21st Century Skills

     First graders don't seem overly concerned with their futures or as to what profession they might be interested in.  However, as their teacher I think about this a lot.  I especially worry about those students who do not have a solid support system at home.  What will they become, how will they support themselves, will they have a chance to go to college or a trade school?  What can I do as a teacher to get my students to think for themselves and to be problem solvers?  The 21st Century Skill that I identified with the most during this module was that of problem solving.  My first graders come to me so dependent on an adult's help.  Before attempting to complete an assignment or a task their little hands shoot up imploring for help from me.  It takes a while, but they begin to learn that I am not going to rescue them every time they encounter a problem.  Instead, I ask them to stop and think about it.  They must make 3 different attempts to solve their problem, complete a task, or find information on their own before they are allowed to ask me.  Now the challenge becomes how do I find ways for students to solve problems using technology?  I like to use apps that require the students to create using pictures, concept maps, and videos.  Apps that require students to brainstorm, explore, and collaborate.  I am continuously surprised at how well my students adapt to a new tool.  Students in my class are very adept at using apps and web based tools such as popplet, haiku deck, padlet, prezi, iMovie, sock puppets to just name a few.    We are coming to an end of our school year and I am so impressed as to what my first graders can do.  We recently went to the Louisville zoo for our class field trip.  While there the students were to take pictures of the 3 animals we studied in class that highlighted an important feature or fact about each of those animals.  They were also asked to do the same thing for 2 new animals they found at the zoo.  Students then returned to school and were assigned the task of putting this information into a presentation using the app of their choice.  Students were required to include a picture of the animal and list 3 facts about each one.  Their presentation needed to include some type of audio as well.  A project that I thought would take days in fact did not.  Students did a fantastic job of completing their presentations.  So much so, I have now asked them to create the presentation again using a different app or web based tool.  They then must tell me which app or web based tool they liked best and why.  What were they able to do different with the new tool that they weren't able to with their first tool of choice?  What could be done easier, What was harder? etc.   I have been amazed at how well my first graders have been able to complete this task.  A few of the students even chose apps I wouldn't have given as a choice if I had chosen the apps for them.   Those presentations are probably my favorite because the students were able to complete the presentations following the guidelines set for them with little to no help from me and were able to do it in a way that I had not thought of myself.  This is all the assessment I need to know that
my first graders who were once scared to work on their own are now bright eyed independent learners that have the world at their fingertips.