Retiring 21st Century Learning

Education is filled with buzzwords.  I know of no other profession inundated with what seems like the words upon words of lingo:  Common Core, Standardized testing, differentiation, personalized learning, and the ever quoted “21st century learning.”

21st century learning is a term that was almost a requirement to use at any job interview at the turn of the century.  I looked back at my first cover letter (from 2003) and I used the term 21st century learning.  I continued to use it and hear it in my teaching and during my time as an administrator.

In fact…I was on twitter last night and saw a tweet about 21st century learning!

My question is when will we move from this term and just call it learning?  We are in the year 2015…15 years into the 21st century.  Do we still have to create a special term that we think our students will need in 2015?  

CW was fortunate to have members of the Forest Hills Public Schools Foundation in our building today observing teachers learning how to use the online mapping tool, Stratalogica.  Our Foundation was generous in their financial support and purchased a school site license for this amazing tool.  

In talking with the Foundation representatives, I was reminded of what 21st century learning really meant.  Our students are entering a world that requires them to be adaptive, to think critically, to locate information, and work collaboratively.  In essence, this is what the term 21st century learning was meant to capture.  It meant moving away from memorization and focusing on the right answer.  It meant creating opportunities for students to authentically apply the information they were learning in a real world context.  It meant connecting the learning happening in PE with the learning happening in math and so forth.

I look at the work we are doing at CW in creating visible thinkers who can engage one another in discourse and document their thinking.  I see students who are applying what they learn in one subject to another.  I see students becoming thinkers who are able to adapt to challenges they face.  

I know there was a lot of buzz (well deserved) when the state abruptly changed from using the ACT to the SAT at the high school level as the test included in the Michigan Merit Exam.  There has been a lot of buzz at our level about the upcoming and new M-Step assessment.  Actually, there is always buzz regarding standardized assessment.  I do understand the need to look at new assessments and the implications they have on our students’ ability to select the college of their choice.  Changing assessments does add stress for our families (especially our high school juniors!). 

However, I wrote this to our staff this week and wanted to share it with our families:

While I do see the need for our students to practice the delivery format of the assessments, the work we do with Visible Thinking transcends any test.  Our students through, our culture of thinking, will do well no matter what the test is called.

At CW, we are creating thinkers…not test takers!!!!!!!

So I would like to officially retire the use of 21st century learning at CW.  At CW, we are creating a culture of thinking through a focus on visible thinking which pushes our students to engage in deeper learning.  I am excited that our students leaving CW will not only be ready for 7th grade, but they will be ready for life!