1.The basis for 21st approaches to education lies in creating. The assignment required our group to begin with a level of understanding of teaching and learning. We then used this information to analyze exactly what some of the issues in education are and how we could address them through professional development. The next step required our group to take the first two steps and create an effective and necessary professional development plan for our staff.
There were no cut and dry answers that we could could use to develop these questions. The questions were developed based on understanding, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. Another aspect is the sharing of ideas and thoughts in order to teach and learn from each other. Gaining some perspective on the other students points of view.
2. The most interesting thing about this activity was getting input from group members with different levels of experience. I was intriguing to see how the four of us shared our ideas because two group members are experienced teachers while the other two have yet to begin their careers. The insight given by all of the group members spanned across the board even though much of the information shared was similar in content.
I was impressed by the suggestions for improvement made by the other group when they revised our questions using Bloom's Cognitive Taxonomy. They were very effective in taking our question and turning it into one that incorporated language from the new taxonomy map.
3. The value of exploring ideas about public education in the future is one that will determine what kind of educational leader I will be. Am i going to be an administrator who is reactive or proactive? Am i gonna see the changes coming and implement strategies prior to the movement or react to them after the movement? I am beginning to learn that if you cannot anticipate the direction of education early enough, I'll be behind in the game. If you're not early, you're late. Education in New Jersey is going through changes as we speak. I teach in a charter school that does some things differently than traditional public schools. We have an 11 month school year, two teachers in the classroom, active boards in each classroom, and instruction that flows through the use of technology. We have been doing many of these things for years now so it is somewhat amusing to start reading articles in the paper or seeing reports on the news about technology in classrooms and lengthening the school year. Something my colleagues and I have talked about for years is the notion that eventually districts would begin to make changes to improve their schools. Changes that we've already incorporated. So, when I think about public education and the future,I know thatits my job to make sure I'm ahead of the change.
5. This question is basically an add-on to what i expressed in question 3. Change is not something that is universally excepted in schools. It usually is met with resistance. The first step is identifying what it is that needs to be changed. The next step is a plan for the change. This is followed by the implementation or infusion of that plan. The final step is the consistency to stick to the plan, review, analyze, and revise if necessary. So what is the connection? The connection is the activity required us to think about a PD idea for our staff and incorporate 21st century skills. In order to do this, our group needed to to think about areas that we realize many schools are lacking in, mainly ours. Once identified, we needed to address the area of weakness with some worthwhile PD that could encourage teachers to create through collaboration. What I mean by this is for teachers to create a climate that is conducive learning that is based on structuring, experimenting, exploring, and construction whether it be generated by teacher to student creativity or student to student creativity.
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