Introduction

Hi all, my name is Donny Clark. I live in Martinsville with my wife and children. I am 39 years old and I hope to become either a middle school math teacher or a 2nd/3rd grade elementary teacher. I am still undecided at this point. I was a machinist for 13 years when I became a stay at home dad. When my daughter started school, so did I. I only hope that I finish before she does!

I really enjoyed playing around with this blog. I have had a blog before at http://www.wordpress.com/ for a different class, but it did not seem to be nearly as user-friendly as http://www.blogger.com/. Of course, that was a couple of years ago, so there have surely been many changes that make my opinion outdated! My favorite part about my blog is my little fishes. Please be sure to left click to feed them!

As far as tips are concerned, just read everything that you see. If you understand what you are reading and you click in the correct places, it is almost like magic! Adding gadgets is really fun and it is amazing the choices that are available. With over 2000 to choose from, it should be simple to find something to suit any need.

Thanks for stopping by and good luck to all this semester in W200! I am copying and pasting my 6-8 paragraphs from the Critical Thinking module below.


Article Reflection

The articles that I chose to review gained my attention because they touch on ideas that are a deep concern for me. These articles are "21st Century Skills: Will Our Students Be Prepared?" and "The Ideal School Library." The school library does not bother me nearly as much our lack of 21st century skills, however there is a connection between the two, as we will soon see.

In "21st Century Skills: Will Our Students Be Prepared?" the problem lies in the inclusion of 21st century technology skills along with the current curriculum requirements, which are already difficult to achieve due to the overwhelming need to prepare students for standardized testing. To me, this raises a question about the need to waste so much time on standardized tests. Good scores on standardized tests only ensure that we have average students! We need exemplary students. 21st century skills are difficult to teach because what needs to be taught is a way of thinking, not an actual process. To include these skills would mean that we would have to test them somehow. But how do we test our students on processes that have not been invented yet.

Another obstacle to including 21st century skills is the No Child Left Behind(NCLB) Act which some consider to be synonymous with standardized testing. This part was difficult for me to grasp, at first, because it seems like such a great idea. However, after considering the matter further, I have decided that, while it is a good idea, I feel that it has been implemented incorrectly. We cannot simply thrust special needs students into a mainstream classroom and expect them to reach the same achievements as the mainstream children. Special needs children need to be included, but not at the cost of educating our mainstream children to their fullest potential. So, after re-evaluating my position on NCLB, I think that the way it is currently implemented could be dragging our mainstream kids down to a lower level of achievement. NCLB is needed, however it needs to be re-evaluated and re-implemented, with input from teachers and parents.

The other article I chose, "The Ideal School Library," was interesting to me because libraries are already changing to reflect 21st century technology. The author of this article, Darren Draper, states, "In my opinion, the ideal school library is highly liberating and able to provide a learning environment that's not generally feasible, practical, or even possible in most traditional classrooms." This article is more of a forum than an article and the author poses the following question: "What role might a social media specialist have in our schools?" To him a librarian needs a new title, hence the social media specialist.

The general consensus of the responses to this question is that media specialists are useless if they are not trained in 21st century technology skills. Yes, this is where the two articles became connected for me. Without proper training we will need a librarian and a tech staff to support the librarian, teachers, and students. I have to agree with this article. The many forms of media available today need to made accessible to their fullest potential in our school libraries.

From what I have read, 21st century skills are essential to our success as a nation in the coming century. According to what I have read about libraries, we needed 21st century skill training yesterday(many years ago), but we are going to have to settle for today and get started. History shows that the countries that are publicly educated are the countries that grow and prosper. I do not want my children to be slaves to the Chinese or any nationality that is better educated than we are. Do you?