Week 2 - Blog Posting #4 -21st Century Skills & Lifelong Learning

Lifelong Learners

In my previous post, I discussed the goals of my classroom and how I aim to have my students talk intelligently about music. I also hope to inspire them to become life-long patrons of the arts. I feel that this is my way of making them life-long learners. I hope that my students leave with an appreciation of music and a critical ear so they can listen to an array of music and judge its musicianship and virtuosity and not just its coolness.

21st Century Skills

This is not the first time I have heard the term 21st Century Skills. I have heard it said at a variety of conferences and workshops, talked about in the media and education journals, and even discussed in the teachers room, but not until this program have I asked myself: Am I teaching my students 21st Century Skills?

There are many skills I teach my students in the music classroom. I teach them to listen critically, to express themselves in a variety of ways, to read music, and to play music from the heart. I also teach them skills not necessarily pertaining to music: critical thinking, writing skills, deciphering information, teamwork, and responsibility. But do I teach 21st Century Skills?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yCB4i7GJuM

I have been developing new and exciting ideas to implement theses skills into my classroom. I found the following YouTube video that explains the 3 steps to implementing 21st Century Skills into the classroom. It suggests we transform our classrooms into a creative learning space. We teach students the skills of competition, cooperation, and collaboration. Also we introduce our student to their global peers and provide the opportunity for them to collaborate.

http://www.aea11.k12.ia.us/tech/TIC/TIC_resources/Feb_2009/21st_Century_Skills_in_the_Music_Classroom.ppt

I also found this PowerPoint with explains the different ways to use 21st Century Skills in the music classroom. I have implemented many of her ideas but there were a few that stood out. She points out that our students have to be globally aware and in my middle school classes we learn about the music cultures of the world and in my elementary classes we study the winter holidays of the world. She says to use computers when having students compose music. Each year my students compose at least two songs, one by hand and the other on the computer. I have also found some web 2.0 tools I will be implementing as well: indaba music, playlist.com, and animoto. She suggests using YouTube videos in lessons. This year I have started having my students watch some videos of music ensembles instead of always just listening to them.

I hope my students become lifelong patrons of the arts and are able to function and adapt in the ever changing 21st century.