Bill Sheskey Blog » curriculum 21

2011 and Beyond!

Bill Sheskey — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 11:21:25 +0000

Happy New Year to friends and colleagues! As we begin 2011 I wanted to share three things that we can look forward to in 2011.

1. What will happen with tablet devices in the classroom? Many ed-tech journalists referred to 2010 as the year of the iPad. Competition for iPad apps in education is increasing from the Android market and the variety of devices that will host them. In education we love this kind of competition because it increases the value of the apps as learning tools and decreases the price of the devices. Check out this NY Times article about iPad in the classroom…

2. How will the Common Core Standards movement integrate with the 21^st Century Skills movement? We all have the responsibility in the coming years for providing the leadership and vision to synergize both of these initiatives to guide teachers in creating effective learning environments. Visit the Common Core site…

3. I encourage all of you to consider attending the Curriculum Mapping Institute 2011 in Saratoga Springs, New York, on July 12 -16, 2011. This conference has continued to grow and serve as the flagship learning experience for educators in the area of Curriculum Mapping and 21^st Century learning. My collaboration with Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs and her Curriculum 21 team has been increasing over the last six months and you will be receiving information through the coming year as the Curriculum 21 realm goes global. The popularity of Dr. Jacob’s Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World has inspired her Curriculum 21 team to expand our services in the area of the Common Core, Curriculum Mapping, and 21st Century Learning. Don’t skip over Chapter 12…

Visit the CMI 2011 site…

As always, I enjoy sharing with you free web based tools to engage students in learning. Have you used Visual Thesaurus? If you see its value as a vocabulary application tool you will also enjoy Visuwords. It is free and quite simple to use. This tool will make exploring and expanding vocabulary fun for students.

Curriculum 21 Learning Commons

Bill Sheskey — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:22:36 +0000

Heidi Hayes Jacobs brought together a visionary group of authors to publish Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World earlier this year. To compliment the book, Dr. Jacobs is facilitating an open “learning commons” for educators that are working together to “upgrade” our schools. The Curriculum 21 Learning Commons is a dynamic community of education leaders sharing ideas and strategies that are emerging everyday. This is a wonderful place to share your work and participate in the development of the contemporary and authentic learning strategies for today’s global learners. The learning commons was launched late last week and 124 people have joined in the first 4 days it was open. Come join us…

As always, I share an item of interest on this blog. Time Magazine this week listed 10 important trends that are going to develop in the world in the next 10 years. As an educator you will enjoy reading the “Dropout Economy”

2010 and Beyond

Bill Sheskey — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 11:27:47 +0000

I arrived home from a family holiday visit and there was FedEx package on my doorstep. It contained 2 copies of the the book Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World and sure enough Chapter 12 had my name on it. I can’t wait to read the rest of the book. Dr. Jacobs and our Curriculum 21 team are building various conferencing and online resources that are centered around the book. You will be receiving more information shortly. Those of you that are ASCD members will be receiving it in the mail as your next member book. ASCD tells me that there are over 100,000 members that will receive the book. All I can says is, wow…

Be looking for an announcement this month about a June ESOL and Digital Literacy Conference somewhere in the coastal region of South Carolina. The interest following the Digital Literacy Conference in Greenville in November has been great and we will let you know about the next one…

This weeks web based learning tool comes from NASA. Science, math and social studies instructional leaders will love this archive of NASA videos, images and audio recordings. It is the best archive of our space program that I have seen to date.

One last tidbit for those of you who have SmartBoards, if you like to use the calendars that are in the gallery you may have trouble finding 2010 and beyond there. Go to the search line in the gallery and type in “calendar generator” and there is a tool that will make a calendar for any month you want in the coming years.

Can you believe that it is 2010? What are the next 5 years going to be like in the classroom?

21st Century Curriculum

Bill Sheskey — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:00:45 +0000

In the last year I have had the wonderful opportunity to work and learn with Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs and her team at Curriculum Designers. I have the opportunity to present with Heidi at the Curriculum Designers Regional Conference being held in conjunction with New Jersey ASCD, December 2-4 in New Jersey. In the Curriculum Designers Newsletter that was sent out this week there is a brief interview about the work I have been doing in the area of “digital literacy” . Read the interview to see what your conference experience will be like and where Bill is coming from…