The 21st Century Classroom

Mahalo to Educational Technology and Mobile Learning who again come up with a short, concise and helpful visual for teachers, administrators, and parents!  If you have not checked out the short and valuable work these folks put out, I strongly suggest you do so in the near future!  

This is a short post consisting of  a pictorial representation of the Anatomy of a 21st Century Classroom.  This is a topic of great discussion  not only in Hawaii Catholic Schools, but in every classroom across the country.

The question of meeting students needs at a personal level drives the descriptors of what a classroom should look and feel like so that all students are comfortable and able to learn.   Classrooms filled with isolated desks and rows are not conducive to developing the 21st century skills in our students necessary to compete in our constantly stretching world.  Constructing classroom environments that are flexible with multiple access points to information and tools give students the freedom, within carefully crafted boundaries, to pursue their learning at their own pace.  The teacher sets the tone and guides the process through a classroom set up that engages students and begs for student collaboration and interaction with others both in the room and outside school walls. 

The 21st Century classroom facilitates student learning and also provides the canvas for our students to become creators of knowledge.  Availability of tools that allow students to access, analyze, and curate information, formulate theories and explore possibilities bring the 21st Century classroom to life.  Our classrooms should be places that are alive and organic and constantly evolving to meet students' needs.  Teachers bring in the tools and curricula necessary to support pedagogical practices that move students along their path toward meeting standards and developing the 21st Century skills necessary to pursue their dreams and aspirations.




In this type of environment, students thrive as active participants in their education.  Teachers function as facilitators of learning, focusing on constructing activities and lessons that support the development of 21st Century skills in each and every student!

HCS 21st Century Skills for students - Communication Skills: Oral and Written

Communication Skills: Oral and Written – Demonstrated proficiency in written and oral methods of communication as well as choosing effective means of communicating the message to the target audience.

The Catholic Schools Standards Project seventh standard is Academic Excellence.  An integral skill in our HCS is the development of strong communication skills in both oral and written format.  Our challenge lies in that technology has changed the construct of oral and written.  Now, there are multiple types of communication writing - academic, informational, social media (as in Twitter and Instagram posts), blogging, podcast, video copy, Webinars, etc.  Oral and written skills can be practiced and conveyed through a broad range of media and we need to be exposing our students to effective and ethical uses of these media in order for them to be prepared to fully integrate and positively impact the world we live in as graduates of Hawaii Catholic Schools.

A central part of our mission as Catholic educators is to make sure our students are grounded in our faith.  Not only do we want them rooted in Catholic faith and the teachings of Jesus, but we also want them capable of spreading the Gospel.  In order to do this, we must make sure our students develop strong oral and written communication skills.  The ability to filter and curate information and develop cogent arguments that an audience can make sense out of is essential to any adult in the 21st Century.  Students in Hawaii Catholic Schools have the blessing of intimate interaction and access to an effective role model to draw from and enhance their learning - Jesus Christ.

Jesus used effective communication skills - mostly oral, to spread his message.  His disciples did the same and took it a step further by writing The Word down in what is our Bible.  The power of developing effective communication skills cannot be under-stated.  The more opportunities we create for our students to develop and practice their public speaking, broadcasting, writing and research skills the more doors we open for them as they enter adulthood.

The challenge lies in that we need to develop these skills as a integral part of the teaching and learning process.  No longer will only paper and pencil and multiple choice tests suffice.  No longer can we simply say "write a 5 paragraph essay."  Students need to be taught how to write for the Internet (140 characters or less), how to write for technical publications, informational writing, copy for internet-based media, etc.  They also need to be taught how to deliver short, relevant and detail filled speeches and/or presentations.  I'm not even talking about PowerPoint here, this is more like Podcasts or TED talks or Webinars.  The kind of PSA message that gets your point across in as few words as possible with as much impact as possible.  This is actually not as big a shift for Catholic Schools as it is for some public schools as these are skills that have been a central part of Catholic education since its inception.  We just now have many more means of acquiring our information and distributing our message!


This short (under 5 minutes) video from Edutopia provides some great insights around the term "communication" from one of our most incredible visionaries, George Lucas.  It is an interesting perspective on how to prepare kids for the rigor and challenges and diverse technological world they will enter into as adults.  George Lucas - Teaching Communication 

So let's support the development of a broad range of communication skills, both oral and written and technology centered that will support our students educated in Hawaii Catholic Schools so they are prepared to enter their next phase of life prepared to spread the word of God and contribute effectively to our society!