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We also highly recommend the following videos on Creativity by Sir Ken Robinson, and a very inspiring video about perseverance and success by William Kamkwamba.  Your students should see them, too!

Are Schools Killing Creativity?

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The Element

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William Kamkwamba's Story

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Now accepting registrations for two workshops in New York City in May!

Media Literacy - an in-depth investigation -  May 5 & 6

Designing the 21st Century Classroom - a curriculum design workshop -  May 7 & 8

 

Snowed In?  -  University accredited Online Courses half price during January!  Learn more here.

 

21st Century Schools - Renewable Education

Welcome to 21st Century Schools.  Please view the slideshow to the left for a brief overview of our thoughts on education this New Year's Day 2010.  And read our article, What Is 21st Century Education?  And don't forget to sign up to our Blog and to follow us on Twitter!

This new year - new decade - is bringing a new focus for 21st Century Schools.

In addition to our continuing focus on developing 21st century curriculum and instruction we are adding a much stronger focus on:

  • Green Education and Sustainability

  • Creativity - in every discipline and activity

  • Social Media and the use of Web 2.0 Tools in Education

  • Green Living - Living Buildings and Schools

  • Global Collaborative Classroom Projects

  • Service Learning

We will continue to offer our workshop, Designing the 21st Century Classroom, on a quarterly basis.  This workshop integrates important topics such as interdisciplinary, integrated, project-based, research-driven curriculum development and classroom strategies;  it integrates differentiated instruction, multiple literacies required for the 21st century, and much more.

We also offer an excellent array of Online Courses, which are university accredited, and which you may take at your leisure.

We will bring a renewed focus to providing On-Site professional development.  For a printable brochure of possible workshops click here.

As you can see, we have been continuing to build a quality team, representing the multiple and most critical aspects of 21st century education.

In light of the current economic crisis, which has had such a drastic impact on school budgets, we are temporarily lowering prices for our on-site professional development.  We also ask you to inquire as to how you may host one or more of our workshops.  On-site is the most economical approach to providing quality professional development, and gives your staff the opportunity to experience the workshop first-hand.  We understand that many districts send 2 or 3 people to a workshop and then expect them to teach what they learned to the rest of the faculty upon returning home.

For truly quality professional development that results in sustained change, which results in greater student learning, you must have ongoing support.  We offer both on-site and online continuing support for your entire staff.

Finally, please call on us to bring a team to your campus or district to provide a professional needs assessment, from which we can develop and guide your staff through an extended change process - into the 21st century.  It is not enough to take a few strategies from 21st century education, force fit them into your current structure and policies, then claim that your district is 21st century.  It takes real work and change, which is never easy.  But we do have the expertise to help you make a successful transition.

Professional Development Opportunities

Watch this space for information about our new and developing Global Green Schools Project!

 

 

Other new curriculum projects ideas!

Going Green! - Please visit our Green Corner and our new Sustainability page for new ideas and resources for your class, campus and district. 

Service Learning - Barack Obama and Joe Biden have issued the challenge to Americans to serve.  Find out why Service Learning projects are the ultimate 21st century curriculum.  Service Learning workshop.

IOUSA - One Nation. Under Stress. In Debt - this is another critical theme through which your students can learn about economics, government, service learning, and more.  New theme.  Please go to our IOUSA wikispaces page and help us create the wiki.

Social Media and Education - from the presidential campaign to the Inauguration and ongoing, Barack Obama and his team have made unprecedented use of social media, or Web 2.0, tools.  Learn more about how to use them in your curriculum. 

Is your classroom 21st century?

Also see our comparison chart, The 20th Century Classroom vs. the 21st Century Classroom - which one is yours?

Also see our article What Is 21st Century Education? 

Professional Staff Development Needs Assessment Tool 

Visit our Professional Development Page for resources, tips on planning professional development, funding ideas for professional development, and our Professional Development Needs Assessment survey tool to help focus on your specific professional development needs.

Funding Professional Development

See our Funding Page for information regarding education and the Stimulus Bill, other Federal Funding and Creative Funding Strategies.

 

 
 

Recommended Reading

The Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner: Book Cover     Last Child in the Woods-Revised by Richard Louv: Book Cover     The Element by Ken Robinson: Book Cover  Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman: Book Cover

A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink: Book Cover

Here are several great books to help you make the paradigm shift in how we think about education in the 21st century - how schools are organized, how district policies may need to change, how to design and deliver curriculum and instruction that is authentic for the 21st century student/learner.

Organize a reading/discussion group and read the following books.  Click here for more ideas on how to use these books.

  • The Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner
  • Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman
  • The Element by Sir Ken Robinson
  • Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
  • A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink

 

  

Online Courses - University Accredited

Go to a workshop in your pajamas?  Grab a cup of coffee and settle in with your laptop on your favorite big, comfy chair - that's one way to enjoy your professional development!  You name the date, the time and the place!

View list of Online Course offerings.

Graduate University credit is available!  Register today! 

Click here to pay by credit card.

 

International Professional Development

We appreciate our international visitors and are delighted to hear from educators around the globe that our web site, our philosophies, our curriculum design and our professional development are what is needed in your countries.

We have an excellent international team of the very best educators who are available to bring our professional development to you.  We welcome opportunities to partner with various governments, organizations and schools to help bring education in your country into the 21st century.

Contact us today so that we can begin the discussion and make the plans to make 21st century education a reality in your schools!

Please see our page for International Professional Development.

About the 21st Century and Education

We see and hear the phrase "21st century" almost everywhere.  Perhaps the term has become so ubiquitous that it has lost much of its impact or meaning.  However, the dramatic impact of the ongoing technological revolution that ushered in the 21st century is only growing.  It is changing our world, the context in which our students live and learn, in more dramatic ways with each new development.

Today's students live in a world that is extremely fast-paced, constantly changing, increasingly culturally diverse, technologically driven, and media-saturated.  We cannot continue to deliver a 20th century, scientific-management, factory-model education.  This new context of the 21st century requires that we redefine "education", "school", "curriculum", "teacher" and "learner".  It requires that we provide an education designed to help our students truly succeed.  

We offer educators the knowledge, the understanding, and the tools to actually take their schools and classrooms into the 21st century.  New workshops include:  Green Education, Differentiated Instruction, Web 2.0 Tools for the Classroom, Emotional and Social Learning, Multiple Literacies, Change, Classroom Management and Student Motivation, and the Arts - Keeping Creativity in the Curriculum!  Browse by:      Date          Location          Title       Register today!

Of course, we also have our other great workshops on the schedule:  Designing the 21st Century Classroom, After School Programs, iKids, Service Learning, Smaller Learning Communities, and a Million Dollars! Read our description of a 21st century education. 

 

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