One area that I think is often overlooked by educators thinking that they already have a full curriculum, is that some skills need to be taught in different contexts for today's children. In the 21st Century Content section, the website lists Several significant, emerging content areas are critical to success in communities and workplaces. These content areas typically are not emphasized in schools today:"Global awareness, Financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy, Civic literacy, and Health and wellness awareness" as "significant, emerging content areas [that] are critical to success in communities and workplaces". Teachers can use technology to teach geography, history and global awareness as one, with more emphasis on global and cultural connections and relevant current events than latitude and longitude.
It seems like the curriculum doesn't need to change as much, just our methods and perspective. With my first graders, instead of just mapping the classroom or the intricate neighborhood, we use maps of Central America, where 90% of them are from, and find it on the globe, and use technology to explore geography in other ways. Critical thinking, connections, problem solving, all of these skills can be enhanced by technology, and this website has a great way of explaining how to do that.
I like your approach to the questions posed from our class. I looked at what we were supposed to answer in a totally different way. However, I agree with what you said first by thinking that teachers already have so much to make sure they teach and they can often forget about all the "other items" that could be incorporated as well. It's a lot to think about and can be very overwhelming. I liked your lesson idea as well for your first graders. It would be hard for me to try and incorporate all these 21st century skills to such a young age group. It's hard for me not think about how much everything will change even before they graduate? Time moves so fast... Just trying to keep my head above water sometimes!
ReplyDeleteI too looked at the questions a little differently. I like your positive approach to the whole situation rather than having an overwhelmed feeling at the fact that there is so much we have to teach in a year. It really isn't that hard to add in these 21st Century skills to the curriculum that we have. I did an activity in a math class one time for measurement in which we would use a world map and I would pick out two cities in different countries for the students to measure the distance between. They were the able to convert their measurement into miles or kilometers based on the scale of the map. There was no real technology involved, however, it does bring about a small bit of global awareness as they are becoming familiar with other countries and cities in the world.
ReplyDeleteWhen you talked about focusing on "global and cultural connections and relevant current events" instead of just latitude and longitude, I was thrilled. This, for me, is where the real learning occurs. If we just teach the students we have numbers and locations they don't see the relevance of the data. You also talked about using information important to the students, like the areas that they have come from. This, again, is an excellent way to engage the students in the information.
ReplyDeleteYou sound very motivated and thoughtful about the information that you present to your students. Good on ya!
You said that 90% of your students are from Central America. Do they speak Spanish? Is your class full of ELL students?
@ L. Paisley
One of the things that surprised me about the 21st Century site was the fact that technology doesn't show up in their core values until the fifth page of the document that explains the skills. When you reference the fact that you are including that global awareness component means that you are including 21st Century skills into your classroom. This movement is not wholly about technology but about asking our students to use their minds in more demanding ways.