In evaluating the success of an educational program, our first inclination is to use our past experiences as a basis. Even better is to assess how successful our children are as a measuring tool. It is every parents dream that their children will grow to be successful adults, and we hope their school education will help with the preparation. For this to work, schools must operate in the world of the 21st Century.
The Internet Generation
The Internet Generation, or N-Geners, consists of the students of today. What we need to be asking is: are our schools giving these students the tools they need to have a successful future? Our country is no long reliant on farms, manual labor and assembly lines to provide our professions. What will define our citizens in the future? What do our students of today have to learn to compete and thrive in our new society? While the answer can be found from many sources, I would like to explore what corporate managers and executives feel about these questions.
In the article Rigor Redefined (2008), Tony Wagner interviewed many corporate CEOs to find out what they are looking for in todays workforce. Wagner was surprised at some of the answers he discovered to his questions. For example, the President of BOC Edwards indicated that what he was looking for first and foremost was someone to ask good questions. He stated that while they could always teach the technical stuff, it is very difficult to teach someone how to think and to ask good questions.
A great number of these high level managers shared a common desire to find employees able to cooperate as a team to talk over and solve the immediate problems their company face today. Educators need to understand these real world needs and prepare our students by providing the tools to help them contribute quickly in the real world. Provide real case studies and problems to solve and forget about standard worksheets that dont help the students think for themselves. If they have the opportunity to work in groups and present their findings in a real world way, they will be better prepared for the work force.
Redefine Rigor
Schools today need to understand the needs of their students and adjust their curriculums to meet those needs. It is a real concern when I see packaged curriculums used with no supporting real world examples attached to them. It is troublesome that the Teachers Guides provided to teachers require them to proceed with a lesson without really thinking about the real world applications. And School Districts are requiring teachers to report on planning and pacing guides the lessons taught every day, leaving little room for teaching outside the box.
Essential to learning is the relationship between the teacher and the student. Students must feel met by the teacher with insight and understanding of who they are as learners. Teachers do best when they are empowered to create meaningful lessons that speak to their students.
Technology
Teachers today are educating the Internet Generation. As such, it is critical to integrate technology into the learning process as often as possible. Technology come naturally to our students, and it is our job to show them the practical and real world ways technology can be used. Our future holds classes and lesson plans using all forms of technology, including smart boards, PowerPoint presentations, cell phones and classroom response systems. These advanced teaching techniques are critical to the success of the Internet Generation and it is the educators job to embrace the opportunity to connect with the children.
Integrated Learning
To avoid the dry and uninteresting approaches found in packaged programs and planning and pacing guides, integrate reading and writing into rich content. Use social studies and science to promote and practice what was learned in reading and writing class.
It is disappointing that most public schools now focus on curriculum narrowing rather than enriching. It is such a simple solution to integrate the skills children need to develop in reading, writing and math into a wide array of subject matter. By limiting our students exposure to social studies and math, we are depriving the children of knowledge and information that is critical for building other skills and knowledge.
Many of us are trying to raise student achievement for kids in poverty. 16.66% of all school age children are below the poverty line. This means we have children who lack essential background knowledge and vocabulary of the middle and upper class peers. Focusing on tested subjects of reading, writing and math, at the expense of social studies, science and the arts only intensifies this trend.
It is the job of parents and educators alike to commit to building cultural literacy through science social studies and the arts in order to give the Internet Generation the best opportunities in life that we can. It is a proven psychological fact that the best way to learn new things is to be able to apply it to something we have already experienced. Children, especially those with limited opportunities to experience new things outside of school, must be given a broad base of experiences in which to build.
Numerous studies have found that academic achievement translates to higher incomes, and that cultural literacy has a direct effect on a students academic achievement. To prepare students o the Internet Generation for the future they will face as adults in the 21st Century, educators must provide opportunities to expand the students stores of knowledge and cultural literacy, not just focus on the tested subjects of reading, writing and math.
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