While it’s tough to determine how much of each should be in this balance, it seems pretty clear that a combination of STEM skills and soft skills will vastly benefit today’s students once they enter the workforce. Even though many of tomorrow’s careers have not yet been invented or evolved yet, we have a pretty good idea of how to prepare kids for them.
This week as part of our Rising Resources blog, we’re introducing you to the highly teacher-oriented site, You for Youth. This website was created for educators to discover the resources and gain the knowledge they need to manage their 21st CCLC (century community learning center) program and make it the best after school experience possible.
We talked about a lot of these skills in last week’s Eduporium Weekly and now we are going to be discussing some of the ways they might be put to use. Jobs of the future could range anywhere from drone pilot to virtual reality creator. We simply don’t know what exactly lies ahead, but can do some things to help prepare students for anything.
The current state of education is, of course, crucial to the future success of today’s students. They need innovative learning opportunities and creative challenges that will help them succeed down the road. What’s equally important in education is what’s on tap next. As a whole, education needs to be continuously evolving to best prepare students.
Charter schools are becoming really popular alternatives among parents all across the country. Once thought of as a sure thing, now parents often find it to be a struggle to get their kids enrolled due to the high demand they’ve generated. It’s easy to see why charter schools are now so popular—these educators are doing great things for kids and offering peace of mind.
When students are given the freedom to invent unheard of solutions to problems and go about solving them in unique ways, they’re building a foundation for the future. A lot of the tools we’ll use in the next decade or two haven’t been invented yet. Most likely, a student somewhere in a K-12 school is going to be responsible for an invention eventually.
When kids are sitting back, being spoken to, and completely passive about the content they’re absorbing in the classroom, how does that benefit them? They need active experiences and hands-on problem solving in order to become Future Ready. They need project-based learning and they need it to be of high quality.
Here’s the thing. It can get expensive when teachers are trying to obtain STEM tools for students to use in the classroom. We get that, which is why we offer an Educator Discount because we believe firmly that cost should never stand in the way of a child getting the education he or she needs. That being said, there are plenty of other ways to reduce costs.
Chances are your thoughts of traditional classrooms are different from how contemporary classrooms can—or at least should—be set up. Rows of desks and a chalkboard used to be staples but they don’t help prepare today’s kids for a hands-on future. They need collaboration, interaction, and active learning and it takes a different kind of classroom for this.
The fact is that not all students learn in the same ways. Some are visual learners. Others need to hear things multiple times before it sticks. And, still others require a hands-on component so they can learn by doing. There is no wrong way when it comes to students’ learning style preferences and 21st century teachers have taken notice of this.
