Chapter 1
The New World of Work and the Seven Survival Skills
There exists a definite in our schools between the poor and middle-class students. What are we doing to close that gap?
Wagner's 7 survival skills to close the educational gap for the 21st century:
1. Planning for and then asking a good question that elicits critical thinking and problem solving skills.
2. Communication, collaboration and teamwork to create a global web based opportunity to interact with people from differing cultures.
3. The ability to be flexible and adaptable where there are more than one answer and where all views are accepted and appreciated.
4. Seek new opportunities and ideas that provide an initiative for improvements and changes.
5. A vital aspect of collaboration is communicating effectively that is both clear and concise and extends across cultural boundaries.
6. When given new information students are expected to be able synthesize and comprehend the information and then to be able to use it effectively.
7. Allow space for students to be both creative and innovative when developing new products.
Chapter 2
The Old World of School
In this chapter Wagner talks about his “learning walks” and his observations about the classrooms. Some examples of what he saw in the classroom was: a lack of student engagement, students filling in worksheets, multiple choice exams, teachers answering questions before the students have an opportunity, minimal student-student interactions and low level student-teacher interactions, and so on. The administrators that he took with him were surprised by the differences they saw between the planned observations and these unplanned, unannounced observations. It seems from what Wagner saw in the classroom was that the seven survival skills he listed in chapter one were not existent in most all of the classrooms he observed. Why? Teacher unions and tenure? Ineffective teacher trainings? Teachers focusing too much on content and less on teaching students skills to be successful in life (specifically Wagner’s Seven Survival Skills (CH 1)? My question is: why this this the "old world of school" if it is currently present in today's classrooms? Our kids need change. Our society needs change. Our future needs change...and this change starts in the classroom.
Reflecting on my own teaching philosophy and after reading this chapter, I see the value and need for: giving students time to collaborate, communicate, discover, fail, think critically, question (not only their peers but the teacher as well) as all very valuable and important aspects that I want my classroom to be centered around. I want to provide an environment where students are the focus and I serve merely as a facilitator to help guide students to think scientifically, making their own meaning to the science curriculum.
Tara
The New World of Work and the Seven Survival Skills
There exists a definite in our schools between the poor and middle-class students. What are we doing to close that gap?
Wagner's 7 survival skills to close the educational gap for the 21st century:
1. Planning for and then asking a good question that elicits critical thinking and problem solving skills.
2. Communication, collaboration and teamwork to create a global web based opportunity to interact with people from differing cultures.
3. The ability to be flexible and adaptable where there are more than one answer and where all views are accepted and appreciated.
4. Seek new opportunities and ideas that provide an initiative for improvements and changes.
5. A vital aspect of collaboration is communicating effectively that is both clear and concise and extends across cultural boundaries.
6. When given new information students are expected to be able synthesize and comprehend the information and then to be able to use it effectively.
7. Allow space for students to be both creative and innovative when developing new products.
Chapter 2
The Old World of School
In this chapter Wagner talks about his “learning walks” and his observations about the classrooms. Some examples of what he saw in the classroom was: a lack of student engagement, students filling in worksheets, multiple choice exams, teachers answering questions before the students have an opportunity, minimal student-student interactions and low level student-teacher interactions, and so on. The administrators that he took with him were surprised by the differences they saw between the planned observations and these unplanned, unannounced observations. It seems from what Wagner saw in the classroom was that the seven survival skills he listed in chapter one were not existent in most all of the classrooms he observed. Why? Teacher unions and tenure? Ineffective teacher trainings? Teachers focusing too much on content and less on teaching students skills to be successful in life (specifically Wagner’s Seven Survival Skills (CH 1)? My question is: why this this the "old world of school" if it is currently present in today's classrooms? Our kids need change. Our society needs change. Our future needs change...and this change starts in the classroom.
Reflecting on my own teaching philosophy and after reading this chapter, I see the value and need for: giving students time to collaborate, communicate, discover, fail, think critically, question (not only their peers but the teacher as well) as all very valuable and important aspects that I want my classroom to be centered around. I want to provide an environment where students are the focus and I serve merely as a facilitator to help guide students to think scientifically, making their own meaning to the science curriculum.
Tara