In class today we discussed the attributes and skills needed to be successful in the 21st Century. We also read portions of the Time Magazine article. So in this first post back from break, what are your thoughts. Describe the school of the 21st Century. You are living in it. What does it look like? What experiences does it provide?
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01.04.07 at 11:09 pm
Personally, I think that students should look forward to coming to school every morning. I am constantly hearing and speaking vulgar remarks about the upcoming day and the schedule, and am quite fed up. I think that the school of the twenty first century should not teach us the smallest battle in the smallest unnecessary war, or how many rivers there are in south America, but we should learn what we need to know for the future. We need to focus more on the general and not the in depth. Also, I think there should be life courses that teach you about the world you are going to enter after college, it’s a scary place and most high school students, especially private school students, are sheltered from it. The future school looks clean and crisp, all computers and technology with some teacher involvement but mostly computer aided learning. It is kind of sad to look at America’s school systems and compare them to that of 100 years prior, and seeing that they are very similar. Also, the teachers need to make classes interesting, taking notes for 45 minutes isn’t exactly a bucket of fun and when teachers do do fun activities, they only leave you begging for more. Also, the learning environment has to be created in a succesful manner to provide maximum learning capacity. Being in a hot classroom on spring days or cold rooms on winter days doesn’t really make you feel like learning much at all. In closing I think that more attention should be paid to education in America because students are the future of the country, we are the people that will be doing your taxes or re-financing your house, shouldn’t our education be what comes first?
ChadNRandor
01.04.07 at 11:52 pm
This winter break, as part of my gift receiving, I was given a check from my aunt. As stupid as this sounds, I’ve never cashed a check before. I got to the bank, no knowing what to do. Little did I know it was one of the easiest processes in the world, but that’s beyond the point. The point is, no one taught me to cash a check. Where am I supposed to learn that? It’s certainly not school. Isn’t school supposed to prepare you for the future? School gives you a lot of knowledge, but most, if not all, does not have anything to do with life. I’m mean, yes if 4x = 8 then x = 2, but when was the last time you inserted 4x quarters in the vending machine to receive a candy bar? Some of the things we learn simply aren’t useful. Yes, adding and subtracting is important, but so is the skill of using a calculator, which I don’t know how to use, because I’ve never needed one because my teachers have never let me. Why haven’t I been able to use a calculator! Is the journey of solving a problem as important as getting the correct answer? Why don’t schools have a class teaching students to use calculators? Why not use every tool available to allow us to succeed? Overall, I think one good idea for teaching life skills to students would be to have them work a job per week, in a different field, every week. After all, to life, one must work (or be seriously rich from a job). This would give students the ability to learn about everyday things like teamwork, motivation, not to mention normal school curriculum like math English science and history. It would also allow the students to get a hands on feel for discovering their interests and desires for their future careers and life.
01.05.07 at 12:27 am
I love this school. Honestly i do. The education I get here, and the student teacher relationship is great. Although i absolutely hate the student body, and i know you guys love me back, that is not how i judge this school. I really do enjoy going here becuase i am challenged by this school unlike WPS and i feel like i am doing something. I take school seriously and with that type of attitude i look at this school as an enjoyalbe obligation insyead of a burden. However, i think this school gives kids too much work. I go home on friday and i go to bed at seven o’clock. I am spent at the end of the week. Another thing is that we go to a prep school which is like in like the 2 percentile or less of all schools in the world. So the school of the 21st century is probably a public school. I’ll tell you from experience that public school sucks, really bad. I did not learn one thing from my freshman year. Yet i went to Doherty to pick up my brother from his robotics club meeting and i realized that when i was there they did not have the robotics club. So, i guess even public schools are getting more advanced. Another thing is that i realized they had new computers in place of the old ones i have used all my WPS life. I think the whole world is advancing if Worcester is. That’s a good thing but then they need to take courses out and replace them with new courses up to date with the advancements of society. Instead of gym learning to play dodgeball we should have engineering or medical studies and not just for an older age group. Stop teaching latin when it is not a spoken language. Teach us Chinese. Teach us Arabic. Teach us something that we will use in life. Teach us life skills. I’m not going into chemistry or physics as an adult. If you want to be a scientist then go learn all that crap, but if you want to go into law do you need to know Avagadro? No. I think the school of the future, maybe in the 22nd century, will be a vocational school. This school does give you some good life lessons. Like not to be late, or to be where you’re supossed to be.
01.05.07 at 2:16 am
School hasn’t changed much, except for the attitude and culture that has been created by the students and faculty. Kids aren’t really afraid of their teachers anymore, and there is more interaction between students during the school day. More and more, we are encouraged to talk in class, and work in groups, do group projects, and peer edit. However, there is still a lot of sitting in class and listening and taking notes. This might be the most basis form of attaining information and learning, but the information is often lost very quickly, unless the notes are revisited. However, the revisiting usually occurs right before a test and is quickly forgotten, the space emptied to make room for more information that will be disposed of just as fast.
It seems that the information I retain the best, is that which is accompanied by pictures, labs, or small anecdotes. We all have different styles of learning that work best, but when all of the senses are involved, the information can be remembered in many ways and on many different levels. It is, therefore, my home that as the 21st century rolls on, that teaching and learning continues to progress. Technology helps, allowing for visual aids and fast access to information, but it is important to ensure that the vast amount of information is accompanied with a connection, a picture, something that will help students remember the problem, equation, or concept and be able to incorporate it into the real world.
01.05.07 at 3:01 am
The school of the 21st century will look nothing like a class room as we know it today. Instead of sitting at desks student will sit in chairs with computers built in front of them. Text books will be obsolete, student will be giving books on disc. Backpacks, notebooks, and eventually pens will be unnecessary. Homework will be turned in via email; notes will be taken on the computers; anything you need to write can be typed. Computers will revolutionize education. Instead of taking numerous science classes student will take a generic science class. Other classes like how to use the computers will be put into the younger grades curriculum. It will be more important to know how to operate a computer than name the element in alphabetical order. What is important to know to be successful in life will shift forever, technology will eventually the most important thing to have knowledge in.
01.05.07 at 4:16 am
The education of the 21st century should incorporate the technology available in order to introduce children and teenagers into the world that they will soon have to live in for themselves. As a student at Worcester Academy, I have noticed that we are in a lineal stage between old school education and new school education. While some teachers have incorporated technology into their curriculum, many are hesitant to shy away from their blackboards and handwritten notes. As this class has shown, we have the opportunity to post Blogs over the Internet for our peers to view and react to and our educator to easily view and grade. However, as a student, I have only experienced this integration of Internet and education within this single class. The technology available in 2007 alone gives today’s students the advantage to use graphs, slideshows, clip art, media design, and the Internet to help express their views and their ideas. We have the ability to give laptops to every student, which eliminates handwritten notes. That alone allows more time in the classroom to move ahead or integrate more exercises instead of lectures. Within the 21st century I expect to see complete integration of technology in the classroom to expand the education of young adults. There should be a laptop on every desk that allows the student to eliminate the hassle of paperwork and handouts. Instead of carrying six binders around they can sort their files all on the computer. Tests could be given through the laptops instead of on paper. Students’ class work would soon become more categorized and thus will also eliminate excuses as to why they forgot their binder at home that conveniently had their homework inside of it. Its time to take advantage of what technology has done for us and the freedom it has given us to explore the world.
01.05.07 at 2:06 pm
I agree with completely. The 21st century should embody technology to childeren and tenagers because they are the furture of the world. Technologically I think Worcester Acadmy is up to date with technology, but it isnt the ordinary 21st century school. The idle 21st century school should allow or provide students with laptops to take note, other than having us handwrite notes like it has been done for many years in the past.I also agree to a certain extent that tests should be given online, the only problem is the teacher wouldn’t know if the student was truely learning. The idle 21st century school should be equiped with more technologgy than hands on work. I feel as if when im doing work with the computer it seems more fun than just doing work in the classroom listining to a teach lecture and we take note.
01.05.07 at 3:00 pm
I think that schools in the 21st century need to teach us stuff that is actually going to help us out in the future when we grow up and are on our own in the world. I’m sure everyone agrees that most of the stuff we learn is completely pointless and we are never going to use it ever again once we take the test in that subject on that chapter. Also, if we ever need to find the answer to anything, its usually just a click away on google or wikipedia. The 21st century school needs to prepare us better for the future, and technology is a big part of that. Schools definitely need to incorporate computers more, and teach how to use important programs such as excel because we are going to need them once we get out of college.
01.05.07 at 4:45 pm
I completely agree with Bino. I think that “most” of the things that we are learning are very useless and most likely are never going to be used again. Granted there are certain topics tht might prove to be useful in the future but the majority of subjects being taught to us are going to mean nothing. Schools need to realize this and start preparing us for the real world by teaching us things that we are most likely going to use after our years of schooling. Yes, high school work teaches us about time management and such things but there are so many more components to life after schooling that we should be learing about. Like Bino said, the first step to doing this would be to start using computers more and teaching us the different softwares and shortcuts in technology.
01.05.07 at 5:03 pm
i belive that school in the 21st century is not much differnt then how it used to be except that school is now working around technology that has been made. I also think that public schooling is much differnt then private schooling. When i was in public school, i was taught to memorize and just do the work. After i did the work i would get a good grade, but i felt like i was not learning much and that i was being taught really nothing. When i came to Worcester Academy it was a very hard transition..and it still is for me. After i read and did work i was basically forced to analyze and to spend more time on my work that i was supposed to. I love the feeling of being at private school and actually learning, then just memorizing.
The world is constantly changing around us. Now with computers, students and faculty no longer have to research in books, now knowledge is at our fingertips, and the keyboard. Google and other search engines now give students the ability to research online at any given point. The only bad thing is that all websites are not true facts. People have to find out what is real and not real.
Over all i think that schooling is the same as it has always been, just that the world is evolving and our schooling is adapting to the 21st century.
01.08.07 at 1:15 pm
I believe that the school of the 21st century needs to teach us things that will be valauble in the future and in the present but not as much things of the past. We should leearn of things in the past and how they have been bettered, but we should not linger in the past. We should learn of new ways of doing things and make our own ways. We should create our own future, by using things we learn.
There aren’t many differences in the school of the 21st century except for the fact that we use new technologies that were never in use befoe this time. We have new quicker and more efficeint ways of doing things, and are able to do way more.
01.10.07 at 3:14 am
The education of the 21st century needs to advance in what is being taught in the classrooms. As time and technology advances i believe ciriculems should as well. I agree with Jason, I think more focus should be put on things that will be valuable to us in the future. Yes, learning how many rivers are in the the United States might have seemed to be important way back when but in the long run it gets us nowhere. There should be more tests on hands on things on real life projects, not how to make the solar system out of cardboard. The technology of modern day provides so many resources for students that it should be introduced at a young age. Laptops should be availible for students, not only does it cut down the weight of a normal highschool student backpack but it allows teachers to quickly send outlines, links, powerpoints etc. to each student directly in class. The advancements in technology does not happen just to happen, it happens to advance the rest of the world and without changes in the classroom that is not possible.
roberto matosas 06.01.08 at 8:51 am
¿Soy un director siglo XXI?
Por Roberto Matosas
“Si no es aquí, dónde?
Si no es ahora, cuándo?
Si no lo hago yo, quién?”.
El Talmud, s. V a.c.
Las escuelas, los directores y los maestros están viviendo la época con más oportunidades para dejar huella en los alumnos! Porque el desinterés, el valemadrismo y la falta de apoyo de los padres la están obligando a hacer más de lo que pueden y a buscar soluciones y alternativas por encima de su verdadero cometido. Muchos están haciendo las cosas bien, a pesar de la entropía, la incomunicación y la falta de apoyo de los progenitores, que aumenta día a día en proporciones cuánticas. Aunque en educación los desafíos son enormes y nunca se acaban, el reto de las instituciones educativas es mantener una cultura de trabajo que genere lo que demanda- entre muchas características- la época: curiosidad que alienta la innovación, creatividad, madre del genio, iniciativa que encienda la responsabilidad, dinamismo, maestría y, sobre todo, una enorme convicción de lo que se puede aportar con talento, servicio y aprendizaje. Lo que sin duda culminará con su razón de ser institucional: esa búsqueda incansable de metodología, causa prima de todo proyecto trascendente. Un trabajo titánico!
Desafíos a los que están enfrentados los docentes, (liderados por el director)
Con una siempre renovada economía mundial, en un nuevo entorno de poder personal e inundados por un oceánico torrente de información, la labor administrativa escolar demanda de una nueva cultura e incluso en definir y precisar lo que representa la educación y ser educado.
La época que nos ha tocado vivir nos obliga a replantearnos qué es lo básico, qué es lo fundamental de la enseñanza. ¿Es una mínima de conocimiento o ciertos valores fundamentales? En otras palabras, cómo se educa mejor ¿enseñando de todo o enseñando lo más importante?
¿Cómo deberían articularse, en este nuevo milenio, las relaciones entre escuela, padres y alumnos en el ámbito educativo?
¿Cómo conseguir la necesaria independencia, confianza e iniciativa frente a las nuevas exigencias de la hiper modernidad?
¿O, en otras palabras, cómo alcanzar una seductora realización académica sin que los niños sean los grandes prerjudicados?
¿Cómo integrar la cultura visual a los programas educativos. Libro, computador y TV no son enemigos, son complementos.
¿Cómo enseñar a procesar y manejar la información, no a acumularla (entender, explicar, comprender).
Lo anterior con respecto a la adecuación de los sistemas educacionales, y lo más importante: qué pasa con la gente?, ¿qué hacemos con las personas?, qué le pedimos al individuo?
¿Cómo lograr que seamos más creativos con la información?
¿Cómo obbtener que el aprendizaje (lo nuevo) supere al entrenamiento (lo conocido)?
¿Cómo ir más allá de la mera instrucción para proponerse formar buenos ciudadanos?
Relacionado con lo anterior, te invito a que nos compartas tu opinión siempre valiosa sobre:
• Como definirías al maestro del siglo XXI?
• Cómo definirías el salón de clases del siglo XXI?
• Cómo definirías al estudiante del siglo XXI?
Antonio 06.01.08 at 7:15 pm
Roberto, thanks for you comment. I have attempted to translate your post. I hope I was able to capture the essence.
Translated from previous comment:
“I am a director 21st century? By Matosas Robert “If it is not here, where? If it is not now, when? If I do not do, who”. The Talmud, s. V a.c. The schools, the directors and the teachers are living the time with more opportunities to leave track in the students! Because the disinterestedness, the valemadrismo and the lack of support of are forcing it to the parents to do more than they can and to look for solutions and alternatives over its true assignment. Many are making the things good, in spite of the entropy, the isolation and the lack of support of the ancestors, whom day to day in quantum proportions increases. Although in education the challenges are enormous and they never finish, the challenge of the educative institutions is to maintain a work culture that it generates what the time demands between many characteristics: curiosity that encourages the innovation, creativity, mother of the genius, initiative that ignites the responsibility, dynamism, masters and, mainly, an enormous conviction than can be contributed with talent, service and learning. What without a doubt it will culminate with his reason of being institutional: that untiring search of methodology, causes premium of all important project. A mammoth work! Challenges which the educational ones are faced, (led by the director) With always renewed world-wide economy, in new surroundings of being able personal and flooded by an oceanic torrent of information, the administrative work scholastic demand of a new culture and even in defining and needing what represents the education and educated being. The time that has been called on to us to live forces to us to reframe to us what is the basic thing, what is the fundamental thing of education. It is a minim of knowledge or certain fundamental values? In other words, how it is educated better teaching of the everything or teaching most important? How they would have to articulate, in this new millenium, the relations between school, parents and students in the educative scope? How to secure necessary independence, confidence and initiative against the new exigencies of hiper modernity? Or, in other words, how to reach a seductive academic accomplishment without the children are great the prerjudicados ones? How to integrate the visual culture to the educative programs. Book, computer and TV are not enemy, are complements. How to teach to process and to handle the information, not to accumulate it (to understand, to explain, to include/understand). The previous thing with respect to the adjustment of the educational systems, and most important: what happens with people? , what we do with the people? , what we asked to him to the individual? How to obtain that we are more creative with the information? How to obbtener that the learning (the new thing) surpasses to the training (the well-known)? How to go beyond the mere instruction to set out to train good citizens? Related to the previous thing, I invite to you to that you share your always valuable opinion to us on: • As you would define the teacher of the 21st century? • How you would define the hall classes of the 21st century? • How you would define the student of the 21st century?”
Antonio 06.01.08 at 7:26 pm
As you would define the teacher of the 21st century?
The teacher of the 21st century is more a facilitator of learning than a keeper of knowledge. There was a time where students looked to their teachers as the primary source of important information, concepts and big ideas. In today’s age, students and teachers are living in a world where information is available to anyone, anytime. As Daniel Pink states, we are moving toward a conceptual age where ideas and concepts meld into larger essential understandings.
How you would define the hall classes of the 21st century?
I think the classroom of the future should take a lesson from some of the most innovative companies in the world. I recently visited Google in NYC and I was overwhelmed by the way the space was designed and the atmosphere Google tries to create. Everything about the offices is geared toward cultivating creativity, innovation and design. These spaces are flexible, comfortable, collaborative and intended to foster team work and problem solving. Our classrooms look similar to the way they did over 100 years ago.
How you would define the student of the 21st century?
The student of the 21st century is a creative designer and communicator, capable of collaborative problem solving and a skill set that allows them to work in any environment.
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