I’ve posted about The Other 21st Skills and Attributes.  This post provides links and resources about these skills as well as an educator self-assessment.  This assessment contains questions to assist the educator in evaluating if and how s/he is facilitating these skills and attributes in the learning environment.

Related Resources:

• The Other 21st Century Skills: https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/the-other-21st-century-skills/
• Tony Wagner’s Seven Survival Skills: http://www.tonywagner.com/7-survival-skills
• Teaching and Facilitating Entrepreneurship in the School Setting: https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2014/07/06/teaching-and-facilitating-entrepreneurship-in-the-school-setting/
• Resilience: The Other 21st Century Skills: https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2013/06/30/resilience-the-other-21st-century-skills/
• Hope and Optimism: The Other 21st Century Skills: https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2014/01/06/hope-and-optimism-the-other-21st-century-skills/
• Empathy and Global Stewardship: The Other 21st Century Skills: https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2013/07/28/empathy-and-global-stewardship-the-other-21st-century-skills/
• Self-Regulation: The Other 21st Century Skills: https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2014/08/24/self-regulation-the-other-21st-century-skills/
• Vision for the Future: The Other 21st Century Skills: https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2014/01/19/vision-for-the-future-the-other-21st-century-skills/
• Grit: The Other 21st Century Skills: https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/grit-the-other-21st-century-skills/

The term “new normal” is the lingo used to describe drastic change in doing something or life after a major event. The change is usually
quick and immediate. It alters one’s approach to something or way of life. In the educational world a slower transition is happening that will create a new normal.  That change agent is social media. Social media has been around for some time but its practical use is relatively new to edu
cators. As I engage more and more educators in the use of social media for educational purposes I hear a lot of the same questions. Here are some of the most common questions with my responses.

Why has it taken so long for educators to find value in social media? Well, we are practitioners who have used chalk and slate for over one hundred years! The reality is that change comes slowly in…

Our district theme is Connect, Learn, Collaborate. It’s the second year we are engaging in this theme because we want to dig deeper and expand the concept with our students, colleagues, parents, and community. One of the ways we are connecting and learning is through the use of QR Codes.

A QR Code is short for a Quick Response Code and is simply a bar code that can be scanned by your phone to provide information. This is not new technology. It isn’t even groundbreaking technology. It is easy and simple technology. Sometimes that’s all you need. Here are a few examples of how my district is using QR Codes this year:

1. Start of the year message from the superintendent. Each year I send a letter to my staff welcoming them back to a new school year and giving them some info about the upcoming Convocation and professional development days…

What has been your ONE biggest struggle this year?

• Anyone who is passionate about his/her job can relate to my biggest struggle – maintaining work/life balance. It is a constant struggle for me but one I committed to tackling head on last year after a tough year of being very out of balance. I love my job and want to be the best principal I can for the community which I serve and I have learned that I need to maintain balance in order to do that. Three things I put in place to do this: #1. 7:30-5:00 are my weekday hours unless I have a meeting or an emergency, #2. I joined a tennis club and play twice a week, and most importantly, #3. I reach out to my Work/Life Balance Voxer Group when I start to feel out of balance. By no means am I 100% in balance, but each day…

Each year our school calendar provides several early release days for teacher professional development. In fact, we have one coming up this week! These days are critical for our staff to collaborate with one another and to learn from one another to support the day-to-day teaching and learning in our classrooms. A lot has changed in our curriculum over the last five years, and this time allows teachers to continue to refine their practice to meet the needs of our students.

In addition to these half days, teachers meet during the school day periodically to discuss student progress and to plan for how we can best meet the needs of our learners. Over the last two weeks, each grade level came together with our intervention team to do this important work. Student progress for those students not yet meeting benchmarks in reading, writing or math was discussed by their teachers…