Are You a 21st Century Teacher?

Have you built a class website with your students before? Have you used interactive white board activities with your students before? Have you researched your learning resources online before? If you have done these things or empowered students digitally in some way, you are a 21^st century teacher. Congratulations!

In this technology- rich environment nowadays, we teachers should have a vision of 21^st century teachers. This video inspired me a lot because it shows how teachers bring technology into their teaching and classrooms in multiple ways. I have tried some of them, and there are many ways which I would like to try, for an instance, blogs. I have tried blogs for learning as a student, that is what I am doing now. However, I have never let my students write blogs before. I will definitely try it in the future because every student can speak up here, even the shy students who are not very willing to answer questions in class. I also like the idea of creating digital books about themselves and their world. As 21^st century teachers, we need to know how to enrich our students’ learning styles and how to let them have a sense of global community.

Are you ready to face education change challenges now? The world never stops changing, so does our teaching. With technology being improved rapidly, our class and teaching should adapt to the changes and take advantage of technology all the time. After watching the video, I started to recall how technology has changed my learning and teaching. When I was in my elementary school, the only digital device was a television, and teachers only used it to play videos for fun. When I went to the secondary school, teachers started to present their teaching materials through projectors. Digital white board came to my classroom when I was in my high school, and I still remember how excited I was when I saw it first time. Now, I am a teacher in an international school, and there are tons of digital devices my students and I can use. We teachers should have the ability of adaption and be brave enough to embrace the updating technology so that we can create life-long learners who are willing to accept new things too.

If you are waiting to use technology in the future, don’t wait! The future starts now! ICT (Information and communication technology) can motivate students’ interests to make our students become better learners. When students realize these technologies can be excellent tools for learning and they feel comfortable to use them in class, they will be smarter and more engaged learners. ICT is good to be used in any subject, so all of 21^st century teachers, don’t hesitate to use it!

"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn"--- John Cotton Dana