21st Century Learning through Projects

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21st Century Learning through Projects

• Kristin Skogstad
• Classroom Teacher-Instructional Coach
• Sioux Falls School District

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Who Am I?

• Mother of Jacob and Emelia
• Wife of Kurt
• Daughter of Wayne and Karen
• Sister of Michelle
• Passionate Learner
• Employee of Sioux Falls School District

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Background

• Classroom Teacher 2nd and 3rd grade
• Intel Teach to the Future Senior Trainer
• Building level Trainer in technology and reading
• Presenter at various workshops, conferences, and
  classes
• Instructional Coach

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Introductions

• Name
• School
• Position
• Experiences in Integrated Projects

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Goals

• Understand what 21st Century Learning is.
• Explore the use of projects in the classroom to
  meet the needs of our students.
• Share resources, ideas, and tools that can be
  used to enhance the teaching of state standards
  through projects.
• Provide time to explore, plan, and create.

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Do you know.

• What do these chat acronyms stand for?
• B4
• LOL
• POS
• GNSTDLTBBB
• CUL8R
• j2lyk

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Did You Know???

• The students in our classrooms are unique. Are
  we meeting their needs?

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21st Century Learners

• Prefer receiving information quickly from
  multiple multimedia sources
• Prefer parallel processing and multitasking.
• Prefer processing pictures, sounds and video
  before text.
• Prefer to interact/network simultaneously with
  many others
• Prefer instant gratification and instant rewards
• Prefer learning that is relevant, instantly
  useful and fun

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By the age of 21

• These learners will have
• Sent 200,000 emails/text messages
• Watched 20,000 hours of TV
• Talked 10,000 hours on a cell phone
• Spent under 5,000 hours reading
• Played 10,000 hours of video games

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Todays Students

• Will most likely have more than 10-15 jobs in
  their lifetime
• Their jobs will require them to be able to adapt
  easily and to be flexible.
• Many of their jobs will require them to be
  self-motivated.
• Must have the integrate 21st century skills into
  subject matter for mastery.

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Why are 21st Century Skills important?

• The demands of the workplace are changing.
• Students need experiences within the global
  community.
• Our students have changed.
• Students need to become 21st century citizens.

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Todays Learners.

• Crave interactivity
• Are digitally literate
• Multitask and are always on
• Are social
• Have a fast response time and short attention
  span.

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Students must be able to

• Think critically
• Solve problems
• Be innovative
• Communicate effectively
• Collaborate
• Be a self-directed learner
• Be information and media literate
• Be civically engaged

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Teaching the 21st Century Learner

• Requires
• Much less emphasis on the amount of material that
  is memorized
• Much more emphasis on making connections,
  thinking through issues, and solving problems

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Teaching the 21st Century Learner

• Teachers Role
• Facilitate peer-to-peer learning
• Provide meaningful, engaging lessons
• Provide opportunities for students to see the
  real-world connections in what they are learning
• Meet students where they are and take them as far
  as they can go
• Provide opportunities for collaboration, problem
  solving, and communication
• A partner in teaching and learning - flexible

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Teaching the 21st Century Learner

• Instructional Implications
• Movement towards blended classes/subject areas
• More collaborative learning approaches
• Continuous and formative assessments
• Greater flexibility and customization lessons to
  meet the needs of all learners

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• Todays education system faces irrelevance
  unless we bridge the gap between how students
  live and how they learn.
• --learning for the 21st century

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Why Projects?

• Many standards can be taught within the context
  of one project.
• Students are engaged in read world situations.
• Active learning
• Fosters the 21st century skills

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Teaching the Core Subjects

• Reading / Language Arts
• Mathematics
• Science
• Civics
• Government
• Arts
• History
• Geography
• Foreign Language / English

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We must rethink our teaching

• The world we have created is a product of our
  thinking. It cannot be changed without changing
  our thinking.
• -Albert Einstein

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Project Resources
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Exploration Time

• Please spend time reviewing the resources that
  can be found on the Intel Education site and the
  Edutopia Site. These links can be found in the
  project folder on the Portaportal Site.

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• If we teach today the way we were taught
  yesterday we aren't preparing students for today
  or tomorrow.

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Why are 21st Century Skills important?

• The demands of the workplace are changing.
• We need to develop within the global community.
• Our students have changed.
• Students need to become 21st century citizens.

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Using 21st Century Learning Skills

• Information and communication skills
• Thinking and problem solving skills
• Interpersonal and self-directional skills

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Within a 21st Century Classroom

• Learning takes place through real-world examples
• Learning must be relevant, engaging, and
  meaningful to students
• Learning must expand beyond the classroom walls
• There needs to be global awareness-learning takes
  place outside the four classroom

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What are the 21st Century Skills?
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Partnership for 21st Century Skills
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What do 21st Century Lessons Look like?

• Work with a partner or small group.
• Read through the lesson examples.
• Determine which lessons engage students in 21st
  century learning.
• Be ready to share what makes one lesson a 21st
  Century lesson.

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The Importance of Questioning
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Break
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Planning for Projects Questions Teachers have.

• How can I use projects when I have to teach all
  of these standards???
• When will I find time to use projects in my
  classroom?
• What is the best way to organize a project?
• How can I help my students with the research?

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Standards and Time.

• Integrated projects allows teachers to teach and
  reinforce many standards at one time.
• Many subject areas can be taught within the
  context of one project. This is especially true
  in elementary classrooms.

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Planning and Organization of Projects

• Intel Unit Plan format
• Determine specific learning goals by using the
  standards and the desired higher-order thinking
  skills
• Develop Curriculum-Framing Questions
• Make an assessment plan
• Design activities
• The Big 6
• Define the problem
• Determine and evaluate possible sources
• Locate sources and find information
• Use the information
• Synthesis- put it all together
• Evaluation of the project or performance

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Individual Work Time

• Use this time to work on a project that you can
  use in your classroom
• How can you enhance a current unit of study by
  taking a project based approach?
• What kinds of questions will you incorporate?
• How can you integrate 21st century skills?

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Resources

• Resources can be found at
• http//sfideas.edublogs.org/
• http//guest.portaportal.com/21stlearning

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Sharing / Wrap Up
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• Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it you will
  land among the stars.
• - Les Brown

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What Questions do you have?

• All links and hand-outs can be found at the
  following websites
• http//sfideas.edublogs.org/