21st Century Skills

I've been hearing a lot about 21st century skills! They are all over education, being talked about in the biz world and there was an panel at the AEP (Arts Education Partnership) Forum this past month in Cambridge that talked about these skills and how THE ARTS can play a part in their development in children.

This is a big topic and a way for the arts to be promoted in the schools. Although the skills themselves are not directly associated with the arts, the are embedded in the arts and arts education.

In future blogs I would like to talk more about this and also put this topic in the forum, but for now, here is some basic info on 21st century skills:
Learning and Innovation Skills

* Creativity and Innovation
* Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
* Communication and Collaboration

Information, Media and Technology Skills

* Information Literacy
* Media Literacy
* ICT Literacy

Life and Career Skills
for much more informative and elaborate information, visit http://21stcenturyskills.org

As I mentioned above, these skills can certainly be taught through the arts. This idea of workforce preparedness and people's ability to think critically plays a huge part in this as well.

There is so much to this...more is sure to come.

Being a Creative Teacher is OK! - a lesson in Main Idea

Scripted Teaching - yuck! But is it part of our everyday teaching routine. Our reading and math series are so planned out, that it is rare that I make an actual lesson plan. The editors have given objectives, procedures, warm up activities, enrichment ideas, projects, games, material lists, materials and extra practice, to name a few. Sure I tweak the lessons to fit the needs of my students, but do I dare stray from the book?

Well, YES sometimes I do. In fact, it happened this week and I am so glad I did!

The topic was main idea in the reading series we use and I decided to call on an old favorite of mine - bringing in a guest teacher, "MI". This character (that I become) talks funny, acts funny and gets the point across. MI talks about what he wants to talk about and then asks the kids to come up with reasons why he said what he said. For example, if MI says "Dogs are cute!" One student may give a reason (a supporting detail SD): They tilt their head when they look at you. Then that student comes up and holds up (supports) MI's arm. This goes on a couple more times until the other arm and a leg is being supported by the details for the main idea. There is more to this lesson, but in short:

The kids love it and always ask for more, "When is MI coming back??"

The arts - in this case, drama - bring ideas alive, give life to lessons and help students to gain a deeper understanding of a concept. I can guarantee that these kids will remember MI for years!

Better than a worksheet, huh??