21st Century Skills...

As I was reviewing The Partnership for 21st Century skills (http://www.p21.org/) was fascinating. The ever-changing, ever-evolving climate of skills for professional and personal growth are essential elements that teachers must impart to their students.  It is a teachers mission to ensure that we are preparing students to be successful in life.
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills create a framework including core subjects, learning and innovative skills, information, media and technology skills, and life and career skills.  By widening the scope of education that we provide to our students, we can more fully help fulfill their needs on all levels.  I appreciated that as part of the 21st Century Skills included topics such as: global awareness, financial, economic, business, and entreprenurial literacy, civic literacy, health literacy,and environmental literacy.  It is evident that these are all aspects that students will need to bu successful in life- so it only makes sense that we do our part to best educate them
However, on the flip side, I wonder when these necessities stopped being taught by families and left to be taught by teachers.  I wonder if it isn't the familial responsibility that we are beginning to encroach upon.  I wonder how families would respond to this.  But regardless, I think the intentions are good, however, I question if this is blurring the line between personal lives and educational lives.

Blogging as we go....

As I think about how to incorporate blogging for my classroom- I like the idea of having the blog act as an idea sharing/ social networking  forum.  It is hard to expect that every student has access to a computer and the internet.  However, I appreciate the idea of having a safe place for my students to "gather" and interact. 
I see this as a great way to have the students share their work and ideas with each other.  In my school, I think that one of the greatest tools that a blog can afford is the ability to build a community.  Instead of focusing the bog on academic lessons, I think it would be best to act more as a social networking site for the kids.  Allowing and encouraging a healthy discussion could be more beneficial to my studnts.

Teaching 6th grade (math and science), I have found that one area that my students most struggle with is interpersonal interactions.  Most of the conflict the sixth graders experience stem from social skills.  Our school emphasizes Socratic Seminar and I envision this blogging site could act much like the Socratic Seminar.  The Socratic Seminar allows the students to thoughtfully and conscientiously contribute their thoughts and ideas. By emphasizing these skills, I think that we will enable the students to perform better both academically and socially.

The art of teaching....

I once heard the analogy that teaching was like flying a plane while you are still building the plane.  I have found that thought refreshing and amusing.  As I reflect on my first year teaching, I find that is utterly true.  What I realized what how much I didn't know and how many decisions I would have to make every single day.  Can the students use mechanical pencils?  How should they head their papers?  What do I write under comments on their report cards?  I quickly realized that I didn't know.  So I tried some things out- some worked, some did not.  But what I learned (and then shared with my students) is teaching (like learning and life) is not straight forward.  Sometimes you know but sometimes you don't.  We all make great mistakes but we, also, have great successes.