21st century skills
Agile Educator Spotlight: What’s In Your Way?
This post is part of a our series call Agile Educator Spotlight, where we highligh trailblazing Agile Educators and their stories of Agile in their school. We are delighted to introduce to our guest author, an Agile Eduator in California, History Teacher, and Minecraft guru, Chris Scott. I like to help. So naturally one of my…
Read More21st Century Skills Cards
Another Card Deck from us to you.This one lays out the Life and Career Skills as outlined by the Partnership for 21st Century Learning.I recently used it to as a card game to learn about 21st Century Skills and to form cross-strength student teams.There are many other useful and fun ideas to use the 21st…
Read MoreThe Journey
The Journey The path to a self-organizing classroom (where students are empowered, collaborative, and aligned to meet their goals) is often not a leap, but, a series of steps. It is a journey. Four Learning Zones Like in any journey, a map helps us to get there. The 4 Learning Zones maps out the terrain. As…
Read MoreThe 15% Principle
Empowering students and staff sounds great. But, what do we do when we feel disempowered? There are so many constraints in some schools that seem to close all options but the ones prescribed from up high. So, empowerment sounds great, but, how? Most of us have at least 15% autonomy in what and how we…
Read MoreGrowing Self-Direction: A Scaffolding Model
How do we differentiate and scaffold self-directed learning? How do we meet students where they are, yet, continuously stretch them to become more self-directed? Empowering Boundaries You know how you grow a plant. Growing self-direction is like that. At first, you need to plant the seeds in a container. The container provides structure to support…
Read MoreConnecting Agile Educators in Vietnam
This week, ISHMC American Academy, located in Ho Chi Minh City, is launching into extreme 21st Century Skills, starting with professional development and coaching from Agile Classrooms for the entire staff. I am very excited about our virtual guest who will be visiting us from around the world during the workshop, sharing their experiences and…
Read MoreInnovation Natives
Today, students are born Digital Natives. This is given. They are comfortable with technology, it permeates their lives. Yet, at the heart, these natives are mostly consuming technology. Through these devices, they augment their presence, their network, and their knowledge. They can find an answer to “What is?” or a “How do I?” in seconds…
Read MoreStudent Empowerment Levels
Daniel Pink, in his book Drive, says that Mastery, Autonomy and Purpose (MAP) are what really motivates us to our highest levels. Autonomy, or self-directedness, is a critical 21st Century Skill. Yet, we give so little of it to our students, and sadly, not enough to teachers. It can be scary for some of us…
Read MoreLevels of Collaboration
We know that collaboration and communication skills are essential for students to master for today and tomorrow. One of the goals of an Agile Classroom is to grow the collaborative skills of students and leverage their collaboration for deeper learning, richer relationships, and a broader future. Agile Classrooms has outlined 4 Levels of Collaboration a…
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