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Introduction: Building the NOW Classroom
In the perpetually connected 21st century world, teaching and learning lead, but our students need new skills to prepare for their future inside and outside the classroom. We won’t find these new skills in dated lesson plans but in adapting our teaching and learning methods to actively engage this connected generation, offering students a voice and choice in how they learn.
As teachers, we want to work in schools filled with magical teacher-student partnership classrooms. In these classrooms, students own their data, and they set individual and group goals based on the projects they are working on. Looking around these classrooms, you see what we call messy learning or organized chaos. Think of the vibe of a busy coffeehouse, everyone chatting or working independently, depending on each person’s goals. Digital devices are everywhere, but so are collaboration and all types of communication as everyone gathers for different goals.
Like in a coffeehouse, when you walk into a magical classroom, you feel the energy as all students are laser focused on their personal learning targets and as they collaborate with each other. The teacher has set high expectations for each student, and he or she continuously monitors data using a variety of technology interfaces. Parents and other professionals are part of the communication loop with access to goal-focused data. We call these magical classrooms NOW classrooms. We selected that term because our students deserve to thrive in rich learner-centered classrooms now, not in a few months or years. We believe schools are ready to create this type of NOW classroom, typified by technology-supported teaching and learning, and the evidence we’ve seen bears this belief out. Our goal with this book and this series is to help you create them. We believe teachers and instructional coaches can make this shift even with the youngest learners, and we share that in this K–2 book of the NOW Classrooms series.
The central theme of this book and series centers on how teachers can use digital devices to support their primary focus on teaching and learning, offering students a voice and choice in how they learn. We repeat this critical message throughout the book as we concentrate on learning goals rather than on any specific app, website, or device. We filled this book with instructional strategies and lessons that work with technology in the hands of teachers and students. To that end, the lessons in this book use digital devices as educational accelerators, but each lesson specifically ties to an academic outcome. Indeed, this book specifically shows you how academic skills and goals must come before any technology tool, app, or website.
Whether the task at hand uses paper and a pencil or a technology device and digital content, a specific learning goal and purpose should always remain at the core. We don’t want to see devices in students’ hands when they do low-level learning tasks, or something we call drill and kill. Drill and kill misuses technology, and it happens when we focus on the tool or app instead of the learning outcome. As a K–2 teacher or leader, you should concentrate on using technology to facilitate the sort of magical classroom experiences that mark a stark departure from the old days of the computer lab.
Abandoning the Computer Lab Model
Historically, elementary classes isolated technology from instruction. In this old model, the classroom teacher drops off his or her students at an assigned time each week, and someone else teaches technology. My, how things have changed.
Just as all teachers teach reading, classroom teachers now teach technology. The 21st century model of using technology in the classroom starts with the learning goals and then sees if and how technology will enhance the learning experience. The lessons we created for this book will show you ways of using technology to help facilitate learning goals so that you accomplish both academic and technology learning goals at the same time, because teaching time and learning time are precious in the classroom. We want to put technology devices in students’ hands not to keep students busy but instead to help them focus on learning outcomes.
You may ask, “What does true technology engagement look like?” This book answers that question by demonstrating the opposite of technology misuse. It features students using technology to create, collaborate, explore, investigate, and share their creations beyond classroom walls. This book structures critical thinking and problem solving into every lesson. It includes meaningful lessons with purposeful technology uses that directly tie into International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) 2016 Standards for Students. ISTE (2016) education technology experts developed the following seven standards for students:
1. Empowered learner
2. Digital citizen
3. Knowledge constructor
4. Innovative designer
5. Computational thinker
6. Creative communicator
7. Global collaborator
Each chapter in this book references at least one of these standards and connects them to the lesson topics we explore in that chapter. In addition to these ISTE student standards, when we think about engagement and our learning targets, we must think about the important skills of what the Partnership for 21st Century Learning (2015) calls the four Cs: (1) communication, (2) collaboration, (3) critical thinking, and (4) creativity. The four Cs, which you can learn more about at www.p21.org, make up a critical part of 21st century learning.
We often think about the future jobs for which we are preparing our students, and, although we don’t necessarily yet know what those jobs are, we do know that our students will need the four Cs. To better understand them, take a couple of minutes to reflect on how they break down into the super skills listed in Table I.1.
Table I.1: The Four Cs and Super Skills of the 21st Century
| Four Cs | Super Skills |
| Communication | Sharing thoughts, questions, ideas, and solutions |
| Collaboration | Working together to reach a goal—putting talent, expertise, and smarts to work |
| Critical Thinking | Looking at problems in a new way; linking learning across subjects and disciplines |
| Creativity | Trying new approaches to get things done, which equals innovation and invention |
Source: Partnership for 21st Century Learning, n. d.
As educators, we need to create learning opportunities for learners of all ages that emphasize academic content and the super skills inherent in the four Cs. Look for the four Cs throughout the lessons in this book. Our young learners need these skills for their years of schooling ahead and for their future workplace success.
Using This Series
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