Getting a 21st century education

I visited a website called Partnership for 21st Century Skills. I enjoyed this site strictly because it is targeted to equipping today's students for tomorrows challenges. I was not too surprised by the material, but I am fond and excited about the area of innovation and creativity. We use to be known for inventing things and I believe it had allot to do with our pursuit of imagination and creativity. Today we have become robots that have no meaning to life except to run through the mundane efforts of "familiar" which prevents us from pursuing an exciting breath taking life. As an educator I believe it is now time to place innovation and imagination back in to my lessons. The person who's imagination we allow to run wild could become the world's next amazing scientist!!!

Class Blogs

I have been thinking about what type of blog I would create for a Physical Education class. A majority of class time everyday is spent on introducing rules and coordination techniques to do the activity at hand. I have thought about a possible nutrition awarness or calculation blog as an effort to help with the obesity problem we face in our country. I believe that the nucleus of the problem is we just don't know what we are putting in our body and how many calories, sodium and cholestoral gram and milligrams are in or food. I could use this blog to also allow questions to be asked and answered by either me or their fellow students. I could possibly innovate this for the up and coming school year.

Questions/Thoughts????

Rules without Relationship create Rebellion!

In our society today, it has become a social norm or idiom to rebel against what is right. I don't mean rebelling against things that serve as an advocate to support the opposite of what we believe, on the contrary its rebelling against the very foundations of what is right and wrong. The best example of this struggle is in our educational system.



Teacher's, administrators, principles and all educational support have an uphill battle in reguards to instructing today's youth. Being an educator, I find that rules themselves do not suffice for this generations psyche. There was a time when a rule was set and we just abided by it, today there has to be clarity of why the rule is in place and what it means to them as a student. Without this understanding rules that are set for students are perpetually broken.



I feel that in order to bridge the gap between rules and rebellion we have to build relationships with our students. I will go as far as to say this is a must! There is no greater tool than a teacher who shows they care and demonstrates it through their enthusiasm. The days of a teaching style similar to a Ben Stein's " Clear Eyes" commercial are over!!! Students need support, love, and to know that their teachers are not just teaching for a paycheck, but that they want to serve as the catalyst who will fuel the engine that will stimulate growth in their lives. When this is achieved I believe we will start to see a change in our students, this can't save them all, but for some this is the very seed that will produce a harvest for their future!