21st Century Skills

After reading the article Partnership for the 21st century, I had many different reactions. For most of the article I agreed with what the authors said. It is very important that we start teaching our students more than just core content knowledge. This meaning we need to blend the academic world to the real world as stated in the article. We must also teach them real life skills and how to use 21st century skills, in order for them to be successful in life. As in the article, 21st century skills will not happen immediately, but incorporating 21st century skills is a challenge that our country can not afford to ignore (Lang).

While reading this article I was very surprised with the statistic that the United States is near the bottom among developed countries on problem solving. This surprises me because with the access our students have whether it be, technology, money, and freedom to a free public education it is hard to believe that our students are near the bottom. It also surprised me when the article stated that test scores can increase up to 11% by improving a schools physical environment. This surprised me because with all the emphasis that is placed on test scores, for example funding for my title I school that I work at, you would think that this would already be being done and students should be passing with a high success rate. One last thing that took me by shock was that by 2013 it is estimated that schools will reach a record level of enrollment and that it will cost $30 Billion annually for construction and maintenance. Where as I do agree with this and I can see this happening, how are we suppose to get the money for this when there are schools who are located in lower income, poor neighborhoods and students are on free and reduced lunch?

One thing that I disagreed with in the article was when they said "it is not finding time and money to support use of 21st century skills, but to adequately support the use of these skills. If you do not have the money as say in a title I school, how can we support 21st century skills, without having the access to expose the skills to our students. Funding may not be a big emphasis over supporting use of 21st skills, but how are we to use the technology when we are lucky to have 2 working computers in each classroom and very little money for more up to date technological machines.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed reading the article. It was very interesting and neat to see what other states are doing in order to expose our students to the skills of the 21st century, and not just emphasising on math, language arts, science, and social studies. I do believe that we need to start doing away with all the emphasis on core subjects and start applying some real life skills into our teaching, but again there is the problem with funding and finding time to teach the skills, when so much emphasis is put on testing and passing tests in order to meet annual yearly progress especially in the elementary and middle school levels. Since funding is limited in some counties, I think it is important that teachers are kept up to date with the skills and that sometime throughout the day they should find time to incorporate these skills into teaching, even if they have to use one computer and show the class as a whole. Our students are growing up in a changing world, and a world that is going to continue to get more complex and advanced in the technological aspects, and it is our job to make sure our students leave with the feeling of success, understanding and standards of what is going to be expected of them when they are out on their own in the real world.

Blogging and Physical Education

When given the question of how I can think I would be able to incorporate blogs into my teaching I struggled. As a physical educator, it was real hard to think of ideas of incorporating blogging. I teach physical education to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. There would not be a way to incorporate blogging during my class time with my students. My students are in a gym and not a classroom where we would have access to computers to where we could do blogging. The only idea I could really come up with was having my students posts blogs on a certain website and me subscribe to them. My students would be required to post at least twice a week on what they have been doing for physical fitness outside of P.E. , the foods they have been eating, and how they feel for the week. I would ask my students to make suggestions at the end of the week on how they think they could have been more physical throughout the week. I would also let students post suggestions on what kind of activities they may want to try in P.E. and why they think they would be a good activity for everyone. If anyone has any ideas please let me know...I would love to incorporate blogging!!!

A Typical Day in Physical Education

Since I am still trying to figure out this thing, I thought I would describe a typical day in physical education for me. We see three grade levels a day. I work with 4 coaches and we each have between 30-40 students every class period. We are on block scheduling, so we have A and B day classes. I think this is a wonderful idea, however I wish there was a way where all students could have P.E. everyday because it is such an important class. Students are active for at least 50 minutes every class period and there is very little sitting down.

We of course start with taking roll, and then we bring all the students in the middle to discuss any activities coming up, for example sporting events, and then we go over the game for the day and the rules. We then go over the word wall, which includes important words for the students that they need to learn and be familiar with. Then we separate and begin doing the activity for the day. On Wednesdays and Thursday students are expected to run the pacer test. This is a cardiovascular test. Students are given grades on how many levels they complete. Students are suppose to try to improve every week. Once a month we have the pacer test challenge, this is where students can run for as long as they can. We take the high scores for the boy and girl in every grade level and then we post the school record for boys and girls. This gives them something to work towards, because competition is listed up high on student lists. They want to be the best. Overall all students are motivated and always try their best, even the non-athletic students. P.E. is usually a students favorite class. I love my job!

Well my name is Jennifer and I am a physical education teacher at a middle school in Macon, Georgia. I coach girls softball, basketball, and soccer as well at the middle school level. I love my job and have always wanted to be a physical education teacher. Some people pick jobs and they hate them and it is a drag to go to work everyday. I think I have the best job ever. I get to play games with kids all day, stay active, and most importantly give my students 80 minutes of physical activity.



I am posting this blog because it is a requirement for my masters class. This is my first bog, and I am still learning a lot about blogging. I have wanted to blog for awhile but just never took initiative. I am excited about taking this class, because I will learn about blogging and other technology that I can use in my physical education classes. Technology is such a big part of our students lives in today's world that I think it is important that we as teachers keep up with the technology and increase our knowledge of technology.