The Future-Ready Challenge

Improve Student Outcomes in 18 Weeks

L. Robert Furman

• Publisher: International Society for Technology in Education
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781564846204
• eBook ISBN: 9781564846204
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Standards

With this collection of 18 easy-to-follow challenges, learn how to promote teamwork and collaboration, motivating your students to develop the skills they'll need for the future. Incorporating digital age skills into curriculum can be daunting for educators, and getting started can be the hardest part. In this book, author and education leader L. Robert Furman breaks down the process into 18 challenges so that teachers can improve student outcomes based on digital age skills and future-minded progress in a single semester.This book includes:

• Weekly step-by-step challenges designed to fill one semester.
• Case studies by leaders in the field and examples of how to implement the challenges for each grade level.
• Coverage of key topics such as digital citizenship, communication, problem-solving and integration of technology into learning.

The Future-Ready Challenge focuses on changing the classroom, your teaching style and the related procedures to increase opportunities for your students to engage in -- and most importantly, adopt -- digital age skills. Audience: K-12 classroom teachers

THE FUTURE-READY CHALLENGE

PART ONE

WEEKS 1–9

The future depends on what we do in the present.

—MAHATMA GHANDI

Congratulations. By choosing this book and deciding to take part in this challenge, you are taking an important step toward improving learning experiences and preparing your students for the future.

The challenges for weeks 1 through 9 share important steps you as an educator can take to embed 21st-century skills into your lessons. Starting at the beginning, with a list of soft skills and a meditation on how to incorporate them into your instruction, the challenges move from conceptualizing to avoiding repetition to focusing on specific outcomes. Case studies and examples provide fodder for inspiration.

Worksheet 1 will help you stay focused and organized. Remember that each challenge is exponential. By Week 9 you should be incorporating the first nine challenges. Check off each challenge as you complete it for that week.

Worksheet 1

WEEK 1

IMPLEMENT SOFT SKILLS INTO YOUR LESSON PLANS

Plans are nothing; planning is everything.

—DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

To make the Future-Ready Challenge a success, you must start at the beginning, in the planning stages, because when changes aren’t structured, you can’t measure their growth. In other words, you have to know what you’re aiming for. And to do this, you must mindfully begin to implement digital age skills into your everyday lessons.

Challenge

Your challenge is to add a line to your lesson plans that includes the digital age skill(s) being developed. Aim to do this for every class you teach, every day you teach. Your awareness of incorporating digital age skills into your everyday lessons is simply the most effective way to impact your students’ understanding and learning of these skills. This simple addition to your daily lesson plans will benefit your students for years to come.

Example

Consider creating a lesson where students must collaborate in order to solve a problem. In other words, go beyond memorization and dive into problem solving. Design a problem that includes multiple parts in order to solve the problem or multiple ways to solve the problem.

A great example for the social studies teacher is Countable (countable.us), a government website and app that allows kids to look at active bills in Congress and choose a position. You choose an active bill and ask the students to debate whether the bill should be passed or opposed. Encourage them to choose a position, research it, and present their argument to the class. Using the Countable app, allow the students to write directly to their congressperson.

This is, by far, one of the most important weeks in the challenge, as you will begin building an awareness of digital age skills and ISTE standards and how implementing these standards will bring about positive change.

FUTURE-READY DETAILS

Digital Age Skills Used

• Innovation

• Creativity

• Communication

• Collaboration

• Digital Literacy

• Critical Thinking/Problem Solving

ISTE Standards Addressed

• Global Collaborator

• Empowered Learner

• Digital Citizen

• Creative Communicator

Remember: The digital age skills you use will be what you want your students to adopt, and the ISTE standards are who you want your students to become.

Suggestions

Create a spot in your lesson plan where you can physically write down the digital age skills you will be touching on. You can then refer to these skills as you write out your lesson plan, even marking the areas in the lesson plan where each skill will be incorporated.

Reflection

After completing this challenge, ask yourself the following questions. This is an excellent opportunity to share with a peer who is undertaking the challenge as well.

1. In what ways did this challenge change/influence my teaching style? How have my students and I benefited from this change?

2. In what ways did the challenge change the way my classroom functions? How did this improve the learning process?

3. How did the use of technology and digital resources facilitate the implementation of this challenge in my classroom? Which resources were the most effective? How can I use these resources to further develop and advance my curriculum?

WEEK 2

AVOID THE WRDR CYCLE

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.

—ALAN WATTS

My wife and I hate to do laundry. It’s a never-ending, endlessly repeating process. You know even while you are doing it that you will have to do it again tomorrow. You just go through the motions, not paying much attention to what you are doing. What we don’t want to do to our kids is repeat that same monotonous, pointless cycle in the classroom. We don’t want our kids to come to school thinking that today will be just like yesterday.

We’re all guilty of it at some time or another: just going through the motions. It’s time to say goodbye to the days of the packet professor—the teacher who hands off worksheets to the kids when they come in and then proceeds to check out. We continue to have digital age packet professors; those teachers who hand their students an iPad and tell them to work on an app for the next 40 minutes. We may have digitized the process, but it’s really no different. I call it the Wash, Rinse, Dry, Repeat (WRDR) cycle, and many of us are caught in it.

If your students can always anticipate the classroom structure, you may be a WRDR teacher! You know the routine: a worksheet bell ringer, followed by a review of last night’s worksheet/homework, followed by opening up the book and working on another worksheet, and so on, and on. Each day is identical to the next. Does it fit the lesson plan structure? Yes. Does it fulfill the minimum requirements? Probably. Is it quality teaching? Absolutely, 100 percent no!

The WRDR cycle is indicative of the Industrial Revolution mentality, and it is a cycle we must break. Our students will never be in a system where they will earn money doing a job that is as cyclical as in the days of the factory. Therefore, we are doing them an injustice by teaching them in the same fashion.

Think back to when you were a student: Which lessons were the most memorable to you? I guarantee they were ones where the teacher encouraged you to participate in the learning process in a unique and creative way. I remember a time in fifth grade when we spent the day acting and being treated like children in Colonial times. The wealth of information I learned that day was astronomical because I was actively engaged in the learning process. This is why we must avoid the WRDR cycle.

Challenge

Break the WRDR cycle in your classroom. It’s up to you! Keep your mind firmly focused on memorable and engaging project-based learning.

Example

Instead of going through the WRDR cycle, change up your next scienc...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• About ISTE
• About the Author
• Acknowledgments
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• INTRODUCTION
• THE FUTURE-READY CHALLENGE PART ONE WEEKS 1–9
• THE FUTURE-READY CHALLENGE PART TWO WEEKS 10–18
• REFERENCES
• ISTE STANDARDS