Blog Posts - Becoming a 21st Century School

Teaching with Graphic Novels & Beyond!

8/27/2016

Intersections among the disciplines, the arts and tech!

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.

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.

National Arts in Education Week, Sep. 11-17, 2016

8/25/2016

National Arts in Education Week is a national celebration recognizing the tranformative power of the arts in education. Designated by Congress in 2010 through House Resolution 275, the celebration is designated to bring attention to this cause for elected officials and educational decision makers across the country and to support equitable access to the arts for all students.
National Arts in Education Week takes place annually during the week beginning with the second Sunday of September. This year it falls on September 11 – 17, 2016. Save the date for future celebrations:

September 17 – 23, 2017
September 16 – 22, 2018
September 8 – 14, 2019
September 13 – 19, 2020

For inspiration and resources click the Read More link!

20th Century vs 21st Century Model of Education

8/22/2016

In this post I am offering my perspectives on how education today remains firmly entrenched in what is often called the Factory Model, which was designed for the Industrial Revolution. The majority of students at that time were educated to prepare for work on farms on in factories. This is an obsolete model of a by-gone era. But it is still with us today, well into the 21st century:

Filmmaking - the ultimate project-based learning

8/7/2016

We need filmmaking in our classrooms, not to graduate filmmakers, but to graduate problem -solvers, critical thinkers and passionate people who can work with others to make that which does not yet exist, real. Nikos Theodosadis, The Director in the Classroom

There are almost - seemingly - an infinite number of ways to design and implement amazing learning experiences for your students via project-based learning. Our model of project-based learning at 21st Century Schools is PBL21 - "the next step in the evolution of project-based learning!"

While the climate in education for the past 15 years or so has been steeped in standardized testing, there have been, thankfully, some schools who forge ahead with meaningful, real world, exciting learning experiences for their students. They know that if students have these opportunities they will actually learn more and perform better on their standardized tests.

One of the most powerful forms of PBL21 is videography, or filmmaking. This experience provides students with an opportunity to engage with the curriculum at very high levels, enables students to develop critical 21st century skills and multiple literacies for the 21st century.

We threw the baby out with the bath water! Education "reform" gone awry!

8/6/2016

When it comes to education, we somehow threw out the baby with the bath water when:

Our schools were transformed from "places of learning" to "test prep and testing centers", and
Pedagogy, learning theory and child development were left behind in our rush to integrate technologies into schools.

I. Test Prep & Standardized Tests Replace Learning

This transformation was not initiated by educators, it was not approved by educators and it has been strongly resisted by many educators. However, between the forces of the federal government and the corporations who stood to make massive profits, education lost. Educators lost.

Worst of all - children lost. Many of our finest teachers left the profession. They knew that what this was doing to children was wrong, and they had no intention of participating in this process.

Constitution Day is September 17

7/29/2016

Scene at the Signing of the Constitution, a famous oil painting.

You have probably seen the videos of random surveys out in public and particularly on college campuses which reflect a near total lack of knowledge about history or our country. For this reason, a senator created a bill which made it law to teach about the Constitution at least one day per year!

Federal law passed in 2004 requires that all schools that receive federal funding provide a course to all students on the Constitution on Constitution Day, September 17. The law is known as H.R. 4818, and the text is found at section 111(b):

“Each educational institution that receives Federal funds for a fiscal year shall hold an educational program on the United States Constitution on September 17 of such year for the students served by the educational institution.”

As a fourth grade teacher I covered the chalk board in my classroom with life-size copies of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution which I had purchased at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. (I laminated them first.) It was amazing to me how often students would walk up there and start reading it - they were fascinated. They made a very impressive and beautiful display. The links in this paragraph are to the National Archives in Washington, D.C. where you may order beautiful, life-sized copies very inexpensively!

(Yes, the students can also view the documents on their computer screens. But sometimes a tangible, life-size visual is much better.)

Find many resources for Constitution Day at our Curriculum Resources site. Make Constitution Day a powerful experience for you and your students!

Director@21stCenturySchools.com
Professional Development
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Who was Yankee Doodle? Why did he put a feather in his cap and call it macaroni?

7/29/2016

These questions, and many more, can be explored using these resources. From the arts to history . . . these are wonderful ways to engage students in many courses. These are great resources for Constitution Day as well as the upcoming Presidential Election 2016!

What are the connections between the American Revolution and what is happening in America today?

Integrate technology through videography and filmmaking – students can create . . .

Mini-documentaries like those seen on the History Channel, Biography Channel, Science Channel, Discovery Channel . . .
A cooking show (I recommend using the format of Good Eats with Alton Brown).
Talk shows interviewing characters from the past such as Yankee Doodle or John Adams
Create live or recorded commentary and analysis on the current presidential election. This could include analyzing speeches, advertisements and distributed materials.

View the Yankee Doodle resources here, and find more technology integration tools here.

The Social/Emotional Environment

7/16/2016

Learning is serious, but that doesn't mean it has to be grim!

A new school year is about to begin (in many countries). Despite the ongoing problems which plague education, educators are preparing, anticipating that this will be the best year yet in their classroom, on their campus or in their school district.

While most agree that the purpose of schooling is for students to acquire academic content, we contend that schools have a greater purpose, which includes the academic. We agree with John Dewey, who said that school is . .

“a place to gain content knowledge, but also a place to learn how to live. In his eyes, the purpose of education should not revolve around the acquisition of a pre-determined set of skills, but rather the realization of one's full potential and the ability to use those skills for the greater good.”[i]

Before we jump straight to focusing on the academics, we must prepare the learning environment. This includes the physical environment - from facilities, to how we arrange classrooms, to schoolyards. Next, we must intentionally design the social/emotional environment. Then, we are ready to prepare the academic environment - and that starts with high expectations.

This post will provide you with many tips on how to create the optimum social/emotional environment - starting with what to do on the first day of school! Enjoy, and please add your ideas below!

Another excellent resource for the new year is this post, How daily meditation improves behavior - and increases creativity.

Click here to find your tips on creating the optimal social/emotional environment!

[1] John Dewey, Wikipedia

Project-Based Learning is Returning!

5/22/2016

We are seeing signs – like the first robin we see after a long winter, or the first crocus popping its head up through the snow – of a return to Spring, a return to life, in education.

Unfortunately, standardized testing mania has paralyzed teaching and learning. Like "the Blob"it has eaten schools alive. Like Godzilla terrifying humans, it has terrorized million of educators, parents and worst of all - students.

Image from filming of Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, 2000.

NCLB was signed into law in the United States in 2002, which started an increasingly ominous impact on education as schools began their transformation from "places of learning" to "test prep centers".

A Wealth of Curriculum Resources - from Mexico City to Your Own Back Yard

5/22/2016

Schools are struggling to find ways to transform themselves into centers of 21st century learning. They ask themselves how they can make school - education - more relevant for their students.

Last summer my husband and I intentionally chose to drive, rather than fly, from central Texas to northern Arizona to work with a middle school. I wanted to take in the incredible scenery of the farms, plains, desert and the pine-forested, snow-capped mountains. It was an incredible experience, and the result was a plethora of possibilities and ideas for projects - just based upon our experiences on that drive. From environmental studies to science fiction and history, the ideas were fantastic. You may read about those in From Science Fiction to Science Fact and in STEM/STEAM Curriculum Ideas are All Around Us.
While I consider myself an explorer and lifelong learner, fully committed to education that is relevant, rigorous and real word, and I always look for creative and exciting possibilities for project-based learning, I too, had an incredible experience recently in a visit to Mexico City.

What the media show us about Mexico certainly had not conveyed to me the astounding wealth of resources in Mexico City and the United Mexican States. For one thing, it seemed to me that the people were very much more polite than the people here in the USA. Sorry about that, Americans! The media paint a picture of Mexico as being backward, dangerous, barren and poverty-stricken. While they certainly do have plenty of poverty, there is more to Mexico than squalor and uneducated heathens.

In my first two days in Mexico several experiences jolted me into a new understanding of the immense possibilities there for educators - not only in Mexico, but worldwide. First was a trip to the Teotihuacan Pyramids, followed by lunch in a spectacular underground restaurant in a cave.