21st Century Teacher

A blog entry by Doug Johnson (Blue Skunk Blog) got me thinking about the attributes needed to be a 21st Century Teacher. By this I mean a teacher who can teach 21st Century students.

Doug writes:

So what might be the hallmarks of the teachers who survive this meteoric change? I'd put my money on those who:

• are diagnosticians who use technology to help them create effective IEPs for all their kids using evaluation data that is accessed and manipulated electronically
• are masters of differentiated instruction
• communicate online easily
• can identify, organize and prescribe online learning activities
• are dynamic and engaging discussion leaders (and possibly lecturers)
• figure out new ways of teaming with other educators to specialize in learning styles rather than content areas

I hear the voice of my old supervisor Dr. Abe Amchin when I read the first bullet...he predicted in 1976 that I would live to see the day when all students - special and not-so-special - would have an Individual Education Plan (IEP).

I generally agree with Doug's list, but am not so sure of the fifth bullet and its reference to "lectures." I think 21st Century Teachers need to be architects, constructors and facilitators of learning. I hope the lecture disappears in the 21st Century Classroom.

I thought Doug's final pronouncement was also complimentary of Maine:

What do you do when you have their bodies in your classroom, but their minds are everywhere but? I hope our pioneering 1:1 educators in Maine and Africa and elsewhere will be offering guidance.

~John Brandt

Comments

[Doug Johnson]

Hi John,

I appreciate your comments here and on my blog.

I suppose I threw in the bit about lectures a bit selfishly since I've heard some good ones and would be sorry to have missed my chance to have learned from them. I still get a charge out of the Press Club lectures on public radio.

Well done, any educational method can and should be used. Poorly done, none should be.

Thanks and all the best,

Doug