August 28, 2002
Recent research quoted in "Preparing Schools and School Systems for the 21st Century" from the council of 21 with John Glenn as the Honorary Chair and published by the American Association of School Administrators focuses on the challenge educators have to prepare students for a global knowledge information age. Research indicated the importance of engaging students in addressing real-world problems, issues important to humanity, and questions that matter. In this information-rich age, we need to make it our mission to develop critical, creative, and independent thinkers.
I am going to try to keep the above paragraph in my mind as I travel to my former school tomorrow morning. I will be meeting with a group of fifth graders from Mrs. Marcia Mateling's class.
A few years back I had a concern about the lack of knowledge among our children of day-to-day events that were going on in our world. They were unable to make good connections from their classroom learning to what was happening today as well as what had happened in the past. We began using CNN Student Newsroom as a base to provide them with a rich environment full of meaningful experiences. This helped them learn and build a knowledge base with which to make connections to communciate and construct meaning.
The children soared! We were very pleased with the results. Now I am fortunate to be able to return to introduce them to the world of weblogs. Our goal is to keep them engaged and thinking. Let's see where it leads and we welcome comments from you as we explore possiblities for children.