21st Century Skills... Ready or not?

Being a teacher in the 21^st Century is an amazing challenge for educators.  We face the daunting task of helping our students reach some very audacious goals, which incorporate success academically and also socially.  As a teacher, it is my task to discover how to capture the minds of my 27 little darlings and teach them not just the core academic subjects, but also the skills to survive as a worker in the world they are getting ready to enter—the social skills, thinking skills, and life skills they need to be successful come in large part from the experiences they have and challenges they are asked to meet in the school setting.

I get little shivers every time I think about the huge impact that we as teachers can and should be having on our students—am I doing everything I can be to make sure that my students learn what they need to from me?  With this question haunting me a little more each day, I was relieved to discover this website yesterday called “Partnership for 21^st Century Skills”.  This website is for an organization by the same name which strives to make lawmakers and other policy makers more aware of the necessary changes we need to make for our students to be ready for the 21^st Century’s demands.  It also strives to give educators the resources they need to help make this happen.

I have been trying to wrap my head around the question “Exactly what do my students need to know and be able to do in the 21^st Century?” for a couple of years now, and this website offered some very succinct answers: Students need instruction in the “3Rs and 4Cs”.  The “3Rs” are the traditional core subjects (the good ole readin’, writin’, and ‘rithmatic, along with several other core subjects) that students need to be instructed in and have a working knowledge of (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2013) .  The “4Cs” were my favorite part of the website—these are the skills that students need to have instilled in them: Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking Skills, and Creativity.  The 4Cs helped me give a name to all the skills that I have been thinking all along that my students need—now I know what to call it, the challenge is still how?

I’m still trying to process through how I will be able to teach the core academic subjects and these critical skills—where does the time for this come?  What I keep landing on is the idea that I need to modify, tweak, or invent projects that allow my students to practice these skills through the curriculum and core subjects.  I keep thinking about how students could be working on Creativity and Collaboration as they are trying to solve a difficult math problem that I’ve asked them to explain with images; or maybe my students could use a wiki to share their thoughts about a book we’ve been reading to help practice their Communication and Critical Thinking skills.  What have you been adding or changing in your curriculums to help your students develop these skills—I’d love to hear your ideas!

This website left me feeling challenged, overwhelmed, and excited about the direction we’re taking our students—the only thing I wish I could have found somewhere on the website where it mentioned the kind of technology competencies that students should have by a certain age.  I work with 5^th graders, and I’m never sure what kind of technology skills I can expect of them or how to train them to have these skills, and I would love some guidance from such a great organization as Partnership for 21^st Century Skills.

Resource:

Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/