21st Century Skills- http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/

I enjoyed reading the information provided on this website. I agree with the information shared on the importance of the learning environment in relationship to students' education.  I believe that it is the role of each school to create an inviting, engaging, and relevant learning environment that will help prepare students for life in the 21st century.  Improving our learning environment has been a focus for our middle school this year.  Teachers have been encouraged to display exemplar student work as well as provide opportunities to use technology to enrich their classrooms. 

One thing that surprised me in the article was the belief that finding time and money was not the greatest challenges in creating a successful technology rich learning environment.  I truly believe that these are two key challenges that most educators face on a daily basis.  Finding the funding necessary to incorporate and maintain technology is not easy.  Providing teachers time to learn new skills and create new technology rich units is definitely another obstacle in our school. However, I do agree that finding ways to adequately support these skills is a major obstacle.

This website proves to me that my school is on the right path to providing students with a quality education in the 21st century.  However, we still have a lot of work to do.  

Blogging

All teachers in Springfield School District 186 in Illinois have their own teacher webpages.  These webpages are a great way to communicate with students, parents, and the community.  Each day, the teachers at my school are expected to update their webpages.  In the News section we include what was accomplished in class that day as well as any homework given.  In the Projects section we include direction sheets, rubrics, etc.  My favorite section of our webpages is the Blog section. In this section I ask higher level thinking questions that relate to our current subject of study. Students then respond giving their opinions.  It is an open forum for discussion and debate.  My middle school history students enjoy the opportunity to let their voices be heard.  On many occasions my former students even respond to my blog postings.  It is nice to hear their perspectives as high school students.  My classroom blog has helped to foster discussion and encourage my students to think for themselves and defend their opinions.  

Technology in the Classroom

I am an eighth grade United States history teacher at a technology magnet school.  I am always looking for new and exciting ways to integrate technology into my classroom.  I would love for teachers to post great ideas that we could all benefit from.  One project that my students have enjoyed is creating an iPhoto alphabet book.  At the beginning of each school year, I review the American Revolution with my students.  After our review, I assign students a partner and a letter of the alphabet.  Each partnership must choose a word relating to the American Revolution that starts with their assigned letter.  Students then write an alliterative sentence that includes their chosen word.  Next, the students draw an illustration that ties it all together.  Students then scan their pictures and put them into Comic Life.  These Comic Life documents are then compiled into one iPhoto alphabet book that we publish and keep in our school library.  It is a great way to review the American Revolution.