As a high school, special education teacher, I am in a constant battle against student motivation, engagement, and behavior. Every day, I want my students to come in motivated to learn, collaborate and engage with the materials in class. This is a difficult task some (many) days and I want to figure out how to better reach my learners.
In my graduate course this week, we explored 21st Century Learning. After researching, I found a definition of 21st Century Learning that I connected to. The definition was one of many in an article by Elizabeth Rich and it states, “students master content while producing, synthesizing, and evaluating information from a wide variety of subjects and sources with an understanding of and respect for diverse cultures” (2018). The National Education Association also claims there are 4 thematic skills (4 C’s) that are essential for 21st Century learners and they are collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and communication. I created a multi-modal presentation, 21st Century Learning: Transforming Your Classroom, that explains the 4 C’s and what these four themes look like in the classroom.
When I reflected on what I discovered about 21st Century Learning, I found myself eager to begin the transformation. I realized if I focus on teaching and modeling 21st Century skills I would better support my students who were born and raised in the 21st Century. I would like to get to a point where I transform every part of my practice that is still “traditional” into “progressive". A small change for example is, changing up the classroom environment for my students by taking them outside more often. I have easy access and plenty of space to take my students outside of the classroom to extend their learning environment. What could your small change be?
Check out this video above where it will explain why 21st Century Learning is so important. (What is 21st century education?, 2012)
Resources:
An Educator's Guide to the "Four Cs". (n.d.). Retrieved January 29, 2019, from http://www.nea.org/tools/52217.htm
Rich, E. (2018, November 14). How Do You Define 21st-Century Learning? Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org/tsb/articles/2010/10/12/01panel.h04.html
America, E. E. (2012, March 15). What is 21st century education? Retrieved February 2, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax5cNlutAys
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