Semester Two, Semester Anew

After last semester, I feel as though I've learned a lot about learning, teaching, and 21st century skills. Thus, even just the first three days of 21st CC this semester have gone smoother. Last semester I offered students a very open-ended project about this course, what they hoped to learn in it, and what 21st century skills are. The projects were as loose as my instructions. This semester, I introduced the students to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills right off the bat, and we began discussing and working with the related buzzwords. Students are creating a variety of projects now to discuss what they think those skills mean and might look like. The projects are due tomorrow and I can't wait to see and upload some of them.

Sites You Said Were Interesting (Class Post)

Dearest 21st Century Students,

I've finally looked through your website research and pulled out the websites you found and included on the lists you turned in to me. So, if you're struggling with your Social Bookmarking and Blogging project, you might want to turn to some of these sites for inspiration.

Organization Sites

Linkable - social bookmarking

Evernote - it's like an online notebook where anything of any medium can go

SpringPad - very similar to evernote

Chore Buster - create lists to organize your chores and other tasks

Hassle Me - this site will nag you until you complete the task it's nagging you to do

Trip It - useful for organizing travel plans

Interesting Sites

StumbleUpon - a random search engine that directs you to websites fitted to your interets

Youth Noise - where young people have a voice on world issues

Pinterest - photo sharing and organizing

Epicurious - food

Personal Sites

iGoogle - a personalized homepage

Tumblr - microblogging

Academically Useful Sites

EasyBib - use for creating bibliographies

My Favorite Websites (Example for Class)

To my faithful readers: Herein lie many of my favorite websites, ready for you to browse and enjoy. Even if you're familiar with them, maybe I've included some ideas of how that website can be useful to you that you haven't yet thought of.

Setting an Example

Last night I wrote the Social Bookmarking and Blogging Project for my 21st Century class to complete over the next week and a half or so. Guess that means I better get back to blogging to set a good example. Overall, the students' reactions to the class have been largely positive. Though I know they're often being patient with me and with the technology as we grow and build upon the curriculum. I'm blessed to be teaching such patient, flexible students. And as much as I'm enjoying this semester, I'm even more excited for next semester when the curriculum has already had a trial run and I can begin making adjustments. I just wish the same group of kids would be with me in the spring.

A Fresh Start

I began this blog because there was chatter around school about me possible teaching a new class in the fall, but nothing was official yet. That new class was supposed to be called "21st Century Communications." Well, the chatter was right and starting in August I'll be piloting this semester-long, elective class for sophomores through seniors. Here's the catch - there's no curriculum. Thankfully, a somewhat-local high school already has this class in place and their leader is of the sharing disposition. I have a copy of their year-long, required class curriculum, ready and waiting my adaptations. Quite the project.

Improvement Already

In just a few, okay four, hours the other day, I made some significant leaps and bounds in planning for second semester. With that much already done, I feel like I can be truly successful in making those lessons more 21st century, and generally better and more interesting for that mattter.
Don't stop now Special K!

We'll see!

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Mission Summary

It's finally winter break. Finally. I love my job, but, yes, finally! Two weeks of rest, family, too much food, running, and time for myself. The end of the semester marks the end of the "Romeo and Juliet" unit I taught. It went well. The kids liked the play, they did well on the exams, and they turned in some good quality projects. Of course some of them learned nothing, did poorly on the exams, and turned in horrific projects. But what can you do.
The real point of this blogpost is to reflect on how much of a 21st century educator I was during this unit. Which was, as you may know, my goal in starting this blog at the same time I started that unit. To sum it up - I failed. Miserably. I did nothing different than I did in "The Odyssey" unit. Every day I thought about it and never came up with anything.
But I'm not one to dwell on the disappointing past. So here's the plan - I have two weeks to get started on the next unit for my freshmen. That means I can research and reflect to my heart's content. I know I can do this. I really do know. And even though I didn't succeed during "R&J" I certainly did learn. I learned how it felt to disappoint yourself, I learned how to do better, I learned that I really am motivated to do this. Besides, my next unit is nonfiction, and I KNOW there's a ton of great stuff I can do with that. It's definitely more free and open.
So, onward and upward, I hope.
We'll see.