My New Views as a 21st Century Teacher

This course has helped me in ways I would have never expected. When I first saw the learning resources for this course, my first thought was about my own learning using wikis, blogs, and podcast, but I never imagined that what I was going to learn was how to use them in behalf of my students learning. About my technology skills, it helped me greatly to learn how to use podcasts and the technology I would need to do them, discovering that it is easier to use than I thought once you get the basics. The feature I enjoyed the most was the wiki, I have come up with so many ideas on how to use that great tool in my classroom, and how it can help me professionally as well.

My knowledge about the learning process and teaching have changed somehow. I have never had a teacher-centered perspective. I have always believed that students must discover, research, and create to make their learning meaningful and long lasting. This course has helped me to acquire more tools and skills to be able to accomplish this goal in ways more pertinent to the 21st century generations.

I will continue expanding my knowledge of learning, teaching, and leading with technology to achieve student achievement by staying updated about new trends in technology, gathering resources and tools I will be able to use, and sharing knowledge with other teachers. Probably the most important aspect of all is staying focused in my students as human beings with strengths and weaknesses who need me to care about them deeply individually, keeping in mind their learning styles and specialty.  

I cannot think about two long-term goals within two years to transform my classroom environment because I have no idea of what I will find in my classroom when I finally begin working as a teacher this next year in Baltimore. Even though, all this knowledge gave birth to the idea of developing a technological school for low-resources students in my home country Puerto Rico by federal government proposals. Probably, I will be able to start working in this idea within 3 or 4 years from now. I want to give those children the opportunity of learning in a different way and help as I can to provide my island with the recent tools in technology. My logo will be: “Every child with the Internet at hands.” I am sure God will help me to achieve this goal to help in the development of the children from the country I love so much.

There is no way I can determine how my answers to the checklist from Week 1 have changed in my practice because I am not working as a teacher at the moment. Even though, I believe that the area I have changed my views the most is in developing technology skills for the school and workplace environments. I will definitely take an active role implementing the technology needed in the school I will work in the future to assume my role as a digital immigrant teacher, allowing my students to build artifacts to construct their learning.

My Reactions to P21

Partnership for the 21st Century

I did an overview of the website "Partnership for the 21st Century" (P21) for this blog. I found it fascinating. I believe it is an excellent tool for teachers, policymakers, parents, and community to be aware of the new education trends facing us all to what awaits us in this new century. 

What surprised me the most was how it addresses the policymakers and encourages them to change educational laws giving them tools on the new trends like, for example, how to implement 21st century skills, a guide for how to implement it in curriculum and instruction, and why it is so important to do so,  among other important information. They also have a feature to assess schools and teachers in 21st century readiness, which I did on myself, and I found out I am well oriented as a 21st century educator, though I still have lots to learn. I also liked that you can find out what other states are doing using the P21 content and their events.

I did not find anything I could disagree with in the website, at least as far as I went in my exploration. All the contrary, I was wondering myself before exploring this website if there was a way of having a guide to implement curriculum, instruction, assessment, and techniques according to what our students need to be ready for their future careers in the 21st century. It is wonderful to find out that a group of people had this idea of linking all those matters related to our children education in every way to instruct them and give them tools to be able to help the students to develop these skills.

As a contemporary teacher, P21 is a tool that will change my view on how a 21st century classroom should be like, a great provider of new ideas and techniques, and a valuable resource to stay updated about new trends in education.