Elk Grove Unified Unified School District:
21st Century Technology Integration
Extending Learning Beyond the Classroom Walls
While the Elk Grove and Twin Rivers videos are different in their approach, each district focuses on providing teachers with tangible examples of how to use 21st century skills in the classroom.
The projects showcased in Elk Grove Unified School District Advancing Technology Grant (ANU) Teach 21 collection stem from the dynamic teaching methods of the Teach 21 Cohort and reflect the district’s commitment to make visible what teaching and learning in the 21st century looks like in elementary, middle and high school classrooms. By including classroom video clips with each lesson, the videos provide educators with a window into what the Partnership for 21st Century Skills refers to as the 4C's: critical thinking, communication, creativity and collaboration. It is important that educators can see model lessons as they are being taught — with real teachers and real students.
All 21 lessons are available on a project wiki and online in SECC’s Video Gallery. Each lesson plan includes objectives, procedures, resources, materials and standards (ISTE, California Content Standards and Common Core Standards) addressed. Lessons follow a format that includes the project description, teacher interview video, snippets of classroom interaction captured on video, final student projects and resources and handouts.
The collection ranges from a 1st grade science lesson on weather to an 11th grade history lesson on the Civil Rights movement — and crosses the curriculum to include math, science, language arts, social studies and media production. Several lessons were greatly extended through the use of interactive videoconferencing and all tap into technology and extend teaching and learning in ways not possible with traditional paper, pencil and textbook lessons.
With 21+ lessons, the ANU Teach 21 project provides a replicable model for increasing teacher capacity to learn and implement 21st century teaching strategies in the classroom. Equally important, given the current budget crisis, the project showcases good things happening in California classrooms.
The Advancing Network Uses Grant Program supports the development and dissemination of demonstration applications and content that meet critical needs of California schools to make good use of the benefits of the K12 High Speed Network, a state program that connects the California K-12 community.
> View the videos and read descriptions in SECC’s Video Gallery
A Guide to Going Digital
How do you begin to use 21st Century skills in the classroom and create a collaborative teamwork setting? Media teacher Mary Osteen from Einstein Middle School in the Sacramento City Unified School District shares her method here with the comprehensive, easy-to-use guide Let’s Go Digital! Let’s Go PBL (Project Based Learning): A Kick-start Guide for Middle School Teachers.
"If you’ve found this guide, I bet you're trying to figure out how to share some kind of technology with your students,” writes Osteen. Now, through trial and error, she created the first student-run middle school news broadcast class in her district.
Osteen’s guide focuses on helping middle school teachers engage their students in projects, problems and real-world challenges of their own choice. Her “dares” inspire students to engage more deeply into topics and work together on student-driven projects where they have an authentic say in their learning. And by incorporating media education directly in the curriculum, teachers can launch a PBL that builds technological literacy.
