During the last three years I have learned the value of using a variety of tools to engage students in learning not just content but also the 21st century skills.   Employers are looking for employees who have a different skill set then they did even ten years ago and schools need to prepare their students for this reality.  To help me better understand how to do so I joined the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and attended NECC in Atlanta last summer.  I was very excited to bring what I had learned in Atlanta to St. Raphael last school year and I saw how it benefited our students.

As I have learned the value of embracing the 21st century skills, I realized that many of my principal colleagues are not fully prepared to lead their schools through the changes needed to expand the teaching of the 21st century skills.  During our Springfling and Techtober-fest I heard from various Archdiocesan teachers and principals their lack of training or knowledge on the 21st century skills.  They expressed they felt unprepared to begin the journey their school needed.  These experiences helped me to be elected to the Communications Chair position of the ISTE subgroup -Special Interest Group Administration (SIGAdmin) this past spring.

At NECC in San Antonio the newly elected chair, vice chair and I met for the first time. These two individuals and I are excited to be in the leadership role to help other administrators gain the knowledge and resources needed to make changes in their schools and districts.  On Tuesday July 1, we led the SIGAdmin annual meeting.  The meeting was attended by 23 of our members and we began to select the most important goals for our special interest group to accomplish in the next year.  School administrators have the largest impact on the climate and learning that takes place in schools.  Our special interest group is made up of over 4000 members so we know our leadership will have the opportunity to impact students all over the world.  I find this exciting and look forward to working closely with other administrators who want to share their knowledge with the goal of preparing students around the world for their future.

From June 29 until July 3 I was with more than 17,000 attendees at the NECC in San Antonio. This national conference is an exciting place to learn about teaching and learning in the 21st century.

As I sat through various workshops in addition to the keynote speakers I met people from all over the world who are equally excited about engaging students in the learning process. We all agree the success of students learning is keeping them engaged in the learning process. The tools available now for teachers make it easier for them to engage all students through their various learning styles.

A part of the conference includes students sharing examples of their work. These young participants were from both the United States and Mexico and were as young as nine. They confidently explained their newly acquired knowledge and the skills they used to obtain the knowledge. Many of the projects included collaboration with students in a different community or even another country. These students were proud of what they learned and I am confident they will remember what they learned long into the future because of their level of engagement. They did not learn it just for the test.

On Tuesday morning the keynote speakers were Jim Carleton and Mali Bickley from Canada. These two teachers worked together to have their students connect and collaborate with students in Africa. The Canadian students became so engaged in their learning and along the way they realized the African students had so little as compared to them. These realizations made the students want to reach out and help the African students by raising money to send to Africa to help the school. These students were so excited to help others and you could feel the pride these young Canadian students felt as they spoke about their experience.

Being a part of this conference reinforces to me that our students want to contribute to our world in a positive way at a young age. As educators we need to provide them ways in which to do so. We need to create learning opportunities that connect the content we need them to learn to meaningful ways to reach out to the world. In doing this our students will amaze us in their learning but more importantly to their passion for life.