Braun Syncro Shaver

We all draw on our past when it comes to judging education. Better yet, we judge education by how well the children are doing. We want kids to be prepared to live successfully in the world when they become adults, and we expect schools to prepare them. Their world is the 21st Century.

The Internet Generation

Children in school today are part of the Internet Generation, or N-geners for short. What we need to be asking ourselves is if the schools of today are preparing this young Internet generation well enough to be successful in their future of tomorrow? Our society is no longer reliant on farming and industrial pursuits to be successful? What will be the defining aspects of the lives of the Internet Generation? What tools will they need to thrive in their world? It seems as though everyone has their own opinion, let us explore what the owners and managers in corporate America will be looking for from this generation.

In the article Rigor Redefined (2008), Tony Wagner interviewed many corporate CEOs to find out what they are looking for in todays workforce. Wagner was surprised at some of the answers he discovered to his questions. For example, the President of BOC Edwards indicated that what he was looking for first and foremost was someone to ask good questions. He stated that while they could always teach the technical stuff, it is very difficult to teach someone how to think and to ask good questions.

Many of these company CEOs shared their need to hire people who can work collaboratively in teams to discuss and come up with out of the box solutions for todays problems. All of this points to a need for educators to integrate into their teaching, meaningful activities with Blooms Taxonomy in mind. Throw out the old ditto sheets and give students real problems to solve. Give them opportunities to work in teams and make presentations of their work.

Redefine Rigor

Schools today need to understand the needs of their students and adjust their curriculums to meet those needs. It is a real concern when I see packaged curriculums used with no supporting real world examples attached to them. It is troublesome that the Teachers Guides provided to teachers require them to proceed with a lesson without really thinking about the real world applications. And School Districts are requiring teachers to report on planning and pacing guides the lessons taught every day, leaving little room for teaching outside the box.

A favorable rapport between student and teacher is critical to the learning process. A student must feel that their teacher understands where they are coming from and how they will learn the best. Teachers can meet this goal best when they are able to provide relevant lesson plans that their students can relate to.

Technology

This is the internet generation. We need to find ways for students to use technology in their learning. It is natural to them, and we can introduce them to the many ways technology can be used for good. The use of smart boards, projectors for PowerPoint presentations, classroom response systems, and even cell phones may be in our future as teachers. Rather than resisting this trend, we must find ways to embrace it and further connect to the children of the Internet Generation.

Integrated Learning

One way to keep packaged planning and pacing guides and subject programs from becoming dull and monotonous is to integrate experiential content into the traditional reading and writing curriculum. Social studies and science, topics that have traditionally been stand alone subjects, can actually be used to provide exciting and interesting subject matter for reading and writing classes.

The trend we are seeing toward cutting social studies and science to focus more on reading, writing and math in our school districts is disturbing. A simple solution is to integrate those subjects into the basic core skills in order to provide a rich and interesting curriculum to our students. A lack or social studies and science instruction will result in students unable to make connections and apply their knowledge to other subject areas, a critical component to lifelong success.

Many of us are trying to raise student achievement for kids in poverty. 16.66% of all school age children are below the poverty line. This means we have children who lack essential background knowledge and vocabulary of the middle and upper class peers. Focusing on tested subjects of reading, writing and math, at the expense of social studies, science and the arts only intensifies this trend.

Building of cultural literacy through social studies, science and the arts should become a mission for parents and teachers alike in order to provide all children a chance for a better life. It is a known fact that a person will learn something new much better if they have something on which to compare it with. School is often the best place to provide this knowledge, particularly for those students from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

Viable research has shown that cultural literacy is highly correlated with academic achievement, which in turn is correlated to annual income. If our job as educators is to prepare children for the 21st Century, then we must attend to the building of knowledge, not just teach them to read, write and do math.

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