“All children are gifted. Some just open their presents later than others.”

In recognition of National Education Week, I chose a quote from Education World as my title for this week.  I truly believe this statement and think teaching students using lessons involving 21st Century skills can help them find their gifts and open them sooner rather than later.

 I have been talking with teachers regarding 21st century skills and each time I mention them I remind teachers that what we need to think about is how will this help my students in their future workplace.  I was in a technical education classroom the other week and the teacher was covering the design process.  Students were reviewing these steps and could identify the need behind each phase of this process.  The skill of understanding from an engineering standpoint the design process is a skill not many students will obtain by the time they leave our high school.  These are the types of skills that 21st century skills include.

Teachers often think that there needs to be some link to “technology” behind everything they do in the classroom.  If technology is the best way to teach the skill or is the basis of a skill (i.e. media literacy), then the students will need to use “technology”.  However, sometimes technology may get in the way of their learning.  In the case of this technology education class, the students were developing sketches, done by hand, creating a model and then developing a prototype before the actual final product.  With my experience in the manufacturing field, I know this is an important process for engineers in developing new products.  What a powerful experience for these students.  It was especially rewarding as an observer seeing they truly understood each step they were doing in this project. 

So, when you think about 21st century skills, please consider if this skill (life and career skills, learning and innovative skills, information, media and technology skills) will assist your students in the workplace.

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”