After spending a great amount of time going through the readings and watching the video clips about 21st century literacy, I found that times are changing so rapidly that it seems that we are all having a hard time keeping up. Literacy is not just reading words for meaning anymore. We now NEED to immerse ourselves into technology.
The video clip "Digital Natives" was a moving clip. It was alarming to see that 76% of teachers do not know how to use the technology that there is out there to teach their students. Students now know more than we do when it comes to using technology. They have been born and raised with it, where we are just really starting out in this type of world as young adults. There are so many aspects of technology that NEED to be incorporated into the classroom and urgently. In 2016, China will be the biggest English speaking country in the world. That is shocking to me! I think all educators need to see this clip so they can see how important the issue of using technology in the classroom is. It is no longer a luxury, but a necessity.
All of the links to the readings were also very informative. I was unaware at first of all the subcategories of literacy (basic language literacy, visual, spatial, historical, cutltural, information, political, scientific, and mathmatical) Each category had many useful links that explained them in great detail. In particular I liked the link that demonstrated the "think aloud" strategy. This is a wonderful strategy to use with young children in particular. The pictorial and phonetic alphabet link showed the many differences not only in words, but actually letters. We will have so many different types of students in our classroom coming from all over the world, and we need to be aware of this. Using photos for meaning was another one of my favorites. The old saying "A picture speaks a thousand words" really is true. What a great way to teach using valuable pictures.
Overall, I feel I have learned a HUGE amount from all of this information and feel confident in everything I reviewed :)
My name is Pam and I am a grad student at MSMC. I am passionate about teaching young children and I am so thankful for everything I have learned thus far at MSMC. My blog is titled Teaching to Learn and Learning to Teach because I believe that we are all lifelong learners. As we move into our careers as teachers we will be continuously learning from our peers and students. Happy blogging!
The Way of the Future
We are the 21st Century Teachers
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