21st Century Skills

This week, I visited the website of the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills. Below is my response to a report as it related to 21^st century skills.

My Reaction to the Report:

This report was a very comprehensive report of what we as educators, private and public sectors, and other stakeholders must do to make sure we are preparing our students for the future.  I believe that this report lays out a good outline and next steps of what we must do for our students. This aligns directly with other articles and research that I have read on this topic.

 Information That Helped Me Understanding:

The report lists key elements of 21^st century learning (Partnership for 21^st Century Skills, n.d.). These listed elements are very essential in making sure are students are prepared for the workforce and society. As mentioned in the report, these elements should be included in teaching those common core subject skills to our students. I believe that these elements are all ones in which would be easy enough for all teachers to do or strive to do in changing how they teach students.  The essential elements of 21^st century learning are

·        Emphasize core subjects.

·        Emphasize learning skills.

·        Use 21^st century tools to develop learning skills.

·        Teach and learn in a 21^st century context.

·        Teach and learn in 21^st century content.

·        Use 21^st century assessments that measure 21^st skills.  (Partnership for 21^st Century Skills, n.d., p. 8).

As I move forward, I plan to follow this plan and incorporate these into my teaching and students’ learning of required content materials.

Information That I  Disagree With:

As I read this report, I do not find any points or key information that I disagree with. I believe that the success of our country lies is preparing our students to live and work in the world around them. These require technology and using technology to communicate and make decisions critically.

Implications:

For me, I believe that this report is a guide to how I MUST teach to prepare my students for the work ahead of them. For my students, this report is a predictor of their future. If teachers and schools do not change to meet the needs of our society, our students will not be prepared for the workforce of the future. Those schools and teachers that strive to prepare students on how to communicate and critically think using technology will ultimately become the most successful.

Our goal must be preparing our students for the future. This report acts a potential guide to making words become action. Hopefully, this report and this organization will lead to overall change in how we teach and how students learn.

 

Reference:

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.). A report and mile guide for 21st century skills. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/images/stories/otherdocs/p21up_Report.pdf