Patrick Daly, article for Transcript

Who is the 21^st century learner?

In educational circles we hear a lot about the needs of the 21^st century learner.  President Obama stated “"I always hear stories about how we can't find engineers, and that's why we're emphasizing math and science. We want to start making science cool”.  Richard Riley, Secretary of Education under President Clinton stated, “We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist….using technologies that haven’t yet been invented…in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.”  Truly, our mission with 21^st century learners is to engage and motivate the students to develop the skills that will allow them to solve problems and uncover the core knowledge needed for success in the global society.

But what exactly are these skills, and what can we do to improve them?

In the book 21^st Century Skills: Learning For Life in our Times Bernie Trilling and Charles Fadel present the four core themes of a 21^st century education: Core Subjects and Innovation Skills, Life and Career Skills, Information, Media, and Technology Skills, and Learning and Innovation Skills.

They also present the 7 C’s, the skill sets our students will need for success: Critical thinking and problem solving, Communications, information and media literacy, Collaboration, teamwork, and leadership, Creativity and innovation, Computing and ICT (information and communications technology) literacy, Career and life skills, and Cross-cultural understanding.

North Reading educators are already working very hard at this task.  A group of teachers, NR21, has been meeting at the high school all year and have been strategizing about the best ways to begin training the staff for the 21^st century challenges.  Next year we will be looking to expand the influence of NR21 district-wide.  In so many ways our outstanding educators are already promoting the best practices that will make the following visions the reality for every 21^st century learner.

When you walk into a classroom in North Reading you will see the 7 C’s in action.  Students will be engaged in critical thinking about their topics as they work in small groups, developing collaboration and leadership skills.  They will be called upon to develop computing skills in order to create projects for their class-work.  Students will be taught self-reliance, and the skills necessary to make decisions about the information they encounter.  To see this in action, check out the Science Olympiad team at the middle school, or ask a student on the Math and Engineering team about her experiences at competition. Visit high school classes using videos to create public service announcements, or witness students solving real world problems in Mathematics classes.

In North Reading students will not only read about other cultures but engage in technology-driven opportunities to interact with students from around the world in real-time using technology.  There will be more opportunities for contests and competitions, as students use the core knowledge learned in class to solve problems and develop their critical thinking skills.  This is evidenced by students who are making Twitter Pen Pals at the Hood, presenting a living Inca museum at the Little, or using SMARTboards at the Batchelder.

We are now in the second decade of the 21^st century and the students we have in class today are the students who will be leading us in the future.  Our schools and teachers have already stepped up to the challenge of creating new and innovative approaches of instruction in order to meet many of the needs that await us in the decades to come.

Welcome to Academic Services

QR Codes

You may have seen these strange symbols appearing everywhere: in the supermarket, newspapers, on the subway and even on products.  But what are they and how could they be used in education?

Quick Response codes, or QR codes, are two-dimensional codes first designed by Toyota to track vehicles during the manufacturing process.  The code appears in two-dimensional form on a sign, in a paper, or on a product and the user scans the code with a QR reader.  These readers can be easily downloaded onto a mobile smartphone such as the Droid or iPhone.  The user opens the QR Scanner application, holds the phone over the code, and the scanner recognizes the code and immediately transmits the information to the user.

What information can be communicated?
There are many types of information that can be communicated through a QR code.   The most common content type would be the URL of a website.  Scanning the code would bring the reader to a website with more information, videos, or details about the topic or product.  This allows for increased communication as the presenter has the ability to support the two-dimensional presentation or advertisement with all of the information and multi-media power of the internet.  And instead of providing a link that the reader has to retype the QR code allows for a very efficient and simple
process for obtaining that additional information.

Other information can be created as well, including brief text messages, phone numbers, or SMS (short message service) messages that can be sent directly to fixed line or mobile devices.

Give it a try!  Download a QR code reader to your mobile device and scan this code for more information!

A Focus on the Essential

Systemically we have been working on identifying the most important ideas that are key to the vision and mission of the North Reading Public Schools.  The process of involving administrators, teachers, and school councils in this process has allowed all stakeholders to help define what is essential for the North Reading school community. 

Technology is one of the most challenging areas to focus as something cutting edge appears to be emerging every day.  This year as a district we have focused on the exploration of two main areas: the educational website as a means of extending classroom learning and the SMARTboard and iPAD tools as a way of increasing interactive classroom learning.  Many educators have been engaged in professional development and exploration of website design, SMART technologies, and iPAD trainings and are bringing this knowledge and experience to their classrooms. 

As a result, students are able to utilize classroom websites as a communication tool for assignments, activities, and as a resource for learning.  Teachers are including video clips to reiterate a lesson and links to sample solutions or practice problems that students can access from home.  Others are able to submit assignments through the dropbox and receive feedback from their classmates or instructor online.

In the classroom SMART and iPAD technologies are being used to engage the students in interactive lessons that require them to work together at the board and incorporate bodily-kinesthetic actions.  In a seventh grade history class students take photographs with their iPADs and transform themselves into their choice of prehistoric men and women using the Smithsonian app MEanderthal.  Talk about being able to put yourself in the middle of the learning!  As the students are hooked by the fun of the activity they are able to explore more about the history of our prehistoric relatives by following links to the Smithsonian website.

In Curriculum we have been working to clarify what is most important for our students to know and be able to do.   Using our new Mathematics and Literacy State Frameworks as a guide our educators have used their expertise to determine the most essential standards that all students should master at given points throughout the year.  These benchmarks for mastery will allow our educators to collect data about the progress all students are making towards these goals.

Defining which standards are most essential is a challenging task since all agree that everything is important for our students to be taught.  This is true, and yet when we consider the question of whether something is “nice to know” or essential for the next year, in other areas of learning, or for the rest of their life it allows us to focus on what is truly most important.  The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) believes that education must go deeper into fewer areas; that we must focus on the core knowledge. 

In instruction it is essential that we focus on the learner.  As we create opportunities for student-driven lessons we allow for our learners to become more involved in their own education.  Project-based and inquiry-based assignments challenge students to access prior knowledge and develop their collaborative, creative, and critical thinking skills.  Allowing students to become scientists, historians, mathematicians, critics, artists, athletes, and scholars creates within them the desire to become lifelong learners.  The student-driven approach instills within the learner the skills needed to seek out information on her own and builds upon her desire to obtain that knowledge. 

All of these activities share a common thread.  This is not about memorizing the answers for the test on Friday.  This is about making the link between today’s lesson and the career that awaits through the real-world connections to the assignment.  This is a focus on what is most essential for our students: developing a desire to explore the world around them and igniting a passion for life-long learning!