle?)  "...why the Google generation isn’t as smart as it thinks Statements like this cause me some    despair about how ideas that may have a remote scientific basis get projected into hype-speak in main stream media: why the Google generation isn’t as smart as it thinks: "...chronic, long-term distraction is as dangerous as cigarette smoking....They might have stress-related diseases, even irreversible brain damage." It is rather obvious that information abundance and multitasking are contributing to our collective anxiety. We start jonesing after only a few minutes of broken contact with email, mobile phone, or internet (ok, you might not, but I do). Weak, often shallow social, connections don't result in deep understanding. At least not in themselves. I'm not satisfied, however, with the tone of this article. What is the solution? Stop the information flow? No new software? Hardware? Um, ok, that won't happen. The road we are on does not yet suggest suitable off ramps. The primary options left are about adapting ourselves or our tools. Realistically, do people expect that the solution to the problem is as simple as focusing more and becoming less distracted? It's a good article of complaint. And it's easy to complain. Suggesting solutions and future directions is where the hard thinking occurs." (July 23rd)

After reading the article S Here are my comments...
To Bryan Appleyard’s article, I say, give me a break! Technology… a dehumanizing agent? Please…  Bibliophobic teens?  Come on…  Teens still read (i.e. heard of Harry  Potter?)…and memorize poems, too.  How many poems does Appleyard have memorized? Probably less than the students in my 7th grade class… Google is making us stupid?  Groan…  The internet multiplies distractions a thousand fold from T.V?    All internet connections are threadbare?  Now that’s plain stupid…  The only skills that really matter are the capability to discriminate and make judgments?  Wow!   

I say that distraction is nothing new—its vehicle may be changing, but it is human nature to seek distraction once in awhile...

Recently posted, cultural anthropologist Michael Wesch brought his Web 2.0 wisdom to the University of Manitoba on June 17... His presentation is a must see...  Some innovations remain vested in a culture... Others transcend culture... and a few transform the way that we live...  Technology is not only transparent of culture, it is a catalyst for global change. 

What does 21st century teaching look like?  Inquiry-based learning...

Shared inquiry and student inquiry require students to formulate and ask questions as well as construct the means of answering these questions based on knowledge that they have collected or shared. Inquiry-based methods allow students to learn to support their reasoning to themselves and others.  The process of student inquiry requires critical thinking and reflection as students put forward explanations and presentations to others to justify their thinking.  In an inquiry-based learning model, students formulate questions, obtain information, and then construct new knowledge reflecting the original question… 

The World Wide Web can act as an excellent resource for inquiry-based learning, but it can also be used as the vehicle in which the teacher facilitates this process.  For example, blogging is the perfect platform to allow students to flourish under this model.  It’s relatively easy to set up a classroom community of bloggers.  21classes.com allows teachers to set up a private community where students can blog with each other about topics that are teacher-directed—whether inquiring collectively or as individuals.  This model is appealing to 21st century learners because student learning is centered on questions that they develop, and it can be largely self-directed within the framework that the teacher establishes.

But what if you do not have access to computers and want to create an inquiry-based unit of instruction?  Some suggestions would be to have student-led discussions, student-led projects, or small group activities based around essential questions that the teacher uses to guide student inquiry.  The key is to have kids asking meaningful questions and have kids searching for the appropriate answers—working collectively or as an individual—to construct meaning.

With or without Web 2.0 tools, this research-based approach is highly effective and engaging—definitely 21st century applicable.