Preparing Today's Students for Tomorrow's World
Week 1 - Leading 21st Century Schools: What School Leaders Need to Know
Welcome to the TRC Book Discussion! Get ready for an exciting seven weeks as we learn from our collective experience and knowledge while we read and discuss the intricacies of leading 21st century schools.
For those interested in seeking graduate credit, please review the syllabus and contact Melinda by February 1 (please see details on the discussion home page). For those completing graduate credit, I encourage you to consider making the Individual Project a reflection on the lesson plan you bring to Celebration. The reflection should be approximately 2 pages and may include:
1) strengths and challenges of the lesson
2) feedback received from students & final results
3) the impact technology had upon the success of the lesson and reaching HOTS
4) discussion of any modifications if you replicated the lesson in the future
This week's discussion focuses on what school leaders need to know. Please review the following prompts to guide your comments for this week.
1) How can you relate to the changes and challenges discussed?
2) How do standards impact challenges and changes in your school (please provide a specific example, referencing ISTE NETS*T, NETS*S, and/or content standards)?
3) What is your vision of 21st Century Schools?
For those interested in seeking graduate credit, please review the syllabus and contact Melinda by February 1 (please see details on the discussion home page). For those completing graduate credit, I encourage you to consider making the Individual Project a reflection on the lesson plan you bring to Celebration. The reflection should be approximately 2 pages and may include:
1) strengths and challenges of the lesson
2) feedback received from students & final results
3) the impact technology had upon the success of the lesson and reaching HOTS
4) discussion of any modifications if you replicated the lesson in the future
This week's discussion focuses on what school leaders need to know. Please review the following prompts to guide your comments for this week.
1) How can you relate to the changes and challenges discussed?
2) How do standards impact challenges and changes in your school (please provide a specific example, referencing ISTE NETS*T, NETS*S, and/or content standards)?
3) What is your vision of 21st Century Schools?
Tags: book+discussion, week1
Views: 12
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Thomas Schmitz on -
1) How can you relate to the changes and challenges discussed?
“Power Down” was a quote that I first read in the preface (page xiv). This same topic was discussed in chapter one (page 9). This concept is developing into a new segregation in schools. Selected students and teachers are frustrated by the restrictions that district filters, school policies, and group right settings create. The knowledge exists, but security prevents. The proverbial beating your head against a wall. Other students and teachers struggle to master the academic curriculum and feel obligated to tolerate the presents of technology.
I am responsible for technology integration in my district. There are classrooms where the students obviously know technology better than the teacher. These classrooms often have student motivation concerns. It is sad to see a class where only a minority of the students has a strong comfort with technology. -
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Permalink Reply by Melanie Farmer on
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You are in a role that can help massage any divide that exists. Can you find strengths in the challenge you reference by getting students and teachers to collaborate and learn from each other?
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Permalink Reply by Thomas Schmitz on
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2) How do standards impact challenges and changes in your school (please provide a specific example, referencing ISTE NETS*T, NETS*S, and/or content standards)?
All Mulvane teachers had to complete an on-line tech survey last school year. This survey was a professionally designed test that targeted the NET-S. No teacher scored in the traditional A range. Most teachers were unaware of the NET-S and NET-T.
Mulvane is administering this same test to all seventh grade students during the 2009-2010 school year. This data is being utilized when determining the technology proficiency of our middle school students. Early discuss is developing.
The national academic standards being developed/modified do seem highly linked to the NET-S . -
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Hopefully through activities you've seen progress from last year (knowledge and comprehension of the NETS*T & S). What are some activities that reinforce this knowledge that prep them for such assessments?
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Permalink Reply by Thomas Schmitz on
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3) What is your vision of 21st Century Schools?
I believe that distant learning and innovative technology (as we currently know it) will completely redefine schools. For example, I read a research article three or four years ago. It summarized real successes with transporter technology (Beam me up, Scotty!). Is it possible that students may no longer receive a live video feed to witness the exploration of King Tut’s tomb from a traditional classroom? Could a student be physically transported to the tomb? Well, maybe not this decade, but I feel safe to say nobody will have a 16mm projector on his/her classroom inventory. -
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***This is a copy of the great post left by Tammy Gilley on the home page of the discussion forum.***
I am hoping that I'm in responding to chapter one of our book study in the correct location. If I'm not, would someone please redirect me to the right place. Anyway, here is my response to chapter #1.
I do see the changes that have already taken place in the world of work and jobs. We have lost many jobs to outsourcing, and many people in India and China want to move up the social economic ladder. Therefore in order for Americans to sustain the status quo, we have to teach our students to think critically and creatively in order to compete with the rest of the world.
The challenges follow: changing the way we educate students is a slow process, some teachers do want to stay with the old system, some leaders don't have the right vision, education hasn't embraced web 2.0 tools, and students still have to take state assessment that are not truly testing their thinking skills.
Personally, I don't want to see standards go away; and I am glad that they are at the core of 21st century skills. I think those standards hold teachers accountable for what gets taught in the classroom. The NET-S standards can be taught through Project Based Learning Units. I'm thinking of the project that my school is beginning right now. Students are collecting data related to a corner nearby our school. They will use the data to make charts, graphs, and decisions about what they think should happen at the corner. After analyzing the data, students will determine if they believe we should write letters to our city council members to get a stoplight, speed reduction, or a four way stop at the corner. They may even decide to present the data at a council meeting. During this unit, students will be using all of the NET-S standards while addressing those state standards that must be taught and tested. I believe it is possible to do this with Project Based Learning, but many teachers need PD on how to make it happen because they just don't know where to start with PBL.
My vision of a 21 century school would be that everything is student centered, students learn through Project Based Learning, they collaborate in groups and with experts in the real world. Teachers would be more of a facilitator and guide. In high schools, students would have the advantage of moving at an accelerated pace if so desired and graduate early. I think that would motivate older students, and make them more prepared for the global competition they are up against. -
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Permalink Reply by Thomas Schmitz on
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January 19, 2010
"They collaborate in groups and with experts in the real world."~~~ I am excited to see signs of this already happening. I attended LoTi training with Amber and Jana a few years ago. Technology allowed many students to attend the final day of training from home (snow storm). Mulvane's technology department already participates in webinars and electronic conferencing. Local businesses allow employees to donate time (while on the corporate clock) to my school district. It provides obvious academic benefits to the students, and it also allows me to pick the brains of experts. I believe technology will continue to open this door beyond local resources. These experiences can be provided at a much lower cost and with a much greater impact. -
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Great ideas, Tammy! We have pondered the best training methods to get teachers comfortable with teaching PBL units around the TRC leadership table, too. I know that experience and support are two important components....both of which you help with in your TRC role.
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Permalink Reply by Jill R. Pfannenstiel on
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The biggest challenge I feel we have in my district is the access to websites and activites on the internet. There are so many new things out there for students to access and learn from Web. 2.0, but the firewall in our district seems to block so many things to try to keep students away from harm. There are so many restrictions and teachers become frustrated and they decide to just not do the activity rather than go through all the proper channels to get the site unblocked. I feel another frustration for teachers is the fact that we don't get the professional development we need in order to keep up with the students. Students know much more than we give them credit for these days, and we can actually learn from them. Until we get the resources we need (and funding), teachers will continue to be behind the learning curve of their students.
I think that technology standards for teachers and students (NETS*S and NETS*T) will hold teachers and students accountable for learning the technology and using it for learning. However, the frustrations I mentioned above will make it a difficult and taxing item for teachers. It still emphasizes the importance of achievement for all students, which is at the forefront of all of our minds. I know very few teachers, parents, and students who are aware of these standards in our curriculum, which shows us that not many students are learning the technology they need to prepare them for the future.
My vision for 21st century schools woudl be for students to learn through project based learning activities and from professionals in the community who have experience in their respected fields. Students need to work together towards a common goal using the tools of technology to help them reach these goals. Students do not get enough chances to work in cooperative groups today, and this is a skill they will need to carry with them for the future. I see teachers becoming more of a facilitator of learning as students take their learning to a new level with technology. The jobs of the future that we are preparing our students for do not exist today, therefore, we need to prepare them for what the future holds using the technology we have, updating and improving as much as possible. -
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Permalink Reply by Tammy Gilley on -
I understand your frustration to web access. Many teachers in my district give up due to the same problem. I know as a classroom teacher trying to implement TRC, I occasionally felt the same frustration; however, I trudged forward in spite of the difficulties because I believed my students needed to learn 21st century skills. I think as a 21 century leader, you often have to pave the wave; sometimes that means fighting for what you believe in. So hold your head high, put on your boxing gloves, and become the ripple that creates a wave.
In addition, my vision of a 21st century classroom is very similar to yours. -
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Permalink Reply by Casey Wise on -
1. How can you relate to the changes and challenges discussed?
Layne and I are currently being charged with the duty of re-evaluating our filtering procedures for staff and students. We have been doing quite a bit of research on how this is being done and the various opinions out there that exist. I appreciate that many are still focusing on the “bad” part of the internet. There is good reason too; but, often times this blinds them to the possibilities Web 2.0 tools and various other ICT’s can offer the 21st Century learner.
Our policies were written long before Web 2.0 and interactive/collaborative online learning came into play. Many of these policies have not been adapted to meet the requirements of today’s resources and tools. Instead many districts block sites they are not ready to process and discuss openly in an effort to not have to deal with them. The mindset of “There is potential for something bad here.” does not fly anymore. Students and teachers alike are not accepting that as a reason to not incorporate new technologies.
2. How do standards impact challenges and changes in your school (please provide a specific example, referencing ISTE NETS*T, NETS*S, and/or content standards)?
As we have gone through the TRC program, our district adopted and implemented a similar model called “Technology Equipped Classrooms” or TEC. We decided to implement the NETS T as the foundation for the program. We rely on these standards as a benchmark for what our teachers are learning. We use pre, mid and post surveys to evaluate their progress through the program and identify areas where they may need more support.
We are also going to begin working on our district’s Technology curriculum for all grades. This will be based on various factors, but I know that the NETS S will be a guiding force through the process. I agree with some of the others that these standards and others like them are crucial in guiding decisions about curriculum and professional development.
3. What is your vision of 21st Century Schools?
I have two children of my own, one 3 and a half and one 9 months old. My three year old can run the iPod touch, the Wii, our touch screen computer, use PBSKids.org to play his games, play the Nintendo DS, you get the point. He is a digital native. He will more than likely know more about technology than most of his teachers. I absolutely do not want to see him stifled and bored in a classroom that is not geared towards him and his classmates.
These two kids help guide my vision. I want our students to be proficient or above in the3 R’s, but more importantly I want them to be above proficient at the 12 I’s http://fno.org/Jan2010/bookmark.html
As leaders in our schools, we have to be willing to look forward and develop guiding principles that will effectively change and adapt our schools to meet the needs of students like my son. That takes risk, ingenuity and communication, but it also takes effort and time. We will not get there with a magic piece of software or equipment. It is a long term, systemic process that all stakeholders in the school system have to buy in to. -
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Permalink Reply by Thomas Schmitz on
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January 23, 2010
Excellent point! "Our policies were written long before Web 2.0 and interactive/collaborative online learning came into play." ~~~ I can remember the first web site I created and the first Web Quest I did in my classroom. This was cutting edge stuff. I had to get administrative permission to include outside web links. It was policy at that time that all links included on the district website had to be internal. Tammy discussed earlier that we “have to pave the wave; sometimes that means fighting for what you believe in.” Change is slow, and technology’s evolution is rapid. Reversing this sequence is a change, and continues to be slow. But it is important to notice that positive changes have happened. -
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