21st Century Skills

For my masters class, I visited an awesome website http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/ dedicated to helping teachers and administration prepare students to be successful in the 21st century. This website is user friendly and offers many helpful resources. Since I was a first time user, I navigated around the FAQ's and learned what the site has to offer and who supports this type of integration of such powerful 21st century skills for education. This site offers videos of different ways to implement 21st century skills into a classroom and resources that meet standards for various subject content. In addition, if you sign up (which is free), you can blog with other teachers and the actual site. These are just a few of the features that stood out on this educational site dedicated to preparing our students for a successful future.

I did not find any major flaws with this site, and was impressed with all the user-friendly charts and research developed to show foundation in the success of this program. While navigating through this site, I found an article about Ohio attempting to get on board with teaching more 21st century skills. Since I teach in Ohio, I was intrigued with the article and impressed with the Governor starting to understand the need for change in our school systems. As a contemporary educator, it is my job to implement technology into my classroom and let the students take ownership in their learning so that they develop proper skills needed for success in the workplace.

Blogging in PE

Hello, I am a elementary Physical Education Teacher (K-5) in Northeast, Ohio). Here are some thoughts about the positive effects blogging might have in Physical Education.

In Physical Education, I feel I can use a student blog for reflection of couse material. For example, throughout a sports unit, I could have the students blog at home or during student assist time to reflect on what they have learned individually, and as a team. A PE blog would allow students the freedom to share the positives and negatives of a unit, and reflect upon the skills they have learned. Most of the time in class, only a few students get to reflect on the lesson, during our closure. I do not call on every student at the end of class, because most of my class sizes are 25 or more. However, if I had the students blog, I would be able to take the time and read all of their posts and feelings. In addition, using this technology tool would give me new insight on improvements that I can make in my unit, and maybe even improve on my teaching style.

CREDE standards

Through my masters class at Walden, I learned about a new approach to teaching English Language Learners (ELL) called CREDE (Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence). CREDE has 5 standards that will help teachers teach more effectively to diverse students. One of the standards that I use successfully in my Physical Education class is Standard 1, which focuses on teachers and students working together. In my classes, I teach my students that winning the game is not as important as working together and having fun. Throughout the school year, I teach cooperative lessons that utilize the skills and strategies to slove problems as a group. For example, one of my favorite lessons is called, "river crossing". In river crossing, students are grouped in 5 or less and given a scooter, jump rope, cone, and a deck tennis ring. Their goal is to get from one mat to another mat (about 10-15 feet apart) using their equipment and making sure not to let any part of their body touch the ground. I enjoy this game because the students have to work together and communicate with one another in order to solve the task. As their teacher, I walk around and monitor their communication skills and different techniques they use to solve the problem. At the end of class, we get together and discuss strategies that worked and did not work. They get a chance to share what they learned from this experience and how they carry over these strategies into everyday life. Another standard that is reached through my class discussions is Standard 5, emphasizing dialogue over lecture. By the end of the school year, students understand how to communicate with each other, in a positive way, while playing team sports and being involved in group activities because of all the cooperative games, like river crossing.

One of the CREDE standards that I can improve on and use more in my classroom is Standard 3, connecting lessons to students' lives. Even though I just mentioned how I teach problem-sloving skills that can be used everyday, I need to work on helping my ELL students feel more comfortable in my gymnasium. ELL students come from different cultures and backgrounds, yet most of the games I teach are only commonly played in America. In order for me to improve on this standard I am planning to ask my ELL students to teach me about their favorite game from their culture and maybe allow them to teach the game to all the students in their class. This strategy will help me connect the lesson to the students backgrounds and life. In addition, learning more about my students helps them feel more comfortable to learn in my class.

The other 2 standards that I did not mention are...
Standard 2, developing language skills across all curriculum
Standard 4, engaging students with challenging lessons