My Journey Continues

As I reflect upon the past 9 weeks, what about myself was I most aware of as a learner?
I'm not sure I learn very well from reading other people's blogs.  I felt like there was a lot of redundancy between what I wrote in my posts and what other people wrote in theirs. This being said, I found myself saying the same things in my comments as I did in my original posts which made me feel like I was doing busy-work.  I also learned that I enjoy working at my own pace and choosing what specifically I want to learn about.  I feel I have control over what I am learning and am learning things that are important and relevant to me and where I am in my work as a 21st Century educator.

What insights about student learning have I gained as a result of implementing the 21st Century Learning Competencies?
I have learned that students can rise to the occasion.  What I mean by this is that students are capable of higher-level, rigorous work as long as the teacher is organized and holds them accountable for their learning along the way.  It is not enough to just tell students go "do this."  As teachers, we need to guide them through the process and be explicit about the expectations.  Students can "feel" when teachers don't believe they can do something so it is important that, as teachers, we believe in students' abilities to succeed at every level.  If we don't, we will not push them to be 21st Century Learners.

As I think about my future instruction, how might the 21st Century Learning Competencies be used as a guide to my teaching practice?
Since, the main reason I took this course was to better inform my knowledge of the six competencies and how to use them effectively within a lesson in order to better support teachers at my site with 21st Century Learning in the classroom, I see myself using the 21st Century Learning Competencies "Elevator Guide" when I meet with teachers to plan lessons.  We can look at the lesson through the 21st Century lens and see where the lesson is currently and if, by making some changes, we can take the lesson to a higher level in one or more of the competencies.