Route 21

Napoleon Dynamite knows that skills are important. "Girls only want guys who have great skills, like numb-chuck skills, bow hunting skills, and computer hacking skills." Perhaps if Napoleon were to revisited the issue of skills today, he might find out that in order to survive in the highly competitive 21st century, he he may need to rethink his priorities.

If you are like Napoleon Dynamite, then it is time for you to revisit what "skills" are important in allowing your students to succeed future jobs. If you haven't done so already, do yourself a favor and check out The Partnership for 21st Century Skills website. So many of us find ourselves wanting to become more aware of how we can more effectively teach the "digital natives" that come into our classrooms each day, but are often left wondering how to do so, and most often, where are the resources?

This website is a great place to begin, as it is an excellent resource for anyone wondering what 21st century skills are. By simply studying the framework for 21st century skills, one will quickly find out that 21st century learning is not just about blogs, wikis, and podcasts, but also about career and life skills, learning and innovation skills, and of course core subject skills.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills website also offers a resource to its users, called Route 21. From the Route 21 page, one is able access all types of helpful information, on varying levels of subject matter. So if you are interested in figuring finding a resource in a particular standard, Route 21 may be able to help you out. Or, if you were hoping to increase your students knowledge in one of the specific skills areas, you can narrow down your search to match your skill. You can also find out what your state is doing (or not doing) to create 21st century thinkers. This page offers you all sorts of information, in hopes of giving you some of the resources that perhaps you don't already have.

My school district uses The Partnership for 21st Century Skills website as a starting point for teachers wondering how to reach the millennial students in our classrooms. We especially focus on the framework for teaching, because we strongly feel that these are the skills our students will have to have to be able to compete for jobs in the 21st century. In one of our several committees dedicated to better serving the technological needs of our students, we often refer to the 21st century framework as a starting point for what we should do next.

Because my school district follows the suggested framework, students in our district will hopefully leave high school feeling prepared for the next stage of their life. Several years ago we began using the Everyday Mathematics curriculum, which many parents had a hard time dealing with, because of the many challenges that each unit touches on. However, now that several of the students who were the pilots or pioneers of the system are in high school, the district is seeing high gains in student retention and ability in math classes. In my opinion, the same will be said of students, who are currently using 21st century skills in the classroom. These students are going to gain experiences that will allow them to compete in the competitive real world that awaits them.

Napoleon Dynamite's skills may get him the girls; however, they are not likely to prepare him for the 21st century, where the job market is constantly changing, and increasingly getting more competitive. If his teachers had access to The Partnership for 21st Century Skills website, perhaps his skills list would have been different?

Elmo Saved the Day!

Who ever invented the slide rule was a genius. In the fifth grade Everyday Mathematics series, my students are currently learning/re-visiting how to add fractions. In doing so, like all simple math problems in Everyday Math, I am teaching my kids three different ways to add/subtract the same fraction problem. In no way is this a slam. In fact, it gives more options, which I really like. One of the options for adding and subtracting fractions, in this unit, is using a slide rule. The slide rule only is broken up into 16ths (like an inch), so it only works for adding numbers that are equivalent to 16ths (I am not sure if that makes a lot of sense).

Anyway, a lot of my kids were having the most difficult time seeing what I was doing with the slide rule to get the correct answers. They understood that 1/2 + 2/4 = 1, but could not easily find this simple answer on the slide rule. It does not help that the provided slide rule is only 10 inches long, which makes visibility to my back rows of desks about as good as driving through thick fog. It occurred to me, because of the vision difficulties and not having the time to assist 28 students individually (because of the time constraints and pacing Everyday Math uses) to hunt down one of the two Elmo document camera's in my school.

As I called our library media specialist, I had my fingers crossed. Blowing up the slide rule, and actually using it on my wall would get the point across. The Elmo was in use by a fellow third grade teacher. In an effort to be a "super" teacher, I ran down the hall (no, I did not get caught) and asked the third grade class if I could borrow their Elmo for 15 minutes...max! After some hard bargaining, the Elmo was mine...for 12 minutes.

In those 12 minutes, my math students were able to see a fully projected image of the slide rule and me using it. The light bulbs flashed on, above all of their heads (well, most of them). After making the time crunch, with 13 seconds to spare, I was excited to know that my students understood how to finally use their 16ths of an inch slide rules.

Elmo saved the day!

Document cameras are super cool! I think this piece of equipment would really benefit any classroom. Our art teacher uses his regularly, which seems totally practical. Besides using manipulatives in math class, I think document cameras could also be great tools in a science class. Any body else have any cool ways that they use their document cameras?

Encyclopedia vs. Wikipedia

In just the last few moments, in preparing to begin animal research projects with my students, the following crossed my mind:

Encyclopedia vs. Wikipedia

The scenario: Your students are at the "information gathering" stage of their problem based research project on animals (I'll use the Bald Eagle for this scenario). In your PAPER packet you have students write down all of the different sources they could get information from on the Bald Eagle. If you are "old school," you will force your students to definitely use one of the dust collecting, commonly used as a paperweight, decoratively used as a book end, outdated, 1987 World Book Encyclopedia's. If you are the exact opposite, you will allow your students to use the Internet, and even demonstrate using Wikipedia appropriately.

I often find myself asking why so many teachers still force their students to use encyclopedias to do their research. Most encyclopedia volumes are very expensive; which is major problem for schools who are trying to "cut back" in these tough economic times. I am not saying that Wikipedia is the answer to all of our problems, because it certainly is not.

However, by double left-clicking on your desktop Internet button, you are granting yourself access to the information highway. For various fees, the World Book Encyclopedia is now available online...plus...it is current! For free, you can have your students go on a multitude of over common encyclopedias; such as: Encyclopedia Britannica, Yahoo's free encyclopedia, or encyclopedia.com. In addition to these sites, there are what seems like an infinite amount of sites (through a simple google search) that specialize in whatever topic your student(s) is/are studying.

Internet has made research much less of a hassle. Finding the answers to anything and everything is no longer impossible.

Which leaves me wondering, why do so many teachers still force their students to blow the dust off of that 262 lb book from 1987 to gather information? Do we actually believe this is a skill that students still must have?

Blogging in the Classroom

Up until about a month ago, I was not all that sure of what a blog was. I definitely had no idea of how I could apply a blog into my fifth grade classroom where all of the core subjects are taught each day. This changed after visiting a third grade classroom, during a "technology" visit a model 21st century school.

On my agenda, was a session titled, "Blogging with Mrs. M.'s Class." Since I was not sure what blogging was (even though I would later learn that I blog more than I knew), this session sounded intriguing. It was!

Mrs. M.'s third graders each had jobs, similar to those found in most elementary classrooms. One of the jobs was to be a "Daily Blog Keeper," which replaced the previous job of "Daily Log Keeper." Two girls sat down at a mini laptop and began writing about the happenings in their classroom and school. Although most blogs are very interactive, this model was definitely much more basic, and intended to give the students a chance to use a web 2.0 tool. After the two girls were done, they shared with the onlooking teachers, who were simply amazed, other things that they could do from their blog; such as access favorite websites.

On December 16, 2009, I took this same idea into my classroom. I took five minutes to set-up a blog, on Blogger.com, and made the idea a reality in my class. I was apprehensive, mostly because of my lack of blogging knowledge. However, as with most tech and web 2.0 tools, I know the only way to learn how something works is to "Just do it!" So, we "Just did it!"

The B223 Blogger has been a steady, learning process. Each week, the new writers are getting better, and learning from previous bloggers' posts. The posts act as a daily updates to anyone who is willing to look and read. As a class, we have already began talking about what we could do to make our blog a more powerful tool. One thing we know is that we have to begin posing questions to our readers, to get them to interact with us more. This week's bloggers have asked several questions in regards to the book Hatchet, which we are currently reading.

In time, I would like to turn my student's blog into a platform for discussion and display of exceptional peer work. I know that I am only scrapping the blogging surface, with my classroom blog (and probably this blog too). However, the blog has given my students something be excited about. They know that piece of technology will be a part of our daily routine. Additionally, it is giving them the opportunity to speak, be hear, and communicate using language that is appropriate and easy for all eye's to read.

What do you think? Should blogs become a regular part of classrooms? How would you, or do you, use a blog differently in your classroom?

That Seems Nuts!

I purchased my first laptop, in order to replace my almost new desktop (2000), in 2003. It cost almost $1000. This 12,000 lb, blue woolly mammoth, of a computer (also known as the "Blue Beast")was a sure bet for me to gain academic success. At the time, I was unaware of what "wireless" internet was, but knew it was expensive, so I passed on the option to go wireless. Instead, I attached an ethernet cord to my mobile devise, and began living the life of an almost completely mobile computer user. Life on the computer, as I knew it, could not get much better than that.


Of course I was wrong. Life got MUCH better, in terms of computers. My next computer was a much more powerful desktop. The decision was made, after several years of renting a U-Haul truck to transport the "Blue Beast." I figured, if I was going to have a heavy computer, and since light weight laptops cost more than a powerful desktop (at the time), I might as well get a computer that would permanently sit on my desk.


This changed (again, this past summer), upon enrolling in my online Masters of Education program (Integrating Technology into the Classroom) through Walden University. How were my wife and I supposed to balance computer time? Was she supposed to wait patiently to go on Facebook, while I worked away at my classes? The answer, of course was..."NOT A CHANCE!" How was I supposed to study while on vacation, because being a teacher, you have to enjoy your summer break? We needed to invest in a second computer, which we chose would a WIRELESS laptop. We chose to become members of the 21st century, in terms of modern computer users. The "Blue Beast" was a thing of the past. We welcomed in the "Red Raptor," which is must faster than my previous laptop, and slightly lighter in weight. The best part was, our new laptop was less than half the cost of my first laptop (about $400).

Which brings me to my educational point...

With laptops, primarily mini-laptops, getting to such low costs as $300 for a decent set-up, should schools be investing in one to one programs? Why do we have kids hand write papers over and over, until their erasers no longer exist, when we could have them type a paper on a specific topic, and share back and forth with a teacher or peer to edit through emails, blogs, and wikis? I understand the "old school" mentality, but what about 21st century mentality? I could not tell you the last time I sat down and hand wrote a paper from start to finish, and then went back and typed it. That seems nuts! So I wonder, do our students think we are nuts, because they know they are capable of achieve higher quality work even faster, if given a computer?

I believe one to one programs could be very beneficial, long term. The cost would be a lot. In a district of 3,000 kids, with mini-laptops costing $300 each, someone (probably tax payers) would have to fork over $1,000,000 just to get up and running, and that doesn't include all of the additional costs associated. Perhaps these work stations have to get even cheaper, but not lose quality, before this can happen? One to one programs are upon us (or so I have heard and read), but I wonder how long it will be before this is a reality for school districts across the country, since so many schools lag behind in the demands that technology already present to them.

A bunch of Gagglers!

The only people allowed to access their personal email accounts, to my knowledge, within my school building is teachers. This is great, because if need be, you can check your Gmail, AOL, Hotmail, etc. However, with teaching a generation of students who have grown up not knowing what life is like without email and the internet, I have wondered for a long time why students do not have access to their email accounts at school.

I understand most of the security reasons. Of course I want my students, and all students to be safe on the web; but shouldn't it be partially our job, as teachers, to teach students how to use email and the internet appropriately, so that they do not turn into internet bullies on the plethora of social networks available to them?

This being said, yesterday my students got school safe email accounts! This may have been more exciting to them than anything we have done all year, with the exception of maybe our classroom blog. With the help of our schools librarian/technology teacher, my students were introduced to their new Gaggle.net accounts. This email site allows us to filter and sensor emails. As a teacher, I can pick and choose what students can and cannot subscribe to; such as Facebook vs. Edmodo.

Within minutes of setting up, my students became their own teachers. They were fast at work, using our school C.O.W.S. (Computers on Wheels (lap tops)). The excitement built as they began to find their classmates in their contacts, and even further built, when for some of them, they received their first ever email.

I look forward to being able to use this resource as another communication method. It is obviously one of many resources that could be tapped into. I think it is insane to think that email skills are something that should not be taught. Our students are the "21st Century Learners."

This week was a great technology week in my classroom. I hope my students do not expect to have their own lap top sitting on their desk when they show up on Monday.

Chris

Let the blogging begin!

My journey to the world of blogging has taken me through sites like: MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, CBSportsline, ESPN, de.li.cious, and much more. To say I am a rookie at this is wrong, but to say I am a connoisseur of blogs is also incorrect. My goal, in setting up a blog (that I can call my own) is to be reflective in a different sort of way than on my sports websites where I used to argue on threads about which football team had a better chance of making the playoffs.

That said...

I felt like I had a huge hangover at work, all day Monday! I know what you must be thinking, "He had too much fun over the New Year's weekend." While my New Year's was fun, my lifelessness was largely due to the fact that I spent much of the week off inhaling paint fumes in my basement from painting the walls and floor; a weekend of hanging out with old friends, which meant staying up much later than most any teacher is used to staying up (past 10 PM!); and on top of that chose Monday to begin my Green Bay Cellcom Marathon training day...at 4:45 AM. Monday was the most sluggish school day of my career! Upon entering my classroom, I was welcomed to the heater blowing a steady 80 degree blast of air out of the ceiling; which was not going to help my sleep deprivation. Next, my students were just TOO quiet and orderly when coming into the room. Something was up! These kids were exhausted from similar reasons to my own. As the hour hand on my clock painstakingly did 8 full revolutions, my students finally began to wake up to the reality that they were stuck inside our sauna of a room for the next five months. At the end of the day, after watching 23 slugs (including myself) sludge out of the room, I thought to myself, "Is it just because it is January? Should I really be waking up at 4:40 AM, just to run? Why does my head hurt so bad?"

Sure enough, today was a day when I told my wife on the drive home, "I'm back! Today, I ruled at teaching!" Let's get one thing straight, I am not full of myself, but like you, I know when I did a good job teaching and a poor job (Monday). I think my early morning runs are beginning to give me a psychological edge on my fifth graders, because they think anyone who wakes up before 5 AM is crazy. Next, the headaches are gone, and I am more alert than ever each day at school, which means my wit is even quicker than quick.

Because of my "alertness," I thought it was fitting to teach the kids how to make a list in a word document of their favorite websites by creating HYPERLINKS. This way, they could access their favorite websites quicker in the future. First and foremost, the kids were fascinated by the word HYPER. Secondly, they had finally got to do something in our computer lab that did not involve pounding/typing words like, "baseball...baseball...basketball...basketball" over and over until they could spell it better than type it. As we left the lab that day, and I asked my students if they had fun, in a chorus of various pitches (hyper) they replied, "YES!"

Then it hit me: de.li.cious

Which left me wondering, why did I waste all that time when I could have shown my students Delicious.com, "The tastiest bookmarks on the web!" Part of the reason is that my students do not yet have school emails accounts, and also because I am still learning about all the read/write (Web 2.0) tools available. Have any of you had students use Delicious.com? If so, any successes? If not, for what reasons?

I look forward to joining in on the world of blogging, which already seems like it will be a "6 Cups of Coffee Later" type of experience.

So long, for now...

Chris