Thoughts on "Partnership for 21st Century Skills"

After looking over the website for the "Partnership for 21st Century Skills", I was impressed by their vision and mission (see website http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/). I would agree that we have to foster these skills in our students in order for them to compete in tomorrow's society. I don't agree with everything that is in the "No Child Left Behind" Act, but if we don't cooperate at all levels, like the partnership suggests, then a lot of our children will be left behind. There are some big money corporations behind the movement, because they want to be able to recruit from the ranks of our students for years to come. There is a motive behind their membership and hopefully there is their money behind it as well.

Death of a Mouse

I lost a mouse today. It was rather sad. It was the second one that has broken down since I took over the computer lab in May of '05. I was able to swap it out with the seldom used mouse at station #32, but when I have a full class of 30 I'll need to have a working mouse for that computer. It had to happen during bilingual kindergarten class with 26 little ones clicking away (some of them literally clicking away from the activity) and one third of them need help at the same time pleading "maestro, maestro" instead of raising their hands as we discussed. Ah, but it wouldn't be Monday without my little ones. we'll see what next weeks adventure brings.

Next...next...next...

I am in for an interesting ride this year with my Kindergarten classes. Some of them have an extremely short attention span. As we were using Kid Keys for the first time so I could assess their mouse skill level, one of the boys hadn't even finished the level when he turned to me and said, "otro juego, maestro". He already wanted to play a different game.

Bring It On!

Well now that we've established our blogs for the Technology course at Walden University I am looking forward to getting things rolling at my school. There was actually a blog posted on the Chicago Public Schools e-mail site asking for our opinion on unblocking social networking , video and blogging sites. This is a step in the right direction in my opinion because if the tools are managed properly, with password protection and student privacy, it gives the a whole new world of resources to take advantage of for their studies. My colleague, a Walden Tech/Masters Alum, wants me to work with her ion a blogging workshop for our staff. I am looking forward to this PD activity even though I'm not sure yet what we're going to do.

How will I use this in my classroom?

Thinking about using a blog in my Primary Grade Computer Lab has my head spinning and swimming with ideas of how I will use it in the lab. I will definitely take it slow, as Will Richardson suggests in our text, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (2009). I think starting out with the in class chat feature that we have on our Vision program is a good way to get the students accustomed to writing publicly and responding to their peers in real time. I would probably want them to discuss the stories they are reading in their language arts curriculum to get them thinking about articulating their ideas and sharing them with their classmates. I hope this would give them a forum for preparing for writing assignments, quizzes and exams that their homeroom teachers are assigning. Giving the homeroom teachers an opportunity to see a hard copy of the discussion may help them assess whether or not the students are comprehending the concepts that each unit is trying to teach. It may give the teachers a heads up on what they may need to review or reiterate. If the in class discussions go well then I would like to take it to a blog on our schools website that all the 3rd graders and their teachers have access to read and post comments.

Step One...Done

Well the first week back is over and I have seen each class at least one time. That does not mean I've seen all the students because there is always a shuffle of class rosters the first few weeks as the enrollment numbers sort themselves out. Everyone that I've seen knows the basic rules of the lab and now comes the fun part of getting them to log-in with their user name and password. My Kindergarten students will have to learn where the letters and numbers are first. Many more of them are starting out with some computer skills because they had Pre-K, but also a lot of them have computers at home now. We begin the process of assessing where their mouse and typing skills are at this week. In the midst of all that I'm sure we'll have our first Fire Drill of the year thrown in for good measure. After all, the weather is wonderful.

What did I get into?

Once I created this blog, I started delving into other new things on the internet and how they can all be connected. I started playing around with different programs and such and the next thing I know I'm going through my archives of cassette recordings to convert to digital media. Hours later I started putting together videos to share and rediscovered some things I haven't heard in years. Since I can't really play my guitar very well because my left middle finger has issues since my accident. I decided to play with what I already recorded. Now all I need to do is find the time for all this new and exciting chapter in my own technology education. Autumn is always my creative season!

Welcome to my EduBlog!

This is my new blog I've created to talk about technology in education. My name is John James Kuszynski Sr. and I am currently teaching K-3 grade computer lab in the Chicago Public School system. I've been out on sick leave until this fall and I'm ready to dive in head first. The first week went well, a couple of minor glitches in the system didn't slow us down. I was happy to see most of my students returned to school and hadn't forgotten how to use their computers. (haha) I was pleasantly surprised at how skilled my Kindergarten students in using their mouse. It has gotten progressively better each year. One of them even told me my Flash drive "goes in the USB". I just had to smile!