"Teaching in the Digital Age"

Belonging to Generation X, I consider myself a“novice native” to the 21^st century digital world. I am not apposed to exploring the practical uses of technology that has become available to us as educators. I cautiously experiment with non-traditional presentation formats, search engines, pod casts, and blogs. As a middle school educator, I encourage and teach students to authentically and ethically use modern technology for exploration and creation of a variety of literary pieces with hopes of building contemporary literacy; not always easy to achieve. Most importantly, I instruct them on how to communicate effectively, demonstrating comprehension and critical thinking skills; another big challenge with low achieving students in an intervention class.

Overall, I was inspired to continue on my quest to become a 21^st century educator that teaches not to a test, but teaches students how to achieve, following Dr. Tony Wagner’s crediance, “…to do new work in new ways”. Teachers should feel morally obligated to teach students how to become critical thinkers and problem solvers, collaborators and entrepreneurs according to   Dr. Wagner, author of The Global Achievement Gap. Students must develop effective oral and written communication skills, beyond publishing a coherent paragraph, to accurately articulate accessed, analyzed, and processed information that leads the reader to fully comprehend the writer’s message. Furthermore, students need to show agility and adaptability, as well as have a strong sense of curiosity and imagination to become truly successful in the world today. As an educator, I am now even more compelled to teach competencies through content, not just the content. It’s time to go to work!