I would like to begin this post by sharing with you three powerful quotes supporting a major shift in paradigms and practices which must take place in education. Please read and consider the message, then read or (read again) the books from which these quotes are taken. Then, have a conversation with the stakeholders in your organization about what needs to change, and make a commitment to make that change happen.

The authors are Sir Ken Robinson, Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith. Enjoy, and together, let's make that change really happen!

P.S. Click on the name of each author for additional resources, including the books from which these quotes are taken! Then see the resources available to you for making the Paradigm Shift we need.
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​Continue here . . .

​For many decades education has been in a state of turmoil as we continue to seek ways to adapt education to life in the 21st century.  

A Hall of Mirrors is defined as "A carnival or amusement park attraction consisting of a maze or series of passageways lined with mirrors, especially curved mirrors giving distorted reflections.

"A confusing or disorienting situation in which it is difficult to distinguish between truth and illusion or between competing versions of reality. Also called, in both senses, a House of Mirrors.

Looking back over the past thirty to forty years alone, there has been much contention regarding the proper path forward, and a variety of programs and plans have been put forth to improve schools. Most of these have focused on one purpose: improving students' standardized test scores. And most have experienced dismal results.

With the proliferation of the Internet, there was a virtual explosion of new programs, and suddenly it seemed that everyone was an expert or a consultant. Thus my analogy of the "house of mirrors". It must feel that way to so many educators who are being continually bombarded with new "tips, tricks and various programs" for improving student learning, i.e., test scores. These range from ludicrous to highly effective ways to improve student learning.

Along with the Internet has been the surge of excitement surrounding efforts to get technologies into the hands of students. Unfortunately, technologies have not been implemented in a meaningful way in many classrooms. And, as I have written before, we simply replaced the paper/pencil worksheets and the printed textbooks with digital versions of the same. The pedagogy, practices and paradigms did not change at all.  

There are a few educators who are recognizing and calling for the need to make "real change". They also recognize that this real change is not going to be easy or simple. We cannot create real change by implementing a few "tricks and tips", we cannot do it by adding some 15-minute activity to the already enormous load of activities, standards, test prep which is overwhelming teachers and students every day.

We cannot create the schools we need unless and until we make a true Paradigm Shift. For this reason, we at 21st Century Schools have created Paradigm Shift, which includes three distinct programs!
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For more information about 21st Century Schools and to receive details on the Paradigm Shift programs, please contact Anne Shaw, Director, 21st Century Schools!
Director@21stCenturySchools.com

Watch the following video to see how you can transform your obsolete "cells and bells" school into a 21st century school.

The Learning Environment is the place to begin when you are creating schools that will support 21st century learning!

For more details and inspiration, please click the link below the video!
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Read the full article and see the wide array of fabulous learning spaces that can be integrated into a 21st century school!

I​n 2006 Sir Ken Robinson gave a TED Talk entitled "Do Schools Kill Creativity?"[1]  The most popular TED Talk of all time, subtitles are available in 60 languages, and it has been viewed 44 million times, not including the entire groups that watch it.  Sir Ken's message certainly resonated with educators, parents and others.  Despite the powerful message, delivered over a decade ago, and lauded by educators around the world, schools have continued to kill creativity . . . as well as the other "7 Survival Skills of the 21st Century" as outlined by Harvard professor, Tony Wagner.  

These skills comprise one of the three compasses of Anne Shaw's Framework for Education in the 21st Century.  In this holistic, integrated framework the 3 compasses are embedded with an intentionally designed Learning Environment - the Physical Environment (facilities, schoolyards), the Social/Emotional Environment and the Academic Environment.

This article is about how schools are killing creativity - and the other seven survival skills - and what we can do about it.  View the compass for the 7 Survival Skills below.  Click the compass to read more about each of these skills:

​From Creative Schools - the grassroots revolution that's transforming education by Sir Ken Robinson

​Watch for More to Come on each of these obstacles and how to solve them!

​You may have seen my post, Serendipity in Curriculum Design.  You never know what kind of fantastic ideas or possibilities will reveal themselves to you!  This past week, starting with two reminders of upcoming holidays, National Arts in Education Week and International Dot Day, found me with my mind tuned to the arts.  
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In my usual way of thinking in interdisciplinary and integrated curriculum design, I immediately thought of connections to reading, writing, media literacy, visual literacy,aural literacy, social/emotional literacy, and a project could be easily extended to include financial literacy, ecoliteracy, creativity & the arts as literacies, physical fitness and health as literacies, global competencies . . . You can find articles with learning activities for many of these literacies on this page at  21st Century Schools.
 
The various activities below also include opportunities to ensure that students develop the 21st century skills (7 Survival Skills of the 21st Century by Tony Wagner) illustrated in my 3 compasses.  

It seems serendipitous to me that today I happened upon other excellent resources connected to the arts.

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​An excellent article, Teaching With Graphic Novels, by George Jones on Edudemic,provides ideas and resources, as well as research, related to the benefits and the "how to" of using graphic novels in teaching.  
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The image in the heading above is from a site called Avatar Generation.  Here is their article, Ten Exciting Resources for Teaching With Graphic Novels. 
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This is a great way to tie in a study of climatology, meteorology, environmental studies, etc.!  I actually worked with a school in Mobile, Alabama one year, during the summer. The kindergarten teachers decided to have their students create hurricane preparedness PSAs. Then their area was hit by a hurricane just as school started!  Even little ones can do something on this topic, and it is a great service learning project!

See 21st Century School's curriculum resources page devoted to Zombies, where you will find links to the graphic novella, CDC educators' resources and more zombie resources! Not a bad way to integrate Halloween or Day of the Dead into the curriculum.
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Extensions of zombies into other art forms:
Further integration of the arts could include celebrating Thrill Day, which is on October 29 of this year.  Their page has a complete Manager's Event Guide for making this a community-wide celebration.  This is a global event!  The resources on our Zombies page include complete directions for costumes, makeup and dance steps.  There are links to videos from York University, Fine Arts Faculty, Dance Department to teach you the dance.  And of course, the video, Thriller by Michael Jackson.