1. Let's Become a 21 st Century School Are you tired of the destruction caused by No Child Left Behind? Are you frustrated with standardized testing mania? Do you believe that education, teaching and learning are much more than test prep, lectures, memorizing disconnected bits of information, worksheets, "covering" the curriculum, lots of homework assignments and grading everything that moves? Do your students rush through 7 or 8 class periods per day? What kind of learning can really take place in a 45-minute class period? Are your test scores, attendance, student motivation, graduation rates and rates of college entrance where you think they should be? Are your students motivated - genuinely excited about learning? Are your students developing the skills they need for success in the 21st century? Do you long for an educational structure that supports real learning? Do you want to make your district, school and/or classroom truly 21st century? Retrieved from: http://www.21stcenturyschools.com/Global_Classroom.htm

2. The Global Classroom "From science and culture to sports and politics, ideas and capital are crossing borders and spanning the world. The globalization of business, the advances in technology, and the acceleration of migration increasingly require the ability to work on a global scale. As a result of this new connectivity, our high school graduates will need to be far more knowledgeable about world regions and global issues, and able to communicate across cultures and languages. Our students must emerge from schools college-ready and globally competent, prepared to compete, connect, and cooperate with their generation around the world. Parents, teachers, policymakers, and business leaders have begun to respond to this reality and are seeking to redesign education to focus on learning for the 21st century. However, the U.S. education system has not yet created an environment to prepare every student for the globalized world. To move international education from the margins to the mainstream, we must work together to ensure an environment of excellence and equity in a global era." (The Asia Society)The Asia Society A great way to begin taking your classroom global is by joining our Food and Culture Global, Collaborative Classrooms Project!Food and Culture Global, Collaborative Classrooms Project! Students involved in global, collaborative classroom projects not only learn the content standards at higher levels, they also develop critical global competencies and the seven survival skills for the 21st century which Tony Wagner identified in his book, The Global Achievement Gap.seven survival skills Retrieved from: http://www.21stcenturyschools.com/Global_Classroom.htm

3. See the Possibilities The 21 st Century School We specialize in professional staff development and curriculum design. Our goal is to assist educators in creating schools and classrooms that are truly 21st century. See our continually evolving essay, What is 21st Century Education?. We will help you develop an authentic paradigm of 21st century education, discover an almost infinite variety of ways to create schools and classrooms aligned to the 21st century, and learn specific strategies to make your 21st century schools a reality. We provide new program design as well as curriculum "makeovers" that prepare learners for 21st century academic and career pathways. We realize that "one size does not fit all", and we will help you develop education defined by critical attributes of the 21st century while maintaining the integrity defined by your unique community.schoolsWhat is 21st Century Education?academic

4. What is 21 st Century Education? “One can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age I always did it for half-an- hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

5. Your assignment, if you choose to accept it... Like Alice, many educators, policy makers and even the general public respond resoundingly with "That's impossible!" when challenged to adopt a new paradigm of education for the 21st century. Most people today adhere to a paradigm of education that is strictly 19th century. But, like the Queen, a growing number of educators are believing in and accomplishing "the impossible".the general Scott McLeod, in his blog, Dangerously Irrelevant, recently reminded us of a line from Mission Impossible, and we must apply that challenge to all of society. "Your assignment, should you choose to accept it" is to take education truly into the 21st century. It is not enough to say that we are already living there. Technically it is the 21st century, but our schools are not there, and our challenge now is to reinvent schools for the 21st century - for the sake of our children, our students and the welfare of our world. Making such a paradigm shift is not easy. After all, when any of us thinks of education, we usually think of what we knew as school - the way it has always been. That is how parents, policy makers, politicians and many students think of school. But we have to make the paradigm shift to 21st century education.Dangerously Irrelevantapplyschools So what is 21st century education? It is bold. It breaks the mold. It is flexible, creative, challenging, and complex. It addresses a rapidly changing world filled with fantastic new problems as well as exciting new possibilities. Fortunately, there is a growing body of research supporting an increasing number of 21st century schools. We have living proof, inspiring examples to follow, in schools across the United States. These schools vary, but are united in the fundamentals of 21st century education - see Critical Attributes of 21st Century Education and Multiple Literacies for the 21st Century. Scott McLeod has issued the challenge of creating a plan to get us from "here" to "there"Critical Attributes of 21st Century EducationMultiple Literacies for the 21st Century Retrieved from: http://www.21stcenturyschools.com/Global_Classroom.htm.