Week 2 Blog Reflection
It is crucial for teachers to wake up and change what they have done for years. Students today are different and they have very unique needs. Today’s classrooms are also victims to reform. For example, all students are mainstreamed into the general education classrooms. It is important for teachers to be knowledgeable about student needs and accommodations due to learning disabilities. Many schools have to cut back on staffing; my school is no exception. We have 83 students with IEPs, yet only have 1 and ½ special education teachers. General Ed. Teachers are having to fill-in the gaps. Differential instruction is necessary. Teachers have to utilize many different strategies and modes of instruction. U.S. students are falling behind their counterparts in other regions of the world. U.S. students cannot complete academically or technologically with students from other countries. Due to these alarming trends, teachers are incorporating 21st Century skills to their curriculum. Representative of the ICT literacy skills are the following six arenas critical to students' success in the workplace (Kay and Honey, 2005):
• Communicate Effectively: Students must have a range of skills to express themselves not only through paper and pencil, but also audio, video, animation, design software as well as a host of new environments (e-mail, Web sites, message boards, blogs, streaming media, etc.).
• Analyze and Interpret Data: Students must have the ability to crunch, compare, and choose among the glut of data now available Web-based and other electronic formats.
• Understand Computational Modeling: Students must posses an understanding of the power, limitations, and underlying assumptions of various data representation systems, such as computational models and simulations, which are increasingly driving a wide-range of disciplines.
• Manage and Prioritize Tasks: Students must be able to mange the multi-tasking, selection, and prioritizing across technology applications that allow them to move fluidly among teams, assignments and communities of practice.
• Engage in Problem Solving: Students must have an understanding of how to apply what they know and can do to new situations.
• Ensure Security and Safety: Students must know and use strategies to acknowledge, identify, and negotiate 21st century risks.
These demands put a lot of pressure on the classroom teacher of today. However, the rewards and challenges make teaching unlike any other profession: every day is new.
