The 21st Century School Classroom workshop is a vital, compelling, and timely presentation for pedagogues, administrators and stakeholders.  As educators, we must come to terms with the evolutionary currents shaping our informational and global economy and these workshops are pivotal in promoting useful curriculum strategies that will allow our students to meet the demanding challenges of the new workforce and postsecondary institutions.  Thank you.

Dr. Arturo Acosta
New York City Department of Education

June 2005
 

A colleague of mine and I had the opportunity to attend the 21st Century School Seminar in Las Vegas in October of 2004. I could not be any more excited that I went. The education strategies that were developed by Anne Shaw and those attending the conference helped to solidify for me that the old style of education has gone the same way as “Leave it to Beaver.” Teaching the students of the 21st century requires more than just the “three R’s.” What is needed now are new methodologies in reaching these students of the future and this seminar gave us the tools to develop these methodologies. We were not even back at our school for a month before we were invited to present our findings to the entire faculty and the parent board. Since our presentations, we have already noticed a change in our classrooms! This seminar was fun, mature, and right on target.

Daniel A. Reinke, M.A.
Chair, Department of Theological Studies
Bishop Garcia Diego High School

dreinke@bishopdiego.org
805-967-1266 x221
 

"The philosophies demonstrated by Anne Shaw were innovative and student focused. The everyday practicality of the program touches all students regardless of ethnicity or socio-economic status. 

"The classroom setting was conducive to student performance. The program promotes motivation focusing on student directed learning. 

"Anne Shaw has a vision for schools in the 21^st century incorporating many strategies to facilitate all types of learners.

"The use of the strategies and philosophies modeled by Anne Shaw truly represent a break-through in student centered learning."

Misty Kainer, Principal

Here's what others had to say in response to:

One important idea I learned in this workshop and why it is important to me:

Excellent, well prepared and user-friendly!

Units are really formatted for across the curriculum.  Our school really wants to see more integrated units.

Incorporating service-learning into integrated curriculum.

How exciting and creative learning can be!  (i.e., through project-based or service-learning)  I want to excite children about learning and make them life0long learners.  I want to make learning authentic, related to real life.

The characteristics of a 21st century classroom and how to develop and implement it in our own educational environments.  Our city schools want to increase graduation rates, improve academic achievement, and improve school climate - this cannot be done using the traditional methodology and old paradigms.

That there is more out there than just following the curriculum - I want my students to learn from experiences.

How to use expert groups -  I can use this as better assessment than I already have for my classes.

21st century ideas and characteristics;  I am an educational leader (principal).

The importance of project-based learning and how standards are covered when you don't realize it.  Our district has become assessment driven and I know my students could be learning even more in this format.

Ideas for creating thematic units.  I love thematic units and authentic learning.

That you don't have to pick standards and then find activities to go with.  Design the units first, then plug in standards.  There is such a great importance placed upon making sure the curriculum is aligned with standards.

How clearly these integrated units tie back to the standards.  I need to see strong student growth.

Just how easy and fund it can be to create theme units.  Because I run an after-school program, by the time I get these students they are tired, I need a fun and exciting change of pace way to teach them.

Interdisciplinary units can still be done in spite of government expectations.  I had fallen into the trap of worrying too much about [the prescribed] curriculum.

To focus more on multimedia strategies.  More interesting for my students.

Students become more engaged and hold information better, use in real life.  I teach ELL students and this will benefit their language skills.

Expert/Jigsaw - I've done jigsaws but not as effectively.  I teach core (math-science) and would like to integrate.

Student-owned, student-taught work is better produced and rich in content.  I notice when I introduce group projects they class runs itself.  When it's read and answer questions behavior is not good and learning is not in-depth.

The multiple literacies - I would want to incorporate them.

The structure for organizing a unit - checklist.  It is a complex process so it is good to have a 'centering'.

Student-centered teaching environment.  Idea of teaching strictly to book/lecture, etc., has not been working.

The standards can be met through project-based learning.  I need to better engage my students.

How to integrate all subject areas as a part of school-wide/team-based projects.  Because we just started working in teams and doing project-based projects.

Attributes of a thematic unit and service-learning.  It covers all aspects of planning a great unit.  It also covered the benefits.