ủa là ai zợ

Buổi lễ tổng kết cuối năm học vừa qua của trường em tuy đơn giản nhưng không kém phần long trọng.

Hôm ấy nhằm một ngày đẹp trời, không khí mát dịu. Các bạn học sinh đều ăn mặc tươm tất hơn ngày thường. Ngay giữa sân lễ, một tấm phông đỏ treo cao, nổi bật lên với dòng chữ to màu trắng “Lễ tổng kết năm học”. Kế bên là một chiếc bàn dài trải thảm hoa, trên ấy, chất đầy những gói phần thưởng được bọc bằng giấy kiếng bóng lộn. Chúng em cứ đi qua đi lại ngắm nhìn mà lòng nôn nao khó tả.

Chẳng bao lâu, quan khách đến dự đã đông đủ. Họ ngồi chật cả dãy bàn phía trước. Tiếng nói chuyện, tiếng cười huyên náo.

Buổi lễ được bắt đầu bằng phút chào cờ thật trang nghiêm. Xong, thầy hiệu trường mới đọc diễn văn tổng kết năm học. Giọng thầy từ tốn, ấm rõ điểm lại từng mặt hoạt động của nhà trường. Chúng em im lặng lắng nghe mà lòng thầm cảm phục, biết ơn công lao của thấy cô đã không quản bao khó nhọc vì chúng em. Thầy hiệu trưởng còn thân mật khích lệ những bạn học giỏi, động viên các bạn khác phải cố gắng nhiều hơn nữa. Bài diễn văn kết thúc giữa tràng pháo tay giòn giã.

Tiếp theo là bài phát biểu của khách tham dự. Nhưng xúc động nhất là bài phát biểu của bạn Thu Hương. Bạn ấy đại diện cho học sinh lớp cuối cấp lên bày tỏ những suy nghĩ, những tình cảm của mình về thầy cô, về mái trường thân yêu sắp sửa phải rời xa.

Lúc phát thưởng thật vui nhộn. Bạn nào hạng nhất được gọi lên trước. Mỗi lẫn như thế là một lần tiếng vỗ tay vang dậy. Các bạn nhận thưởng tuy hơi rụt rè, nhưng người nào trên gương mặt cũng lộ nét hân hoan, tràn đầy sung sướng. Mấy bạn học sinh phía dưới cứ đứng chồm lên để nhìn cho rõ hơn. Xen vào giữa là các tiết mục văn nghệ hào hứng. Những bài hát về tuổi học trò được dịp cất lên. Đặc biệt tiết mục biểu diễn dàn organ của một em lớp Một đã làm cho ai nấy đều khen ngợi.

Cuối cùng, thầy hiệu trưởng lên tuyên bố bế mạc và cúi đầu chào tất cả mọi người.

Buổi lễ tổng kết năm học đã kết thúc. Những bàn tay vẫy giã từ nhau, những ánh mắt nhìn nhau đầy lưu luyến. Xung quanh dần vắng lặng. Đâu đây, thoảng tiếng ve kêu. Riêng em, một mình còn đếm bước giữa sân trường đầy xác phượng đỏ.

My dream home would be on the ocean, well not on the ocean but beside it with a white sandy beach. The house would be an A frame backed against a hill. The upper floor would be a half floor master bedroom with a kingsize water bed and ensuite with a hot tub and sauna. The front wall would be glass with a stairway coming up to the bedroom. On cloudy nights you could watch the floresents in the waves coming into the beach while you went to sleep. Other nights you could counting the stars in the western sky.
On the main floor would be the kitchen-dining room combination, with all the newest appliances and an island in the middle of the kitchen with the stove top and hanging pots and pans over it. The sink would be under one of the windows. Under the other window would be the nook for family meals. Between the kitchen windows, which look out to the field where the horses would be enjoying the warm weather are the cupboards. The dining room would have a six chair pine table set and hutch china cabnet. There will also be a three piece bathroom off the kitchen. The living room is in the front with the big front window. The fireplace is on the side wall with small long windows overlooking the driveway to the road a half mile away. The three piece sectional is perfectly positioned to watch the sunset into the western sea. The basement has the laundry room at the back with sewing machine for mending before folding and taking clothes upstairs. Half of the front of the basement is a guest bedroom with ensuite and small fridge and two element stove. The computer room is also at the front of the basement. Both have views of the beach and sea. Opposite the laundry room is my husband's workshop. I don't know what he has in there as it is his domain. In the garage at the side of the house is our wine colored 94 Toyota Crasada and my husband's hog. We often ride the bike along the beach on warm evenings to visit friends.

This is the first of three posts that I am writing in an attempt to inspire more discussion around the following question: How do we prepare students to be successful in their futures?

Determining an answer to this question, is a discussion that I believe needs to include students, instructors, parents, businesses and community members. In other words, this is a discussion that needs to include everyone!

In order to tackle this issue from the stance of an educator, I want to take a look at three different questions:

What are the skills that our students need to be successful?

In order to help students develop these skills, what type of projects and assessments can we engage them in?

What are some tools and practices that we can use to implement these skills into the classroom?

The goal of this post is to address the first of these three questions.

The Issue

In the United States alone, there are approximately 55.6 million students attending elementary and secondary schools and 20.5 million students attending colleges and universities. In the majority of schools and classrooms that I have worked with, students are mainly being assessed on lower-level thinking skills such as memorization and recall. The multiple choice, short-answer and matching questions, along with the academic research paper, are still depended on as the main modes of assessment.

This needs to change.

My goal was to discover the most important skills that students need to be successful. After speaking with hundreds of business leaders and reading hundreds of articles, it became clear that it is time for education to change. The same skills continued to be mentioned. There is less demand for obedient workers who can simply show up on time and follow directions. There is an increased demand for self-directed workers who can adapt and learn quickly, think critically, communicate and innovate.

Approximately 65% of our students will be employed in jobs that don’t exist yet. So, how do we prepare them for this? I believe that we do so by helping student develop the skills that they will need to succeed in a future filled with uncertainty.

The Skills

I decided to compile the notes I took while doing my research. My goal was to identify the skills that were brought up the most in an attempt to determine which skills our students will need to be successful in their futures. The following are the 10 skills mentioned the most often:

1. Adaptive Thinking: In the digital age, things are changing at exponential rates. By the time employees learn the newest software or program, a better version is coming about. Future employers will need to continuously adapt to changing conditions as well as be able to learn new things quickly and efficiently. We need our students to learn how to learn.

2. Communication Skills: There continues to be an emphasis on the ability to communicate. In the digital age, however, we have access to a wide variety of new ways to communicate from video-conferencing to social media. Future employers need to be able to communicate with people within their team, as well as people outside of the team and organization.

3. Collaboration Skills: Most classrooms foster a culture of competition and independence rather than one of teamwork and collaboration. Future employers will need to quickly adapt to a culture of collaboration. They will need to collaborate with others within and outside of the organization, often using a number of new technologies.

4. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills: There is a decreased emphasis on employers following directions and an increased emphasis on employers thinking critically and solving problems. In a rapidly changing world, employers need employees who can solve problems, provide ideas and help improve the organization.

5. Personal Management: This includes the ability for employers to independently plan, organize, create and execute, rather than wait for someone to do this for them.

6. Inquiry Skills: The large majority of academic assessments ask students for answers. Rarely do we assess students on how well they can ask questions. The ability to ask great questions, however, is a critical skill that is desperately needed in a culture which requires constant innovations.

7. Technology Skills: Almost every business that I talked to said that employers will need to be skilled at using technology. In the digital age, technology is everywhere. Schools, however, have been slow to adapt to this change. Rarely are students required or taught to learn technology efficiently. This needs to be emphasized.

8. Creativity and Innovation: This skill is mentioned often. I believe that it correlates with the ability to ask good questions and the ability to problem solve. Employers will be looking to employees more and more for creative and innovative solutions to issues that exist.

9. Soft Skills: Schools rarely spend time teaching students soft skills, including skills such as time management skills, organizational skills, the ability to look someone in the eyes when talking to them, or using a firm handshake. I have heard a number of times, by different business leaders, that these skills seem to be disappearing.

10. Empathy and Perspective: Although this skill has always been important, it seems to be another one that is slowly disappearing. The ability for our students to put themselves in someone else’s shoes, to understand their feelings, and to help solve their problems.

The Action

Although it is important for our students to learn a core set of knowledge, we are not helping them develop these 10 skills by simply requiring them to regurgitate facts in an attempt to earn grades for a course. We need to have students apply what they are learning by engaging them in projects. We need to engage them in higher-order thinking skills in order for them to develop the skills that will be critical to their future success. Bloom’s Taxonomy provides a great illustration of the different levels of thinking. As educators, we need to stop depending on the lower level skills, such as memorization and recall, and help students develop higher-order thinking skills such as applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating.

Then, and only then, will we be helping students to develop these skills. Most educators that I have spoken with agree with this analysis. There is one question that seems to always arise, however: In order to help students develop these skills, what type of projects and assessments can we engage them in?

That question will be the focus of my next post on this topic.

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