Education in the 21st Century

I first saw this video late last year. We watched it again at one of our curriculum development days back in September. It has been a part of the internet for a few years now and the facts it presents never ceases to amaze me. I have to constantly remind myself to try and teach lessons that my students will be able to connect with in the real world. I've written in the past about integrating technology in my lessons because I know that my students are either watching television, using the internet or playing videogames when they're not focusing on their other myriad activities. As the video states:

"Today's 21-year-olds have: Watched of TV 20,000 hours Played 10,000 hours of video games Talked 10,000 hours on the phone And they've sent/received 250,000 e-mails or instant messages." Just think what the numbers will be when my students are that age.

I started the year by writing my warm up activities on the board and waiting a few minutes at the beginning of class for my students to complete them. However, at the suggestion of one of the homeroom teachers, I've decided to incorporate the activities in Power Point form. It saves me the time of writing the information on the board and I also know that my students should get used to learning in this format because many of their future teachers in high school and college will lecture in slide show form. It's good note-taking practice for them as well.

This past week, I used Power Point for another activity. I was teaching my students different directions in Spanish such as izquierda (left) and derecha (right) and I recalled a rhyme that I learned when I was a sophomore in high school. I taught them this same rhyme except that this time I had the words up on the ActivBoard the whole time so they could see them when they acted out the skits I had them prepare with the directions. It may seem like an insignificant detail, but I knew they appreciated the presentation, especially since they only had about 10 minutes to prepare the skit. Many of them still needed to look at the words while they recited them.

I know that in order to prepare my students for the 21st century environment, I'll have to use the technological devices given to me by the school, but I'll also have to prepare them for real life situations like how to get from Point A to Point B in a Spanish speaking country. Having them choreograph a routine with the directions they learned from the presentation was a great way to actually get them to REMEMBER the words I taught them. As long as I can engage them, I can teach them.