Thursday, February 24, 2011

Spying 21st Century Skills - February B Edition

1. Guidance & Computer Lab teachers are having kids take an interest survey on the My Next Step website in order to narrow down career interests. Students are now using the data from the survey to research more about the careers which best fit their personalities and interests! (Make Judgements & Decisions: Interpret information and draw conclusions based on the best analysis)

2. The Computer Lab teacher is working with 5th grade students to research, paraphrase, and cite in MLA style information about topics in Social Studies (Information Literacy: Access and Evaluate Info, Use and Manage Info; Media Literacy: Analyze Media; Apply Technology Effectively)

3. A Third Grade Teacher had groups of students to use digital cameras to take pictures of geometric shapes found around the school. Students are going to take these images to create a video where they explain how they know what shape the item is. (Collaborate with Others, Communicate Clearly: Articulate thought and ideas effectively; Reason Effectively: Using Deductive Reasoning; Apply Technology Effectively)

4. A PE Teacher is using LMS Discussion Boards as a station during one of his gymnastics lessons. He is having students evaluate their performance during the lesson. (Make Judgments and Decisions: Reflect critically on learning experiences & processes)


5. A 2nd and 4th Grade Teacher had students to jointly write Destiny Book Reviews as part of the Book Buddy process. They plan to upload these reviews to the Destiny site during this nine weeks. (Work Creatively with Others: Develop and communicate new ideas to others effectively; Communicate Clearly: Articulate thoughts and ideas effectively in a variety of contexts; Collaborate with Others; Productivity and Accountability: Produce Results; Leadership and Responsibility: Guide and Lead Others)

6. 3rd Grade Teacher - Students are blogging about geometric shapes in the world around them. In the blogs students included evidence to prove how they knew the item was a certain shape. (Articulate thought and ideas effectively; Reason Effectively: Using Deductive Reasoning; Apply Technology Effectively)

Click here to learn more about the 21st Century Skills highlighted in this post.

Spying 21st Century Skills: February A Edition

3rd Grade Teacher – Using voice narration in PowerPoint so that kids can explain the figurative language they have found in their favorite poem (Collaborating others, Reasoning effectively, Communicating clearly in a variety of methods)


3rd Grade Teacher – Using Glogster to help students define figurative language and to identify figurative language in new poetry they have been reading (Collaborating with Others, Reasoning effectively, Communicating clearly in a variety of methods)

4th Grade Teacher Used an online interactive protractor to give students a different kind of experience with measuring angles. She also used questions and answers to help students “talk out” how they knew whether the angles were obtuse angles, right angles, etc. (Metacognition- Explaining how they know what they know)

PE Teacher - 5th grade students used Excel to chart their heart rate from one fitness activity to another. They created a graph from the data to help identify a pattern in their heart rates. The students also discussed with one another what they found out about their fitness level and heart rates using the LMS Discussion Board. (Reflect critically on learning experiences, Effectively analyze and evaluate, Communicating clearly in a variety of methods)
 Click here to learn more about the 21st Century Skills highlighted in this installment.