A few days ago Jason Richea asked who would be interested in participating in a blog hop about what 21st Century learning means to me, I thought how fitting would it be for me to participate in not only my first blog hop but in posting my first blog ever!

So here goes…

About a year ago I attended a PD on 21st century teaching and learning in math and one of the quotes that stuck with me was, “you can Google answers but you can’t Google thinking”! To me that sums up so much of 21st century teaching and learning. Students potentially have access to all the knowledge that was ever discovered or on it’s way to being discovered in their pockets. Our role is to help them make sense of, filter through and use that information to guide them in their quest for new knowledge. In other words we want to give them the guidance and support to think critically. I personally believe that this a very exciting time for me as a teacher because I get to work with students in the creation and discovery of knowledge.

So in my math class that means I can start with the answer and get students to discover the why. Or I tell students to use the internet or graphing software or other technology to discover or to prove a mathematical theorem or to discover the patterns in sketching functions. Students are given the opportunity to model being a mathematician themselves…discovering and creating new knowledge.

I could potentially write more and more about this exciting topic but I want to give an opportunity for you to hop over to the other blogs below:

Susan Campo @susancampo
Jim Cash @cashjim
Greg Pearson @vptechnodork
Phil Young @_PhilYoung
James Nunes @jameseliasnunes
Donald Campbell @libramlad
Ken Dewar Bestbefore2030
Graham Whisen @grahamwhisen
Lynn Filliter @assessmentgeek
Debbie Axiak @DebbieAxiak
Alicia Quennell @AliciaQuennell
Jonathan So @MrSoClassroom
Jim Blackwood @jimmyblackwood
Jason Richea @jrichea
Tina Zita @Xna_zita