Eb71103Halloweenand21stCenturySkills

From your master of segue:

After recovering from 598 (honest-counted the candy given out) kids trick-or-treating I reflected on a TV show I was trying to watch while jumping up every 2 minutes. It had a graphic depiction of children in war torn Africa.

How will these delightful and innocent young children at my door fare in a world that is not preparing about half of them for the future? How can we assure they have the skills to not only survive but strengthen our democracy, security and economy? By now the path is obvious to us all! The challenge is to implement a major transformationi of all aspects of education along itsi multifaceted path. A critical aspect of this path was on full presentation mode in Tucson on October 25^th.

Well over 200 educators, governance and business folks took advantage of one of the best conferencesi Arizona has yet delivered. Ron Marx Dean of the University of Arizona college of Education http://coe.web.arizona.edu/pages/dep_dean/index.php and Tucson resident Ken Kay President of the national Partnership for 21^st Century Skills www.21stcenturyskills.org lead the Arizona Summit on 21^st Century Skills and provided core message.

21^st Century Skills transforms legacy K-12 education by integrating and empowering core subjects with:

· Life and Career Skills;

· Learning and Innovation Skills

· Information, Media and Technology Skills.

to succeed in both work and life in the 21^st century.

After a luncheon speech by Steven Paine, State Superintendent of Schools, West Virginia our work on implementation began. The breakout sessionsi addressed professional development, teacher preparation, assessment and youth development.

With eSATSi centered on the integration of teacher practice and digital curriculum I attended one of the two teacher preparation sessions. My take-away is that teacher preparation is much more complex system than I had realized. In some schools over half their new hires have never attended a college of education. The increasing need for math and science teachers cannot be filled by the current output of our colleges of education.

Becoming a teacher starts with students in high school and baby-boomers changing jobs deciding to become K-12 teachers. The communityi colleges and first two years of university feed the upper levels of our colleges of education to graduate teachers with a BA in education. Numerous sources provide mentoring, training, professional development and education for current and aspiring educators: graduate education classes and degrees; teaching skills for content experts changing professions; in school and external workshopsi for training and professional development; online learning; master-mentor teachers in school; and many more.

This teacher preparation system has evolved with some interconnectivity but not enough. In fact the past separation of teacher preparation, training and professional development must transform by integration into one system.

What are needed now are a visionary theme and a systems analysis and redesign. I believe that the 21^st Century Skills framework built on core subjects should be the integrating factor for a visionary theme. Arizona must assure that all teachers are prepared to enter their classrooms every day with not only knowledge of their subject but a full set of workplace and living skills represented in the prior three bullets.

I proposed that the Arizona Board of Regents convene their peers from all aspects of the life span educator preparation system. This task force would conduct a study, analysis, redesign, implementation plan and then drive the transformation of the entire system.

What say yee?