The personal learning network for educators

Build the Ideal 21st Century School

Information

This group exists as a place to take the weekly #edchat topics on Twitter and let them guide us towards creating the ideal 21st Century School. After discussing and building this school collaboratively, the aim is to actually get it built!

Members: 186
Latest Activity: Feb 15

2 members like this

Blog Post Introducing this Idea Further

This post introduces the concept behind this idea.

Another idea for this process would be to create a great template for any school out there that is being built or remodeled that wants to take the idea of 21st century skills seriously.

This Google Doc Presentation will be where the summaries will be posted after each week's discussion. This will be our guiding document for the school:

http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0ARiar0NS7cDHZGcyNGJqdmhfNTBneG56aDdkYw&hl=en

Discussion Forum

Building the 21st Century Early Childhood Classroom

Started by Elizabeth Doye Jul 23, 2011. 0 Replies 4 Likes

I have seen many pre-k classrooms with one or two computers for the children to play games on. Is this enough? Should we be incorporating any other 21st century technologies or skills into these…Continue

Tags: computers, preK, earlychildhood, technology

Should your elementary school have a Facebook Page?

Started by Morgan Kolis Jun 27, 2010. 0 Replies 0 Likes

What would you think about starting a Facebook Page for an elementary school?The page would be for parents, "alumni," and community members, and would seek to maintain positive relationships outside…Continue

Tags: elementary, facebook

How can we motivate teachers to see the benefits of adapting and changing to meet the needs of today's students?

Started by Steve Johnson. Last reply by Linda Campillo Mar 24, 2010. 16 Replies 0 Likes

I really feel like it's all about support within the teachers' classroom environment.When introducing new tools or teaching methods to teachers in our school, I believe a good process looks like…Continue

Reliability on the Internet

Started by Erin DeRose. Last reply by Adam Truitt Jan 11, 2010. 6 Replies 0 Likes

Do any of you have a list of things to look for to make sure that you are reading a credible resource when researching on the web for elementary students?

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Comment Wall

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Comment by andrew aker on December 17, 2013 at 9:05am: Wow this is great! Is there a page where we can see our current status of this project? Are we just focused on building the physical environment or are we also focused on 21st century teaching methods and tools?

Comment by Paul W. Bennett on September 22, 2013 at 7:53pm: Building the School of the Future can be a most controversial matter. My recent Commentary, "School and Classroom Design: What's 'Progressive' About Imposing Change?" raises a few of the more critical questions:

http://educhatter.wordpress.com/2013/09/20/school-and-classroom-des...

School design theorists like Prakesh Nair purport to be building schools exemplifying "21st Century Learning" environments. Those theories are now coming in for closer scrutiny by academics and educators with real world teaching experience. Not everyone thinks tearing down old schools represents progress. Now posted for online discussion.

Comment by Lauren Goldberg on May 15, 2011 at 10:44pm: I've just joined this group and I'm eager to take part in the conversation about 21st century schools. We'd love to include more educators in our online network at www.peersforum.org.

Comment by Rossel Mulaire on April 6, 2011 at 11:39am: Good morning.....calling all teachers, students, colleagues, etc...

I sincerely apologize if any of you are receiving this message more than once. We are trying to reach as many teachers/students as possible around the world. It's possible that you're a member of more than one of the groups I have joined. My apologies!

My name is Rossel Mulaire. I am a Canadian teacher who has been living and working in Monterrey, Mexico since 2004. For the past two years, I have been teaching 8th and 9th grade Social Studies/World History. My other responsibilities include being our school's Model United Nation's advisor and Social Studies Department Head. I have taught many different grade levels (first through tenth grades), in Canada, South Korea, and Mexico.

I recently started a little project on Twitter with my 8th and 9th graders, tweeting daily about historical facts and events, sort of like a "this day in history". We are wondering if you'd be able to give out our twitter address to students and teachers. Not only wherever you find yourselves now, but anywhere else you may have contacts. We see this as a great way to teach and appreciate history, bit by bit, one small step at a time. We are trying to use technology to reach more students, and to open dialogue with students and teachers around the world.

If you are in a position to help us, please do so by JOINING US ON TWITTER and by sending our twitter address to students and colleagues, past and present. Ask them to follow our many daily tweets. At the moment, we are tweeting about historical events and facts from around the world. We'd love to see students commenting on our tweets, and also, by adding to our project by posting historical content from their respected countries.

We are hoping to hear from teachers and students from all parts of the world! The students are keeping a record of the various countries following us! Please help out by following us. The more people (students, teachers, family members, etc) we have following us, the more excited the students get. This excitement then becomes a motivator to continue! Help us make learning about history a little more interesting!

Our twitter address is: www.twitter.com/rosselmulaire

Please feel free to contact me anytime. I'd be happy to answer any questions or doubt you may have.

Rossel Mulaire

Colegio Euroamericano,

8th and 9th grade Social Studies teacher

Social Studies Department Head and Model United Nations Advisor

www.twitter.com/rosselmulaire

Comment by Sebastian Panakal on December 27, 2010 at 10:12am: Hello, everybody. I'm from Cochin, Kerala (God's Own Country), [Incredible] India. I run a teacher training platform www.eschoolkerala.com. I am here to learn from all of you. Please feel free to connect.

Comment by monika hardy on December 27, 2009 at 8:34pm: some thoughts on the school....

Comment by Steve Johnson on December 9, 2009 at 11:48am: Hey all-

Hate to say it, but I'm not going to be able to keep up with this like I'd like to until January. I'm trying to rewrite the intro/first few chapters of my book and it's taking all the free time I don't have. =)

Please keep discussing as much as possible, and I'll be back in January to get cracking again!!!

Comment by Steve Johnson on November 4, 2009 at 5:25pm: More money coming available through Obama's "Race to the Top", funded by stimulus dollars:

http://www.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html

If anyone has any doubt that we can get this school built, forget about it. The money is out there and waiting to be used in innovative ways (not just through the govt, either).

Comment by Jeffrey D. Blackburn on November 3, 2009 at 11:56pm: Has anyone out there tried voicethread?

Comment by Steve Johnson on November 3, 2009 at 10:03pm: A comment to Cathy, who sent mail out to all of us about her part in helping renovate- I think this could be an excellent extension to this group- Not only aiming to build a school but providing a sort-of template to help build/renovate schools in the future. I'm looking forward to continuing this process each week.

I'll be updating our progress from this past week through a summary blog post/mind map in the coming days (might have to be a little while, as things right now are beyond crazy!).

Thanks again, Cathy.