Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Partnership for 21st Century Skills


Partnership for 21st Century Skills, a national organization, is an advocate for teaching our students 21st century readiness skills by infusing the three R’s and the four C’s which will help the U.S. Education System to keep up globally.  One of the first things I noticed about this site is the plethora of information it contains.  The site is a great resource for those who want to know about 21st Century Skills, for school districts wanting to incorporate these skills into their curriculum, and for schools already working on becoming a school that engages in 21st century skills.   
We have been discussing and implementing 21st century skills at my school for the past couple of years.  Gradually we have all been working together to become a school that is teaching 21st century skills.  After looking through this web site, I realize that becoming a 21st Century School is much more that I had realized.  The information helped me to see that we have already been teaching some of the skills that our students need but it has also helped me to see what else we need to be teaching our students.  This will be a very helpful resource as we continue developing our 21st century curriculum. 
I was pleased to see that not only is the organization working with professionals and educators but they are working with the government and some major businesses too.  It is fantastic to see some major corporations like Dell Computer, Apple Computer, AOL, Cisco, and Microsoft all partnering to help improve United States education. 
As you here more and more about the necessity of teaching 21st century skills in the classroom, I was disappointed to find that only sixteen states have developed a technology plan and standards.  Unfortunately, the state of Missouri where I live is not one of them.  I hope to see that list grow, especially as more states look at adopting nationwide standards. 
As I read and learn more about 21st Century Skills I see that as an educator I must step up to the plate and make sure that I am incorporating technology and higher-order thinking skills into my daily curriculum.  Incorporating 21st century skills is a necessity for my students’ future.  Critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication are four C’s that my students will be learning along with the three R’s they are already learning!          
Resources:
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
Trilling, B. (n.d.) The Partnership for 21st Century Skills – Home. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills – Home. Retrieved July 20, 2011, from http://www.p21.org/

4 comments:

  1. Great review of the website! I live in Washington State and our state is not on the list of 21st century skills. It also disappoints me that the states have not stepped up to take the reins and do something that will help their students not only succeed in their adult lives, but also help shape them into more well-rounded students as they progress through school. I wanted to know why not all the states were encouraged to join, instead it seemed like this organization might be an elite group that is hard to gain access to. I hope that is not the case and maybe it is going to be up to people like us who know how important it is to teach 21st century skills who stand up and take initiative to better our standards and curriculum.

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  2. I was amazed what is really going on in the workforce outside of education. I live in South Carolina and we too have not joined in the partnership either. What bothers me the most though is that this program has been out there since 2009 and less than one-third of the states have joined in! Like everything else in education it is a slow process, but this is the future of our country we are letting down. Until this course I had not heard about the drastic changes in the workforce and how much technology had advanced world-wide. I believe it is important that those of us in this course make a change in our classroom instruction so that administrators are aware of the changes that need to take place. Then hope a domino effect takes place where other's in the school catch on, then other schools, districts and so on until all fifty states join this partnership. Good luck implementing this in your class next year!

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  3. It is great to see businesses, schools, and governments working together to create a plan for education. Maryland is not part of the partnership either. However, Maryland has technology standards that are supposed to be taught during other lessons.

    This is a great resource for educators. It takes a lot to be a successful teacher in the 21st century!

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  4. I also say the same, it is great to different groups of people come together in order to support the 21st century skill. I think by this collaboration of businesses and schools that alot of kids will have the exposur to 21st centurt they need to be successful.

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