Partnership for 21st Century Skills

I have just had the opportunity to browse the website of P21 (Partnership for 21st Century Skills). The url for the website is http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/. I greatly enjoyed learning about what P21 is all about.

The mission statement for the Partnership for 21st Century Skills is to "Serve as a catalyst to position 21st century skills at the center of US K-12 education by building collaborative partnerships among education, business, community and government leaders."

I feel that this is something that our schools need in order to prepare our U.S. students with the skills that they need in order to compete in the global workforce. I was a little surprised that this is actually the first I have heard of P21. I was also surprised to see that my home state of South Carolina is not on the list of states that are currently involved in this initiative.

I did not see anything on the site that I disagree with. I feel that what P21 is doing can have some very positive implications for our students. By teaching students by the framework created by P21, I feel that we will be doing a better job of preparing them for the 21st Century workplace and therefore giving them an advantage in an increasingly competitive job market.

Using Blogs in the Classroom

I teach high school math (grades 9-12) in Greenwood, SC. I have never used blogs in my classroom. However, I can see many ways that they could be useful. I hope to begin using a blog during the new semester since I will begin with new students. I think the initial purpose of my blog will be a place to basically "extend" the classroom. I will post entries that reflect on lessons and explain more difficult concepts. I will post links to sites that students can use to help them with homework as well as links to any powerpoints that were used so that students can print their notes if they miss class. I will also post about student achievements in my classroom. As I become more comfortable with using a blog, I hope to extend the purpose of the blog to have students discuss about topics learned in class. Students sometimes have trouble writing about math, but I believe that when they can explain what they are doing in words, they better understand what they are doing. By having students explain concepts and discuss concepts through a blog, I believe that they will gain a deeper understanding of the material.