Skills+and+Knowledge+to+Succeed


 * Committee Members: Crossett, Goodwin, Hogan, Huff, McCord, Williams

Committee Reports**

__2/22/2010__
Posed two questions to guide our discussion:
 * What are 21st Century Skills?
 * What can we do better or different at BHS to equip our students with these skills?

**What are 21st Century Skills?** Several group members shared resources that define 21st Century Skills. What can we do better or different at BHS to equip our students with these skills? ** We feel that the skills have already been clearly defined by various international organizations who provide definitions, supporting examples of curriculum integration, and supporting research. Thus, our greatest task is in 1) making sure all teachers clearly understand what the skills are and how to incorporate them into their particular content area, and 2) envisioning a reform effort that will ensure we are equipping our students with these skills. Before we could envision a path forward, we first **identified existing barriers we will need to overcome:** Theme Based Learning []
 * NETS for Students: These are national educational technology standards that have been adopted by Arkansas. They identify what students should be able to do when they leave high school in order to be prepared for work in the 21st century.
 * New Literacy New Literacy:This wiki, created by teachers at a school who underwent the same process we are undertaking, gives a diagram showing needs of 21st century learner. These needs apply to all grades and all curriculum areas and coincide with the NETS for Students Standards.
 * The Partnership for 21st Century Skills: This organization has created a framework defining what skills and knowledge students will need to succeed.
 * Twenty-First Century Skills This article describes skills that are needed to be "literate and educated" in a knowledge-based digital world.
 * **Cross-Curricular Learning**: We recognize the best instruction does not compartmentalize instruction into disparate, unconnected pieces.
 * It's difficult to undertake cross-curricular projects when teachers don't share the same students.
 * We have no common planning time to design cross-curricular activities.
 * **Project-Based Learning (PBL)**: Dr. Norris' report, as well as many other organizations, promotes project-based learning and inquiry-based learning as effective instructional strategies that increase student engagement, encourage deeper learning, and develop 21st century skills of collaboration, communication, problem-solving, and creating/designing/planning.
 * Teachers have not been trained in how to design PBL units, nor do we feel we have a firm grasp on understanding exactly what PBL is or how it works.
 * We need ongoing professional development to understand how to use the instructional strategy effectively.
 * We need to see models to help us understand how PBL would look and function in our particular content areas.
 * We need ongoing guidance with designing, tweaking, and integrating PBL units.
 * Since PBL integrates technology, some students do not have access to Internet at home. How can we use the technology equitably?
 * Differentiation: We understand we need to individualize learning for students, but we have not had training in how to do so effectively.
 * Balancing PBL and End-of-Course Exams: We need guidance in how to balance teaching frameworks students need to know for required state exams and designing projects that encourage students to learn at deeper levels but that require more time.

= **Committee Suggestions:** =
 * ===We believe project-based learning is the route to equip our students with the knowledge and skills they'll need to succeed and to engage them in learning so that they see the relevance to their lives and to their future success.===
 * If we are to successfully implement project-based learning (PBL) we need:
 * Intensive professional development with continued, ongoing support.
 * Models--maybe visit schools
 * Ongoing time to collaborate across the curriculum--maybe after school and/or built-in days.
 * ===**At this time, we might consider devising an Essential Question that bridges multiple disciplines, allowing every teacher to organize theme-based projects. This idea might be modified after training in PBL.**===
 * Survey teachers and students to hammer out details of how this would work, how many themes per year we might have, and what theme(s) we might choose.
 * "Theme-based projects help students to make the transition from subject area curriculum to an issue-centered learning" (Theme-Based Learning)
 * Organize a school-wide presentation to present and showcase projects. This could be a community event.
 * Online portfolio (wiki?) that allows students to collaborate on projects and that showcases students' work throughout the year.
 * Time (after school and/or curriculum days) to collaborate across the curriculum.