What
am I going to do as an English teacher to engage with the 21st
century skills?
I
am a teacher of the 21st century. What does it mean for me a 51
year-old teacher born in the 20th century?
Honestly speaking, it is very
difficult to teach nowadays. Teachers in the 21st century face
challenges that their predecessors did not. The new 21st century learners must master
more than the core curriculum to succeed in secondary and postsecondary institutions,
as well as in the workplace. The traditional three R’s have to be transformed
into seven C’s: critical thinking and doing, creativity, communication,
collaboration, cross-cultural understanding, computing (ICT-literacy), and career
and learning self-reliance. Instead of teaching using chalk a modern teacher
needs to be an information technology expert, a technician, an artist and an
actor. More than that, I try to remember that I am a digital immigrant forced
to work with digital natives. My students can do a lot of things working on
their computers, tablets, mobile phones. Sometimes they say why they need a
teacher when they have got a Google? Can it really be true? I try to follow
them, even learn from them but sometimes they cannot understand me. I work
harder but they study worse. I use modern technologies but they are bored
during my lessons. A traditional Russian question – what to do?
To change myself is the only thing
to do I think. I completely agree with this opinion once found in the Internet
“To be an effective 21st century teacher, a teacher must first
possess the very same 21st century skills that their students are
expected to have. And, in addition to those skills, they must be able to help
all of their students obtain and develop 21st century skills”. Thus,
teaching 21st century skills will be challenging and exciting
because it will be a new experience for both teachers and students. To be an
effective 21st century teacher I must to be a collaborative lifelong
learner and a global educator.
Working at school for 28 years I am
sure school has a lack of individuals, who can make decisions and cope with the
stress of the changing world of schools. At the same time the modern teachers
need to be able to work in teams, cooperate with colleagues and parents. Working
with new technologies is also important in relating to students.
I suppose that the main 21st
century teachers’ skills are the following: critical thinking, professional
development, collaboration, making content relevant for the students, correct
using traditional experiences in modern schools.
The challenge for teachers today is to make lessons
relevant to students’ everyday lives. Developing
critical thinking skills in the 21st century is crucial because the world
becomes more complex. Giving students an understanding of globalization will
create effective future leaders because they will be capable of seeing things
from a world view. We
must maintain student interest by learning which prepares them for life in the
real world. Besides,
we must instill curiosity, which is fundamental to
lifelong learning. And finally, we must be flexible in how we teach. Therefore,
teachers can never stop learning themselves, attending seminars and trainings
on new developments in the profession.
But I am convinced that the main skill for the teacher
of the 21st century is to be a person. "Only a person can educate a
person" (Ushinsky).
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