Anne Shaw is the Founder and Director of 21^st Century Schools, a professional staff development and curriculum design consulting company.  The 21^st Century Schools web site was originally created in 1995 while Ms. Shaw was in the doctoral program for Curriculum Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. 

21stCenturySchools.com evolved from a site providing free resources for classroom teachers and school administrators, including practical tools as well as current educational research.  Her focus at the time was on the theory and application of critical pedagogy as a tool for creating change through education.

Ms. Shaw is a recognized international consultant.  In addition to working with schools and districts across the United States, her workshops have been attended by educators from Canada, India, Denmark, Australia, Chile, Russia and Mexico.  Her programs were implemented extensively in a school district in England, and she provided consulting services for implementing educational change for the country of Turkey and for educators in Qatar.  Ms. Shaw recently was an invited speaker at the Education and Innovation:  Forum II conference in Ankara, Turkey which was hosted by the Turkish Education Association and Sebit, Inc.  She is also invited to speak in Singapore as part of the Global Panel - International Award for Innovation which is hosted by the American Institute of Innovation & Entrepreneurship, LLC together with international partners Lyles Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, California State University, Fresno and the Malaysian Foundation for Innovation.    She is collaborating with an international organization for whom she is taking her workshops to Switzerland, Australia, India and China in 2010-11, then to Dubai, London, Hong Kong and other cities.

Ms. Shaw has extensive teaching experience including first grade through the sixth in public and private schools, directing and teaching high school youth groups and summer programs, supervising student teachers at the University of Texas at Austin, and teaching undergraduate courses at UT Austin.

Anne served as the district Staff Development Coordinator for Calhoun County ISD during her internship for her Master’s Degree in Educational Administration at the University of Houston at Victoria, Texas.  She served on numerous committees for school districts and school district/university collaborative committees; she also served as a Cohort Director of two cohorts of student teachers at UT/Austin.

Ms. Shaw’s ever-evolving essay, What is 21^st Century Education?, was published in the January 2009 edition of Ethos, an educational journal for social studies teachers from Deakin University in Australia and in a German high school textbook, "Viewfinder Dystopia & Utopia", September 2010, by Langenscheidt KG of Munich, Germany.  The article has also been cited numerous times in dissertations, masters‘ theses, research papers and textbooks.

Professional staff development and curriculum design are Ms. Shaw’s greatest professional passions.  Her current research and curriculum development focus upon environmental studies, social justice, multiple literacies for the 21^st century, 21^st century skills, global competencies, educational reform, and the use of tools such as videography, filmmaking, television production, etc., as excellent vehicles for learning and exceeding the content standards, for creating high levels of student motivation and achievement, and for developing critical 21^st century skills.

Exploration and use of social media (Web 2.0) tools are also high on her agenda, and the development and implementation of the global classroom – or, global, collaborative classroom projects.  High expectations for students are clear in the curriculum projects designed by Anne Shaw.  Global collaborative classroom projects must be rigorous, relevant and real world.  Pen pal projects alone do not meet those criteria.  Significant global, collaborative classroom projects immerse students in authentic research as they become engaged in addressing real-world problems, issues important to humanity and questions that matter.  Food and Culture is a project currently being developed by Ms. Shaw.

Workshops designed by Anne Shaw are university accredited.  They include Designing the 21^st Century Classroom, Media Literacy – an In-depth Investigation, Greening the Classroom and the Curriculum, Service Learning – Academics in Action, and more. 

You may follow Anne Shaw and 21^st Century Schools on Twitter, the 21^st Century Schools Blog, and Facebook.  Also visit the 21^st Century Schools Netvibes web site.

Please see Anne’s brief video illustrating her philosophy of education for the 21^st century entitled Renewable Education.