Collaboration, real-world problem solving and resilience!

We were challenged at the Mind Lab this evening to identify 3 problems, challenges, frustrations or areas of concern that we have in our own practice.

As a CRT teacher my greatest barrier to doing the Mind Lab justice is that I am in front of a
different class of students everyday and don't have "control" over what I am teaching, as the lessons are planned out by the classroom teacher.

Collaboration is one area I believe my practice is lacking. After completing the 'Microsoft Learning Activity Rubric' I found that most of the learning activities I create reached only level 1 or 2 on the scale. Collaboration is a 21st century skill and is also found in the New Zealand Curriculum as 'participating and contributing'.

A concern I have is that the learning activities I plan focus only on “problems” where the kids are asked to show their understanding of a skill they have been taught. The learning activities I plan for my kids reached level 1-2 on the 'Microsoft Learning Activity Rubric'. I would like to expose my kids to real-world problem solving by providing learning activities that they do NOT already know the answer to and I do NOT provide all the information. Real-world problem solving teaches kids to be innovative. Their ideas or solutions must be put into practice in the real-world. Their ideas are shared outside the classroom and people other than the kids benefit from their hard ‘mahi’. This 21st century skill is show in the New Zealand Curriculum in all the key competencies.

A challenge that many of the kids I work with have is their lack of resilience (or as our school moto states 'perseverance'). An essential skill to being a real-world problem solver is having resilience. Problem solving is a 21st century skill. Resilience is reflected in the New Zealand Curriculum within the key competency of 'managing self'.

ITL Research. (2012). 21CLD Learning Activity Rubrics. Retrieved from https://education.microsoft.com/GetTrained/ITL-Research