TAKS objectives are a small sampling of much broader TEKS, which are, in turn, only a part of the curriculum as a whole.

21st Century Skills and TAKS: Not Mutually Exclusive Randy Rodgers Kelli Montgomery Birdville Independent School District

Pop Quiz!

What is a wiki? A delicious, tropical, adult beverage A search engine A collaboratively created website An online encyclopedia

On average, how many visitors go to MySpace each month worldwide? 1 million 15 million 55 million 115 million Source: Techcruch.com (April, 2008 statistics)

What is the target audience for the social network Fuzzster? Pets Police officers Sweater knitters Men with beards

The most viewed video of alltime on Youtube, Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend”, has been viewed how many times? 14 million 35 million 105 million 355 million Photo Credit

Bonus: How many comments has “Girlfriend” received? 37,000 310,000 1.2 million 24 million Statistics from Youtube, July 28, 2008. Blah Blah OMG Blah Blah Blah Blah LOL Blah Blah

What is a widget? A small bit of software which can be added to a web page. A newbie to a social network An elf-like character in World of Warcraft A password reminder

Which of the following chat acronyms indicates that someone finds you amusing? WTG ROTFL LTNS IMHO

Where Have We Been?

Agricultural Age

Industrial Age

Information Age

And now?

Conceptual Age Source: Pink, Daniel (2005). A Whole New Mind. Riverhead Books: New York.

Skills Today’s Students Will Need Tomorrow Adaptability Creativity Communication Critical Thinking Organization Multi-tasking Collaboration Initiative Leadership Tech and media literacy Social/Cross-cultural

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” -Alvin Toffler Photo Credit

What Skills Are We Testing? Writing (organization, elaboration, grammar, editing, clarity, etc.) Reading (meaning, summarization, inferring, predicting, etc.) Social Studies (geography, importance of events/people, historical meaning/influence, etc.) Science (data analysis, logic, observation, using different sources, etc.) Math (operations, problem-solving, graphics, relationships, measurement, etc.)

TAKS Focus

The Challenge: Merge Testing Requirements and Evolving Needs of the 21st Century

“To successfully face rigorous higher education coursework, career challenges and a globally competitive workforce, U.S. schools must align classroom environments with real world environments by infusing 21st century skills.” Partnership for 21st Century Skills (www.21stcenturyskills.org)

"Even if the state test is dominated by lower-level thinking skills and questions are posed in a multiple-choice format, the best preparation for such tests is not mindless testing drills, but extensive student writing, accompanied by thinking, analysis, and reasoning.” Douglas Reeves (2004)

Design Elements of Effective Classrooms High levels of engagement Documented student achievement Understanding of what needs to be learned Knowledge and resource are organized around student needs and interests Meaningful end product is focus Clear expectations and standards Based upon Working on the Work, by Phillip Schlecty.

Design Elements of Effective Classrooms Physical, emotional, and intellectual safety Affirmation by significant observers Opportunities for collaboration Variety and novelty of learning tasks Availability of choices in demonstrating learning Tasks are engaging and authentic Based upon Working on the Work, by Phillip Schlecty.

The Read/Write Web as a Tool for 21st Century Teaching/Learning

The Old Web? Browse Search Read One-way Consume

The New Web? Receive Classify Connect Create Did You Know?

Why Web 2.0? Cost Effective Collaborative Accessible Motivational Relevant

Blogs · Blogger (https://www.blogger.com) · Edublogs (http://edublogs.org) · Epals (http://www.epals.com/) · Gaggle (http://www.gaggle.net) Talented Texans History Rocks! Isbell Science Mrs. McClure’s Blog Raider Report

Wikis Wikispaces (http://www.wikispaces.com/) Pbwiki (http://pbwiki.com/) Wetpaint (http://www.wetpaint.com/) Google Sites (http://sites.google.com) Ms. Isbell Science ACFT Science Lab The Stayafters

Images Flickr Creative Commons (http://flickr.com/creativecommons) Photobucket (http://photobucket.com/) Flickrstorm (http://www.zoo-m.com/flickr-storm/) Picnik (http://www.picnik.com/) Studio 25 (http://www.studio25.ro) Everystockphoto (http://www.everystockphoto.com/) How to Hide a Geocache

Office/Productivity Tools Google docs (http://docs.google.com) Zoho (http://zoho.com/) Buzzword (http://www.buzzword.com/) Thinkfree (http://thinkfree.com)

Graphic Organizers Gliffy (http://www.gliffy.com/) Bubbl.us (http://bubbl.us/) Thinkature (http://thinkature.com/)

Social Networks Ning (http://www.ning.com/) Facebook (http://www.facebook.com) BISD Web Tools Classroom 2.0 Algebra 1

Online Bookmarks Delicious (http://del.icio.us) Stumbleupon (http://stumbleupon.com/) Diigo (http://www.diigo.com/)

Podcasting Gcast (http://www.gcast.com) Jott (http://jott.com/) Podbean (http://podbean.com/) Podomatic (http://www.podomatic.com/) Switchpod (http://www.switchpod.com/) Reagan Reviews Lone Star ‘n’ More

Digital Storytelling Voicethread (http://voicethread.com/) Scrapblog (http://scrapblog.com/) Kerpoof (http://www.kerpoof.com/home) Youtube (http://youtube.com/) Teachertube (http://teachertube.com/) Schooltube (http://www.schooltube.com) Edublogs.TV (http://edublogs.tv) JayCut (http://jaycut.com/)

Tele- and Videoconferencing Skype (http://www.skype.com/) Mebeam (http://mebeam.com/) OoVoo (http://www.oovoo.com/) DimDim (http://dimdim.com/)

Video Streaming Ustream (http://www.ustream.tv/) Stickam (http://www.stickam.com) Yahoo! Live (http://live.yahoo.com/)

Virtual Worlds Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com) Lively by Google (http://lively.com/)

Other Web 2.0 Sites Twitter (http://twitter.com) Pownce (http://pownce.com) Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu/) Blurb (http://www.blurb.com) Clipmarks (http://clipmarks.com/) Google Notebook (http://www.google.com/notebook) Fleck (http://fleck.com/) Trailfire (http://trailfire.com/) Youthtwitter (http://www.youthtwitter.com/) Mozilla Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/)

Other Sites (Continued) Flock (http://www.flock.com/) Zentation (http://zentation.com/) Slideshare (http://www.slideshare.net/) Geni (http://www.geni.com/) Polldaddy (http://www.polldaddy.com/) Survey Gizmo (http://www.surveygizmo.com/) Screencast-o-matic (http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/) Zamzar (http://www.zamzar.com/) Bubbleshare (http://www.bubbleshare.com/) Lulu (http://www.lulu.com/)

Keys to Success Learn the tools and terminology. Use sites that meet your students’ needs. Work to foster communication/collaboration. Involve parents and the community. Use students’ experience and expertise. Share with your peers. Get comfortable with discomfort.

“Do or do not. There is no try.” -Yoda Image Credit

Contact Us Email: randyrodgersits@gmail.com kelli_montgomery@birdville.k12.tx.us Website: http://randyrodgers.edublogs.org