After exploring the Partnership for 21st Century Skills website for quite awhile, I found it to be full of useful information for myself as a teacher. I feel it was very organized and easy to find information on specific topics. It also provided a lot of useful resources. I especially liked the video portions. At times, I did find it a bit overwhelming with the amount of information I was looking at just for browsing purposes.
Something on the site that surprised me was that only fourteen states at this point have developed standards and initiatives toward 21st century skills. Eventually, I am sure more states will join in, but for now, we are saying that only fourteen states are committed to supporting teachers by providing initiatives for our students gaining 21st century skills.
Ken Kay stated that more professional development is needed for teachers to learn how to teach and assess 21st century skills. I agree that this is needed if teachers are expected for students to be exiting school with 21st century skills as well as the “3 r’s”. However, I feel that all states need to be included in this. If some states do not even have initiatives outlined for the public, how will they commit to providing training to educators who will be teaching these skills?
I think this website is showing how serious we need to be about the need for 21st century skills. Many educators are focused on the test scores, etc. However, we need to look at what is going to benefit the whole child. Does one or two standardized tests prove what they will provide in the workforce? Probably not. We need to be teaching children to be more skillful in communicating, creativity, collaborating, and critically thinking. Educators can do this by infusing these skills within the current curriculum.
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I also found the site to be very informational. I watched a few of the videos, The one with Ken Kay who talks about what p21 is and the benefits it has in society. I find that school districts are set on only teaching what is needed for these stat standards. We are steering away from having the students learn what is really needed. But when it comes down to it, if the students don't score high on their tests than funding will be taken away. So in essence it could be a double edge sword. I think we are also steering away from creativity and collaborative thinking. The best teachers are those who teach you the content material with innovative ideas and who are there to talk to you as a mentor as well. I hate seeing teachers leave the school before the kids are even gone on their schoolbus, it shows they don't care. But your right when you talk about how serious this situation is. The one thing i can shed some light on is, a third grade class the other day was in the computer lab while i covered for a teacher. They were using lab tops practicing their typing skills but also utilizing social studies concepts that was incorporated in the game.
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