21st Century Teaching: The Scholar, the Technician, and the Performer

Teachers across the U.S. have dealt with a prevailing lack of student interest and classroom behavior issues. New teacher’s often deal with low self-confidence upon entering the profession. But these are only some of the issues to be faced by tomorrow’s millennial teachers. Higher expectations have been mandated from the top down – from the Federal government to local school boards, administrators, and parents. All expect improved student test scores and higher achievement results. This fall the Common Core State Standards will become the framework for teachers in 45 states and the District of Columbia. Plus, there’s the added requirement to align these standards with STEM education. These concerns should be mitigated by 21st Century Teaching: The Scholar, the Technician, and the Performer, which illustrates how technology can be implemented in the classroom to leverage student interest and motivation while meeting the Common Core and STEM requirements, and improving the new teacher’s self-confidence. The instructional practices included are built using just a few of the top ten emerging trends outlined in section two. For example: * Having students write a blog as part of their homework assignments. * Creating digital avatars to enrich student presentations. * Using high-tech videos to lead into a lesson. * Having students collaborate with international students on group projects. Millennial teachers can use the top ten trends as springboards to build new and creative lesson plans that provide added value to their stakeholders while improving student interest by packaging the information in ways that are more appealing to 21st century students.