Review and Critics about Partnership for 21st Century Skills Website.

Partnership for 21st Century Skills (http://www.p21.org) is an organization formed in 2002 by U.S. Department of Education, individuals and organizations such as Microsoft, Apple and Cisco Systems, Inc. P21 states their mission as: To serve as a catalyst to position 21st century readiness at the center of US K12 education by building collaborative partnerships among education, business, community and government leaders.

Watch video to learn 21st century skills that students need.

This organization focus on defining necessary skills for 21st century education in US schools, and research strategies about how to integrate those visions into core curriculums. Unfortunately, this organization aims to change U.S. education only, and collaborate with U.S. related individuals and organizations. 21st century means collaboration and integration with the world. Therefore, this site should accept members and partners worldwide, and should be a global website.

First of all, I did not like the theme and menu style of the website. Theme is not user friendly, and it is a bit difficult to find contents. For instance, as a physics teacher, I would like to see what physics teachers can do to integrate 21st century skills into the curriculum, but I could not find. Secondly, there are no specific examples and strategies about using 21st century skills. All skills and strategies are written with general terms.

What surprised me the most is; the web site is still Web 1.0. There  are no interactive pages, and nobody can communicate or contribute to this website unless they are a member. I would like to see forums, discussions, and wikis where people discuss  definitions, objectives, applications and integration of 21st century skills into specific curriculums. In other words, I like the idea behind the partnership for 21st century skills organization. At the other hand, it is visible that they could not catch the 21st century, and could not update website accordingly. They should do more than using twitter or asking people to upload their videos.

Like P21 website wrote, ICT and communication skills are the heart of 21st century skills. Web site states life and career skills such as how to adapt to change in the environment and technology, how to communicate with the world and be flexible, how to become a self learner with using the internet and technology, and how to work as a team, manage projects and guide and lead others. Reading all these skills helped me to acknowledge the needs of my students and encouraged me to search teaching strategies that can develop those skills. As I have said, those skills are the most valuable skills that we can teach to the students.

By the way, 21st century skills include mastery in core subjects such as English, world languages, Arts, Mathematics, Economics, Science, Geography, history, government and Civics. To say the truth, I do not think that these core subjects are 21st century skills. First of all, it is impossible for every student to master in all those subjects. The site should limit the core subject according to the interest area of the student. Moreover, I think only the mathematics is essential for every student. The rest might be different according to the interest, learning style and intelligence type of student.

Educators focused on creativity, innovation, critical thinking and problem solving skills before, and they will focus on the future regardless of the century. Therefore, one does not need to count those skills as 21st century skills.

Finally, you can visit P21 website to learn more about 21st century skills and frameworks. Especially, ICT, life and career skills are well explained, and one can use this information to integrate 21st century skills into his / her curriculum. For instance, I am planning to give team project assignments and ask students to publish their project details in  a wiki page.

How Everything Works: A new approach to teach physics

I would like to introduce you a physics textbook that I liked a lot.
How everything works, written by Louis Bloomfield.

Bloomfield describes his book and curriculum as below;

How Things Work is a curriculum for non-science students that introduces them to physics in the context of everyday objects. How Things Work reverses the traditional format of physics courses by starting with whole objects and looking inside them to see what makes them work. Because it concentrates on concepts rather than math, and on familiar objects rather than abstract constructs, How Things Work serves both to reduce students' fears of science and to convey to them a substantial understanding of our modern technological world.  

Students will acknowledge that understanding of physics as a basic skill will assist them in innumerable situations throughout their adult lives. 

Curriculum Goals

• To begin to see science in everyday life
• To learn that science isn't frightening
• To learn to think logically in order to solve problems
• To develop and expand your physical intuition
• To learn how things work
• To begin to understand that the universe is predictable rather than magical
• To obtain a perspective on the history of science and technology 

 You can find more information about his teaching method at: http://www.howeverythingworks.org/

I will prove you that physics is fun.

I know that most of you feel bored while I am solving problems and explaining physics terms.

Like everybody, you want to know about mysteries of the universe and the world. You want to learn how things work. You wonder how people invented items such as electronic items and electric devices. Additionmaly you want to hear about the future of the world. You want the answers of questions such as what will happen in 2012, how can polar bears live in poles and how can bats use ultrasound to catch their preys.

Unfortunately, I was telling you that I do not have enough time to talk and answer these questions. I have to limit the time that I spend for discussion and demonstration in lesson. I could not focus on wonders of physics.

Thanks to physics and technology, there is no more time limit. You can ask your questions, and we can discuss together. In this blog, you will have a chance to watch more educational and engaging videos about physics. You will see how the things works. You will follow what is going on in physics, and you will read the science related news.

This blog is an interactive discussion medium for my grade 12 physics students and all other people who are interested in physics.

This blog will focus on how physics work in daily life and physics demonstrations with everyday objects.

I want you to ask questions, answer your friends' questions, join discussions and enjoy physics.



Do not forget that physics is everywhere, and you can learn physics anytime anywhere with reading my blog.

A Physics Teacher's Blog to share knowledge

Hello everyone,

Welcome to my blog.   

I read and learned a lot from internet and blogs. I feel that it is time to contribute and share my knowledge with people who are interested in physics. Moreover, sharing and discussion is the thing that improve our knowledge. Therefore you are invited to ask questions and together we can learn new strategies, methods and information about teaching physics.

I intend to use this blog to:  

- Share my knowledge and findings about physics.

- Share interesting physics news that I read

- Share teaching strategies that I learned 

- Ask conceptual questions about physics

-Answer the questions of people interested in physics

and much more

I just want to contribute to humanity and feel the happiness of sharing.

Please feel free to ask about anything you wonder.

Zulfi Erken