Culminating+Letter

Working in groups of 3, write a letter to an administrator about why it's important to inform others about the Net Generation.

Dear Administration,

Did you know thatChinahas more honor students than there are people in theUnited States? Whether you may know it or not, our current model of education needs to change in order to complete globally. In turn, we, as educators, have become ineffective. Our students are disengaged and could in fact know more than their teachers do, but we may never know it. Gone are the days of teachers being the dispensers of knowledge. We must use digital sources, technology, and a variety of teaching methods to engage this generation multi-tasking sensibilities to become expert learners. There are many reasons why this needs to happen.

First, students today are digital natives. Kids have to ability to get answers instantly. They constantly use multiple media formats to get information. Not only that, but because they have grown up in a complex digital world, the brains of this generation processes information differently than we do. Therefore, the way we teach students today cannot continue in the fashion it is now. There needs to be a complete shift in thinking from the traditional model, “The old way is the best way to learn,” or “That’s how we learned,” to processing pictures, sound, color, and video before text, and learning that relevant active, useful, and fun. Unfortunately, the classroom of today doesn’t look much different from that of when public education began in mid 1800’s!

Second, the cookie cutter standardized way of assessing students is old fashioned and about one hundred years out of date. It doesn’t address the needs of each student, as each student learns and applies knowledge differently. Because government money is given based on test scores, curriculum and testing drives teacher instruction. Again, this is an old or backwards way of thinking. The goals of our federal government are prohibiting us from achieving the goals of a global environment. If we continue to need to prepare our students for standardized testing, we are losing valuable instructional time where we could be teaching our kids to become expert learners as opposed to test takers.

If we don’t act now, our nation will fall even further behind. Currently, we are losing the race against other countries that are ahead of the curve. For example, we are ranked fourteenth in reading, seventeenth in science and twenty-fifth in math and only half of our students are graduating high school. With that being said, we are the richest nation in the world. That begs the question, where do our priorities lie? Should we be spending our money on our youth and education?

In conclusion, education as we know it has to change drastically to meets the needs of today’s learners. This can only happen with the support of a progressive thinking administration that has a global perspective. Are you willing to move forward with this change or will you be left behind?

Sincerely,

Ann, Ari and Jen

Dear [Insert Random Administrator Name]

Are you smarter than an Auten Road Intermediate student? On any given day, our students are twitting, blogging, texting, designing web pages, collaborating documents and projects, managing social networks, accessing information before you can say encyclopedia, acquiring music, problem solving through video games, video chatting and conferencing, creating and publishing multimedia masterpieces. All of this learning is occurring outside of ARIS’s four walls.

The digital age has rewired our student’s brains to genuinely multitask at rapid speeds. Our educational system is functioning at a slow and steady pace. Unlike the turtle, slow and steady does **not** win the race. We are causing today’s learner to be disengaged and bored because our traditionally fixed methods and materials are not effective for the way their brains function. The goal of education is no longer about rote memorization and basic skill mastery, but about problem solving and collaboration on a global level. What can we do as a school to prepare these students for their future, not our past?

Teachers want their student to succeed. In order to achieve success, we need to move away from the current educational model- teachers bestowing knowledge upon their students. We need to change the philosophy of teaching- empowering the students. Students want to be active learners and it is our obligation to provide the best environment for them to learn. This involves:


 * providing multiple means of instruction to affect diverse learners
 * offering variety of ways to demonstrate mastery of content
 * allow access to multimedia/technological sources
 * foster environment for taking risks
 * establish a collaborative community
 * motivate students to find a passion for learning

In order for this change to occur, WE must change! WE must be willing to reinvent our classrooms and embrace a new method. The only way we can achieve this is through support of our administration, proper training, and the essential technological tools.

Our students are not afraid to explore, utilize, and change the way they view the world through technology. Why are we?

Sincerely,

Kelly Villano, Kelly Vee Llano, and Kelly V. Lano

(Carrie, Diane, and Robin)