The students and I begin a new adventure together.
So much has been written over the past several years about how important 21st Century Skills are to our students' present and future success. When I asked to come back to teaching, I came with a strong sense of what I wanted to accomplish via my classroom.
I believe a strong library program offers a perfect platform to converge these skill sets across the educational gamut.
For our students to be prepared for the future predictions of the world they will live in, we must allow time for them to build upon the foundation of who they are right now as learners. They need to recognize themselves in the process. They need to reflect on their practice. They need to be actively involved in as many educational decisions as possible. They need to acknowledge the power they have over their own learning. They need to recognize and apply 21st Century Skills sets with deliberation.
When I share my perspective with some folks, I am often reminded how young elementary students are. Yes, they are young.
But I believe in my heart-of-hearts that students do stretch to the expectations you place before them. I believe them quite capable of applying process skills with precision. I believe it is my responsibility to offer educational experiences where they can recognize and apply personal strategies as they experiment with communicating, collaborating and creative decision-making, thinking processes.
So here's the plan. During each marking period, we will operate within a themed perspective. Library curriculum will be presented within the context of each theme. The themes are communication, collaboration, thinking, and creativity. We will drop the buzz word designation "21st Century". From now on, we will call them SS (Sand Skills) because I believe these skills bridge and fill their educational space. (Thanks, Chris D. for the analogy idea).
We have a talked about where we are going on our learning journey and will document our stops and experiences along the way.
I look forward to us learning about information, research, communication, collaboration, thinking and creativity application skills together.
Lewis and Clark faced their journey with audacity and a sense of adventure. And, I think, so will we!
