Sunder,+Saravana


 * Use the course materials to help you respond to these questions for each Module.**

1. What skills you think today's students will need to be able to live and work in the 21st Century?To be able to live and work in 21st Century students must learn the fundamental skills including both the foundational and functional skills listed in the course reading. Though these are essential skills needed for our students’, our future citizens’ success, I think there should be another level of skill building strong transitional block/bridge between the current learning style (meeting standards by learning facts/concepts and testing performance), and the new learning style(information age learning à 7Cs+27SCANS skills) inserted in our curriculum today to ease the process for both the educators and the learners, well in this age, learners are on both the shores –teachers, parents, students are all learning at the same time! 2. How you are preparing your students to gain these skills? If you are not currently teaching: How are educators preparing students to gain these skills? Like I have mentioned above, whether today’s curriculum is providing this bridge to learn and apply the new information exposed as strongly as a student does in conventional setting where they learned concepts and were tested for performance, is not clear. I am not teaching now, and even if I had, I wonder what skills I possess or can get trained in to provide this important transition to send off my students with strong conceptual knowledge and help them learn new information in a manner to retain it well enough to apply that learning in their lives? With my limited exposure to classrooms, I do understand the plight many educators are facing in terms of time constraints, lack of resources that properly teach them these skills to take it back to classrooms unlike a clear credential course, and the lack of common goal among peers within the community. So, current educators are doing their best to create this change within their own little classroom and hope to train themselves in this challenge for the better before they take on the resistance in their communit y. Given the interest from educators that you might be able to see during the workshops you teach, and here in this community where we all come and learn the new ways which is first step in preparing our students to gain the necessary skills to survive and work in 21 st  Century, I would say. 3. What is the difference between ’Foundation Skills" and "Functional Skills"? __Foundation skills __ are the basic skills that are transferable (3Rs, Speaking/listening, Thinking skills, personal qualities(values)), and __Functional Skills__(resource managing, use of systems and Technology, possessing interpersonal skills) are specific to the functions workers perform during their jobs. 4. How well your curriculum and current instructional strategies are helping your students acquire these skill? If your are not currently teaching how well do you think our schools are using instructional strategies to help students acquire these skills? This question is answered below in 5 and above 1. 5. Think about today's students and the potential professions they might go into. Which of these skills might each student need? How can we make sure that all students are prepared with the skills necessary to enter the 21st Century Job Market? <range type="comment" id="805523">America is heading toward innovation and services field. Traditional jobs will still hold place in the society but new fields within the traditional setting is where the future is headed to, for eg: take teaching…our teachers are taking steps in the right direction by learning how to navigate and get trained in the new information age and evolving themselves to adapt to the new age! Students need to be taught to make decisions on their own, have a clear understanding of how to manipulate the information they receive as learning, and how to utilize that information into creative innovations. Having many resources in hand is not enough to create but to understand how to use them is a skill that must be taught in classrooms. Project based group lessons are key in creating life skills and values like tolerance, respect, acceptance to differences across the field, meeting expectations by taking ownership for their learning, knowing how to set up realistic goals and self-motivating, recognizing the simple steps toward attainable successes that they create during their learning – which to me is key, because these successes will inspire them to reach for more rather than stressing over unattainable goals that pull them down. Lessons that develop inquiry model to promote skills like to ask the right questions, always wonder why, and ask why they believe what they believe and what is next…what if, and again why…are exceptional life skills that students must be taught. <range type="comment" id="904822">Without these life skills and work skills the students could potentially become information zombies, and get stuck with insurmountable loads of resources in hand but without the right skills to neither utilize those resources nor inspire themselves to create! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 8pt;">6. What patterns are beginning to emerge between the various resources you’ve been exploring? How do these skills compare with the list you made in question 1? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 8pt;">I found great deal of similarities between the resources explored, but not a strong pattern yet. Today’s teaching also includes creativity, innovation, problem solving, teamwork, hard work, and challenges both intellectual and interpersonal skills among students just the ways 21 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">st <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 8pt;"> Century work skills are defined. <range type="comment" id="578342">However, today students and teachers are forced to limit their explorations within the content standards and framework of a concept taught either within an age group or a grade level; the unconstrained setting where learners could explore and make self-discoveries, that allows them to work and create freely from the boundaries of the content framework and the need to fit in for test performances, that includes the creative manipulation of ideas which could go beyond the realm of grade level content, is the way students can be taught the skills necessary for 21 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">st <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 8pt;"> Century learning and working. Giving students the steering wheel and keys to a car without any wheels, a light, or a path to drive on, is what comes to my mind as an analogy for our current school setting. That must change and that it will change very soon is the strong sense that I gained from the readings and in exploring many resources.
 * Module 1 Notes**


 * Module 2 Notes**


 * 1) How can we make personalized learning a part of our schools and classrooms?
 * <span style="background-color: white; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Personalized learning is the environment in which the educator sets standards and structures that facilitates the learners to make learning their own (personal learning). More than ever, teachers are blessed with the new tools, gadgets, and the creative classroom opportunities that arise with use of technology! We can make personalized learning a part of our schools and classrooms by using technology that can create global classrooms which brings enriching contents to the students across the globe with very little resource needed except for connections to the Web. Creating this environment also depends on social, societal, political, and administrative pressures to adapt to the new learning environment.
 * 1) <span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">How do we help our students become real learners?
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">We can help our students become real learners by creating both their learning and their learning environment personalized to students’ interests, skills, capacities and pacing. We can progress toward embracing student centered classrooms, releasing ourselves from our lecture, worksheet, tests, and drills and grow toward more creative, collaborative, innovative, and critical thinking learners filled classrooms.
 * 1) <span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">What is/should be the role of assessment in student learning? How can we improve upon our assessment practices in order to really help all students be engaged, life-long learners?
 * <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">From the readings, I see that the assessments in a learner directed classroom where teacher is a facilitator looks like this - //<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Learner designs performance assessment and leads exhibition of evidence of learning to a wide audience that includes parents, peers, facilitators, & community. //<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> We can improve upon the current assessment practices which are formative and summative assessments tests and a standardized test formula. With growing opposition to this test method might be able to bring forth the much needed fresh air in test taking/administering methods in our system. Also, it is important to keep the assessment process designing a flowing model because it is and will be new for a while until we settle down with systematic methods to administer or evaluate learning and performance of a learner from a personalized learning environment vs current teacher directed where a standardized test determines the learner’s performance.
 * 1) <span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">What is the role of e-learning, and how will/isl this change(ing) the educational paradigm?
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">E-learning is where the learners are completely immersed in and has integrated the technological educational resources needed for learning rather than textbook and worksheet filled classrooms. The classroom walls are broken down and the globalized education is what will be termed as e-learning. This will obviously create a shift in the mindset of not just teachers and the policy makers but society in general will begin to revisit their conception of classroom learning and eventually embrace it and adapt to it.
 * 1) <span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">How do your students compare with the 21st Century learners described in Mark Prensky"s article on "The 21st Century Digital Learner"?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"><range type="comment" id="234522">I sometimes hear from my kids how terribly they are bored in classrooms, and when I ask why, they say that the teachers are saying the same things that we learned years ago in a magazine, article, learning something while researching for another project and they stumbled upon this new learning and so on. This really stunned me, because teachers are learners first before they could teach another and always teachers must be open to learning. I strongly believe in life-long learning and if teachers in my kids’ classrooms have kept that mindset, may be perhaps I would have heard from my kids –“mom today my Sci, teacher showed this fantastic movie, video on Youtube, rap on itunes, earth landforms on Google Earth, space traveling through NASA simulators….” such innovative teaching tools will be best way to keep kids engaged and participating, more so owning their learning. We must encourage kids to learn on their own accountability and it takes a great deal from the educator at first to engage them and motivate them to begin taking ownership of their learning – from there on, it is easier for the teacher as his/her role becomes more of a facilitator than teaching and managing.
 * 1) <span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">HotChalk’s article on 21st Century Learners ? If you are not a teacher: How do you as a student or your children compare with the 21 Century learners described in this article?
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">My kids are quite goal oriented and are able to multi-task with multiple outcomes for their problems just like it is described in the article. However, I do not feel their fullest potential comes out or even encouraged to come out in classrooms. I can recognize their boredom in classroom as reasonable as I relate to their curiosity to utilize the technological tools to enhance their learning.
 * 1) <span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">To what extent to you see your students (or your children, or yourself as a student) possessing the qualities shown on thegraphic on the wiki for the International School in Bangkok ? If you see any gaps, what do you consider the reason for these gaps, and how might educators help students gain these skills and qualities?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Students today are very creative, inquisitive, open-minded (risk takers), flexible, collaborative, efficient and innovative. However the remaining qualities listed in the Wiki like <range type="comment" id="416727">reflective, tenacious are the areas where I do not see their strength in my kids . Kids many times do not take time to reflect upon their learning – I think it is mostly because they are bombarded with loads of materials to learn and grasp and efficiently retain or retrieve information at fingertips, this habit has evolved into a stage of mind where the mind does not focus on grasping the knowledge at deeper level to reflect upon it or on self through learning, instead the mind has become more of a clicker binder! Educators must provide more reflective(inquiry based lessons) that encourages learners’ critical thinking skills that naturally will command the learner to think and reflect upon learning.
 * 1) <span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">To what extent are you, your children or your students Effective Learners, Effective Communicators , and Effective Global Collaborators .?
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Effective learning described in the readings, once again has reinforced my thinking shared above about reflecting what a learner learns. As a learner myself, I give myself time to think about my learning, both my style of learning and the content I learned, assessing what I have learned by applying it in simple terms in my own life and so on.
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Effective communication is well tied into reflective learning – as good communicators typically are good thinkers who have clear ideas and means to get their ideas across with conviction to their audience. I could handle this, but given the natural shyness, and the hesitance I still have (still old school) to share my personal information out in the public for a global classroom like setting still has not convinced me but if allowing pseudo names for participants, I would be able to comfortably share the learning or participate in discussions and such. It is hard and might be <range type="comment" id="123830">unreasonable, but I must take time and build trust before I could get out in the more open space of learning than a small classroom group like ours on the web/wiki.
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Effective Global Collaborators – guess I have answered most of my thoughts relating to this topic in the above point.
 * 1) <span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">To what extent is your school (or your children's school) and classroom meeting these needs?
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Like I have pointed out earlier, the kids are ready but the classrooms are not yet! Educators are not ready to embrace new learning styles, (I do want to appreciate those few educators who are taking progressive to take the plunge!), mostly I see it as a fear of losing control of power over classroom learning from teachers but not from learners.
 * 1) <span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">How might you rethink your classroom to make it a 21st Century classroom? What are the barriers you face to making your class a 21st Century learning environment? If you are not currently teaching how should classrooms be re-thought?
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The design of the classroom of my kids still reflects the 18th century classrooms with blackboards, and desks with single chair in rows facing the teacher and board and not enough room where other resources can be added other than backpack and textbook shelves. 21st C learners require open large spaces, where they can collaborate, create and critically analyze their learning not just with peers across the tables but across the globe. Barriers to set up such an advanced(comparatively speaking) learning environment are $$, policies, <range type="comment" id="901662">educators mindset, lack of open mindedness, fear or inability to accept change in the systematic structures of curriculum and assessments, doubts around accountability of learners, and skill building professional support for educators and administrators to embrace new learning.


 * Module 3 Notes**
 * 1) <span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">List how your school and classroom environments support 21st Century learning outcomes. If you are not teaching, think about your school experience of the your children's school. Consider:
 * <span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">the extent to which faculty at your school collaborate, share best practices and integrate 21st century skills into classroom practice
 * <span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">students learn in relevant, real world 21st century contexts such as project-based and applied learning experiences
 * <span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">students experience equitable access to quality learning tools, technologies and resources
 * <span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">to what extent architectural design of your classroom creates space for for group, team and individual learning
 * <span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">to what extent you provide opportunities for both face to face and online interaction with community members and experts in their field for your students
 * <span style="background-color: white; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">I have yet to see the faculty and administrators sharing best practices and instructional strategies that I have learned in this course. Like I have shared before the level at which my son engages using 21st C skills is quite minimal to none.
 * <span style="background-color: white; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">No, there are no PBLs or real life experiences that my child has shared which he has experienced at school. What I noticed was recently the teachers have had Thinking Strategies workshop from which they are implementing some of the newer instructional strategies that increases student critical thinking skills. <range type="comment" id="670626">This is just few months into practice and I learned about through newsletters more than the excitement shared by a student (my child), whom I would have preferred personally to hear from.
 * <span style="background-color: white; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Equity is always an issue at both spectrums of the learners. Though this is an affluent neighborhood, the school with 1,400 students sharing 125-150 computers is clearly not providing students equitable access to learning tools and technologies.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The design of the classroom of my kids still reflects the 18th??? J <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> century classrooms with blackboards, and desks with single chair in rows facing the teacher and board and not enough room where other resources can be added other than backpack and textbook shelves. 21st C learners require open large spaces, where they can collaborate, create, and critically analyze their learning not just with peers across the tables but across the globe.
 * <span style="background-color: white; color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"><range type="comment" id="101337">I would have preferred to see the parents or community resources being tapped into by our schools in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, this is not a shared vision observed so far, instead, only some individual teachers’ efforts with personal interest to bring these resources into classes, are seen. Getting those self motivated teachers as your child’s classroom teacher is every parent’s dream.
 * <span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">to what extent does your school and classroom reflect the 21st Century Learning environment
 * <span style="background-color: white; color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> sometimes, I have seen my children use online collaboration tools and gadgets to communicate with friends in other schools or teams to share their learning and to get feedback on their learning, but all this is done on students’ own interests and not something the teacher had recommended or suggested.


 * Module 4 Notes**
 * 1) In what ways are your assuring that the 21st century skills taught discretely in the context of core subjects Is your curriculum interdisciplinary? If you are a middle or high school teacher how can you or do you collaborate with teachers in other departments to create multidisciplinary projects?
 * 2) How does your curriculum focus on providing opportunities for applying 21st century skills across content areas and for a competency-based approach to learning?
 * 3) What instructional strategies do you use to enable innovative learning methods that integrate the use of supportive technologies such as inquiry-based, project-based and problem-based approaches as well as promote higher order thinking skill?
 * 4) How do you encourage the integration of community resources beyond school walls?
 * 5) How can you better integrate 21st Century skills into your curriculum.
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">I cannot answer for these questions in relation to personal experiences in classrooms as I am not teaching currently. I would like to share what I would love to see happen in classrooms based on what I have learned from this class and other current readings.
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">To build concept knowledge in a subject it is not(and should not be) necessarily limited to that particular subject. <range type="comment" id="729614">For example: teaching a child about scale, spatial understanding, or such similar concept in math, a teacher can use __//Technology, Arts, Science, Math, Lang. Arts, and Geography//__ subjects as medium in which the student learns the concepts using interdisciplinary projects and strengthening their understanding of the concept at application level in cross curricular fashion . A student or a team[collaborate] could draw a structure[create] to scale it in relation to the real structure in the world using artistic skills(this could be achieved by both hand drawn visuals and technology based digital drawing and designing), measuring dimensions and understanding scales and shapes using math skills[analytical], writing(skill) about the structural details vividly using language arts skills, presenting the creation in elaborate manner using verbal communication skills[communicate], sharing the background information and details of their creation in relation to real life examples that exist in the world using geography skills, to be able to critically[critical thinking-higher order thinking] defend or support their understanding with broader explanations[Research] and examples, and being flexible to receive new ideas, suggestions, and the ability to adapt to their new learning are all 21st Century skills that every student must be taught and I believe it can be done even with limited resources if the teacher's mindset is adaptive.
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"><range type="comment" id="968204">I would believe the PBL, PL, IBL, and other new models of instruction practices are far more effective than our current lecture based classrooms. I am currently not too familiar with the new approaches as much, except I hear about them quite often, and in fact, I would love to learn and understand about these concepts in depth before I could take a stand on which one would be the best approach that would suit my teaching style.
 * <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"><range type="comment" id="593599">Getting community resources beyond classroom walls will be the best possible support an educator and the administrator could get to integrate 21C skills! Particularly, in this community aptly termed //Silicon Valley// there are best resources as companies, professionals, institutes, and corporations that are technology giants and are most willing to support local schools and educational organizations through training, professionals visiting classrooms and teaching skills (Eg: Engineer week – my son’s elem. teacher brought in an engineer from //Intel// to my child’s class where the engineer taught students about chip designing, purposes, and that lesson still gets my son quite excited to talk about even today in middle school!), and donating or training educators and students to gain the new technology skills (Google). Most resources are free (Khan’s Academy, You tube, Ted Talk, and more)to the public, and integrating them into our classrooms can only strengthen the teaching and the learning that is happening in the classrooms today! Without being able to fund many vital resources necessary for our students the schools are in fact powering down their learning at schools! Of course, there is always a challenge in expecting students to get their own devices because of equity issues and limited resources within the schools. That is why it is all the more important to get community resources to support and to boost the integration of 21st Century skills in both teaching and learning equitably without adding much burden to the already suffering classrooms.

IF you are not currently teaching answer this from the point of view of your children's school or your experience as a college student.

> AS educators and adults responsible for student learning, we can create the structures and citizenship awareness of technology uses as described in our module’s beginning notes (using 3Rs, 7Cs, Digital Citizenship ethics, information/media literacy, and Functional skills) to help build the medium in which students can learn their 21st C skills in an appropriate manner rather than just using tech. for information gathering. Our efforts create awareness in our students to see the endless possibilities that lie within technology use and learn ways to use it to propel their learning toward innovation and creativity. In a way, technology holds learners accountable and to take ownership for their learning far better than a classroom teacher! Yes, this can be debatable but with my own self experiences taking online courses and workshops, I have realized that it is always easy for a learner to follow suit with the teacher’s plans and intentions for a lesson in a classroom. With technology, a learner having to figure it all out on his/her own with minimal directions where a lot more self explorations and discoveries happen, which to me is by far the most powerful way to learn and this happens no matter how brilliant or not the learner is. Pacing, setting, different learning styles and interests self directs the learner’s discoveries. Learner has to take responsibility for this entire process and he or she owns it through. No one else to blame or wait for your learning to begin or progress, it is all in your hands, learner! This is the kind of expectation and responsibility technology has begun to teach us today. I have not seen it happen in my days(with my teachers behind me) or in my children’s classroom days (yet, but I know we are getting there. We(adults) will be the nurturers and facilitators of this progress for our students and future citizens than just to teach them or tell them what to do and how. Strategies and tips are evolving everyday with more technology use for adults and we have to build awareness within, and learn how to impart that new knowledge to our students. Most likely we will begin creating standards and customized framework to teach technology skills that would be similar to Reading Strategies like the ones we teach our students today to become fluent and confident readers.
 * Module 5 Notes**
 * 1) What are the best uses of technology to promote student learning in a 21st Century Classroom?
 * 2) What strategies can teachers use to assure their students are acquiring the 21st Century skills necessary for their future? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">What is technology in real sense? Another invention? tool? platform? lifestyle? It has endless possibilities which we have accepted to (begin our understanding) accept. What electricity did for us since its invention was it helped us meet the basic need for light and heat but propelled us in a greater angle to create further innovative inventions in all areas of life using electricity. Likewise, the meaning of technology has evolved into much larger sense, from being the tool or gadget to bring information; it has become a way of life that has evolved our mindset toward learning and information gathering. It has become life rather than being part of life. This is huge. So far, no other inventions have taken much greater seat in our lives than technology has. It is powerful and a very effective learning tool. Just like any other invention, it can be abused, misused, discarded, and/or never utilized to its fullest potential unless our students begin to learn it through structured channels that promote creativity, and clarity.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"><range type="comment" id="626626">Culture as a factor, that it works and cannot work across the global educational systems, had the most impact(interesting one too!) on my understanding of Finland’s educational model. Given the fact that FES(Finland’s Educational System) works because of their culture(news report-youtube) which strongly believes and values in good education uniformly across the society without any ambiguity, aids in higher standards for learning in their society; and because the Finland culture is very homogenous that it cannot work across the globe because of the inability/unsustainable to have such a homogenous classroom or schools in other countries.<range type="comment" id="75757"> I am thinking, so the appreciation of differences and providing equal and equitable access to education is in fact causing damage or stalling us from achieving the best educational system that we can provide to our children? Should we consider the value of importance one’s culture plays in his or her learning and highly nourish and embrace it so much so that the educational systems we have in place becomes more homogenous than heterogeneous classrooms that allows differences and tolerance needed to progress? I need to think out of the box to fully understand the implications and significance of homogenous culture, society outlook, and educational systems based on this one idea.
 * Module 6 Notes**
 * 1) What aspects of Finland's educational model work in the United States?
 * 2) How can we best reshape education so that all students gain the skills they need to live and work in the 21st Century?

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Foremost aspect in Finland’s model that I would love to see change here is – Finland appoints the best of the best, and only 10% of the most talented and exceptionally qualified teaching professionals who apply for a teaching position are appointed. This is awesome and clearly the focal point for me. Living in the Silicon Valley I see that all global companies and the big corporations where innovation and creativity is highly valued and appreciated appoints only the brightest and the most talented. <range type="comment" id="488981">But in schools, particularly, where we have struggling and suffering systems, the teachers are appointed without much experience teaching that particular demographics, or bring resources necessary to uplift those falling systems, but the ones who are appointed here are mostly there because of lack of choices for them not in the most best interests of students who are failing. So, eventually, we will see more turnovers in the same places where the systems are not in place thus causing more damage to the already failing system and the cycle goes on. This must change from the grassroots. The national level reform is required to make successful educational system in place and embrace it as a “homogenous” idea, need, and path for all classrooms across the nation to follow

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Yes, teacher can have autonomy and support, but __lack of uniformity in common goal, one vision__(unlike the Japan’s strict uniform goal but like Finland’s innovative, creative track), for reforming our education system cannot bring about the needed change at a larger scale with just the teachers’ autonomy. We cannot deny this.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This is an exceptional reading so far!!!!!! I am so impressed and it has solidified my way of thinking about education – I have always envied the schools that allowed students to create and learn from their creation through the process of their creativity. For eg: the truancy program in SFUSD was the best example of what I love about learning from creating/working not just reading and writing tests to prove what you learned from books.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Reshaping?...The above method/example is the most effective form of learning and not only learning of concepts happen in such form of education; this method actually makes every learner a master in that process and eventually the learner becomes the teacher for others. This style of learning empowers the learners! Isn’t that the highest form of education we can provide our learners? All the more reason to choose and follow “PBL, PL and IBL” models in our teaching methods. Having the flexibility of Cross Curricular Instruction in every grade level and the ability to steer lessons toward REAL LIFE scenarios where the results of a learner’s choice will in fact affect a real life person or cause, can bring about the best results for both the learner and the teacher. We need more community resources and involvement to implement these structures that allows students to be part of the community in every aspect. Here is a quick example that I thought of in another module-<range type="comment" id="176721">“teaching finances(main idea) and in the process(real life scenario if the student gets an opportunity in real life banks as intern or apprentice or just for their project learning experiences ) the project teaches a student the following: personnel skills, accounts, math, reading, writing, communication, business, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, customer relations, trust, quick in thinking, oral and verbal competence to earn and convince customers, clarity of financial components and concepts, and much more.”