On September 28, 2011 President Barack Obama gave his annual back-to-school address. This year’s address let me know that he sees the challenges our changing society place on our schools, administrators, teachers and students. He recognizes that our high school students are preparing to be global citizens competing with the best and brightest from around the world. The president says to students in attendance and those watching across the nation that “You’re this country’s future. You’re young leaders. And whether we fall behind or race ahead as a nation is going to depend in large part on you.” The President laid out steps he believes will help students meet this challenge.
1. Be the Best Student You Can Be
2. Explore and Take Risks
3. Continue Education Beyond High School
If we are depending on the next generation of high school students to make our nation competitive in the global market then this call to excellence is for teachers as well as students.
Be the best teacher you can be. We have to look at our classroom activities and instructional strategies and ask ourselves some questions. Are we planning lessons that require our student to think critically or solve real-world problems? Do we provide opportunities for our students to communicate or collaborate with each other? In the Global Achievement Gap Tom Wagner (2008) states that “effective communication, curiosity and critical-thinking skills are essential competencies and habits of mind for life in the twenty-first century.”
Explore and take Risks. As teachers we are used to having control in the classroom and some of us are uncomfortable knowing that students often posses the technological know-how that we may not. It’s Ok to use the student’s knowledge to our advantage. There are several Web 2.0 technologies that are simple to use and provide opportunities for authentic collaboration and communication between students.
Continue your education. We need to be curious about the technological advancements that have educational value. We have to stay abreast of the tools that are available to us to engage our students and make our classes relevant. Most districts offer supplemental technology training and the online community has a vast array of resources available for teachers to network and communicate with other professionals.
If our students follow the three steps laid out by President Obama and we make sure our classrooms are preparing them for the twenty-first century our nation is sure to race ahead.
References
Wagner, T. (2008). The global achievement gap. New York
Address transcript can be found at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/09/28/remarks-president-back-school-speech
I have been given the big challenge to teach Teen Leadership and in this course I need to teach them how to develop healthy relationships, responsibility, public speaking skills, and how to effectively resolve conflicts. It may seem an easy task, but as President Obama stated students need to learn to be the best, take risks, and continue their education so in some way I believe I am doing that with this course. I invite any of you to visit Flippen Group's website: www.flippengroup.com (Founder of Teen Leadership Course) to browse for ideas. I attended Capturing Kids' Hearts training, most rewarding, motivating training ever. As Flip Flippen states, "If you have a child's heart, you have his head." Content is very important, yet students now need to be ready for a competitive world out there and as educators we need to teach them essential, basic, necessary skills such as how to become self-motivated, self-directed learners, and responsible, productive citizens.
ReplyDeleteI thing it is a great idea to use the students knowledge as an asset in the classroom. When students have a stake in their learning, and they are allowed to become active participants, learning becomes authentic. Students are naturally drawn to technology, it has been around them all their lives. When they are deprived from their natural learning styles and tools they see as useful, they easily become disengaged.
ReplyDeleteI didn't get to watch this, but heard a little about it. I think you really summed it up well. This is not the first speech of this type. George Bush did this in 1991 as well, according to Arizona Central. Bush told students to follow their dreams too. So why then did Obama get all this publicity about the speech he gave? It makes me wonder and have a lot of questions. I really need to look into that more. Thank you for a great post.
ReplyDeleteBloom, Alex. (2009). Presidential "Back To School" Speech Not The First of Its Kind. Retrieved from http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/SchoolGrounds/61922.
I count it a privilege for any sitting president to address and encourage our youth of our nation. I felt like he had not only created a powerful message of aspiration and achievement for all America’s children, but he’d honored teachers everywhere. He let teachers know that he understands that they make sacrifices every day that go unnoticed.
ReplyDeleteGiven the recent budget cuts experienced by several school districts through out the country, it was as equally important for the students to hear their current president emphasize that they, as students, can help the nation’s economy by staying in school and prepping for college. This charge presented by the president aligns with the current standards the state of Texas is implementing in the College and Career Readiness (CCRS) component of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) program.
For students to be prepared to be successful after graduating from high school, they need to be taught key competencies and skills. The goal of the CCRS is to identify what students should know and be able to do in order to succeed in entry-level college courses in a particular content area. The CCRS focus on the four foundation content areas as well as cross-disciplinary skills, such as problem solving, which are essential to being successful in any field.