Module One

Part I - Essential Question
 What is 21st Century Teaching and Learning? The framework built around 21st century learning is made up of different parts working together. These parts consist of core subjects and 21st century themes, learning and innovation skills, information, media, and technology skills, and life and career skills. Referring back to Bloom’s Taxonomy, students start at remembering information and start to demonstrate their full understanding of a center topic when the students are able to create something with the understanding of a certain topic and/or concept. To do this in today’s fast developing technological world and workplace students have to develop different skills to support their learning through common core standards that are intivate for the students. According to the text, this is done by better align college and work expectations in the K-12 standards, demonstrating an “increased awareness that K-12 experiences are important in workforce development, emphasize higher-order thinking skills required for contemporary living, and align the US standards with those of other top-performing countries.” Also in 21st century teaching, it is important to include an educator’s design. This is where educators show they care about their students and get to know each of them. The educator has a deep understanding of the concepts being taught. The teacher learns from best practices and from other colleagues to better accommodate their student’s needs in the learning environment. They analyze data to get a full understanding of what each student needs to individualize instruction for each student.
 When teacher’s collect data and reference it to drive instruction, they are benefiting all students in the classroom. Students are engaged in the activities and interacting with their peers. The students are in a safe and positive learning environment using different technology tools to better deepen their understanding of concepts to reach mastery of a topic. The teachers are educated in the tools they are implementing to drive their instruction to best meet each students needs in the classroom. Students are able to access information more quickly using technology and providing a learning environment where content, teaching strategies and technology are all working together to meet students needs, it is the best practices in the 21st century classroom for learning and teaching. Teachers are constantly collecting data to show student’s progress in the classroom and are learning from others and their practices on how to best drive instruction that is effective and engaging for all students. This allows students to build personal and professional goals in their education and life skills. Students are provided with the best opportunities in learning in the 21st century teaching and learning environment.
 As I mentioned before, another great practice for students is TPACK which is technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge. All these work together to provide the best learning opportunities for students in the classroom. Students are learning from experiences in the classroom and are being exposed to different technological ways to demonstrate understanding of certain topics through the way teachers present the information. Teachers are individualizing instruction to best meet all learner’s needs and provide a learning style that best shows the student’s understanding of the topic. 21st century learning provides students multiple ways to demonstrate their understanding. The teacher and students are always collaborating to best meet the students needs. The students get responsibility when it comes to obtaining goals that were created together. 21st Century teaching and learning is the best way to drive instruction to engage students in learning with integrating technology for students to demonstrate their best practices in the learning environment.

Part II - Evernote Strategy
 I absolutely love Evernote! I have never used it before until now. It is easy to use and I think about my student in first grade and how they can type different notes on a certain topic in it and use it in the classroom. I am also using vitalsource.com for my texts and I love how the highlighting tool works in the text so I can screenshot and also add that to my Evernote notepad. It is easier for me to reference the text and also view my notes as well. It is an easy site to manage and add notes to. Being able to title the notes keeps my notes very organized. Anyone could use it. I definitely have already thought of multiple ways for my students to use it and to organize their thinking as well. I love typing my notes and it gives me a way to organize them and easy access wherever I may need them. I will continue to use Evernote even after this class because it allows me to organize my thinking. People can write notes and take screenshots and add it easily to the notes to reference so it is all in one file. It is amazing how utilizing this tool allows people to easily manage their notes and organize them neatly. Evernote is a notepad I would recommend to anyone!
I would use Evernote in an elementary classroom by allowing students to practice basic typing skills, practice sight words, and type kind notes to their friends. I actually have mailboxes in my room for each student to write letters to and deliver them in their mailboxes. Evernote would give the students an opportunity to share their thinking with their peers or the classroom teacher. Students could type sight words and use it to practice spelling. Students could use Evernote to retell a story or to type their own story. The students could use Evernote to type a “how to” essay. It would be easier to brainstorm and type and go back and add details instead of trying to cram it in on a sheet of paper to add details and other thoughts. Evernote would keep the essays nice and neat. Each assignment could have a title and be shared if needed. Evernote is easy to learn how to use for all ages. There is so much students can do with Evernote.

  Part III 21st Century Tool Review:
 TPACK is technology, pedagogical, and content content knowledge and how it works together as a total package. It is how and what the teacher is teaching to students and how technology plays an important role in that. Technology is accessible everywhere in our area including at our own hands if we have devices such as ipads, gaming systems, mobile devices, and/or computers. Information is easier to attain since we have search engines such as Google. Siri can even tell us information without people reading it. As technology grows it is important as educators to be aware of how to teach and what to teach students to better guide students' learning and to meet their individual needs in the classroom. Teaching is always changing due to how fast technology is developing and how accessible it is for students in America versus other countries who might not have a laptop or ipad per each student. Pedagogy, content, and technology are integrated to drive any content concept within the classroom.

  Epic! - Books for Kids
The best content that would be best to use with Epic! would be a study on a certain topic. In first grade, we study the seasons. Students could learn from different texts that can be read to them through Epic! to deepening the student’s understanding of seasons. Books can be differentiated and assigned to certain students to best meet their needs. Other studies can be conducted as well through Epic! This app provides a way for students to be exposed to more texts to build their understanding of a topic or concept. Students can take quizzes at the end of a book to gain badges and level up on Epic! This engages students and keeps them engaged. The quizzes are optional and can be taken multiple times. This provides a positive learning experience for each student.
The teaching strategy that could be used with Epic! Is a whole group lesson on certain topics, like the seasons. I know we study the seasons in first grade as we do calendar time to develop an understanding of the seasons, days of the week, and months of the year. This 21st century tool allows students an opportunity to continue studying seasons outside of the whole group time to spiral back to learning that was covered in whole group. It provides students with multiple opportunities to master the concept through developmentally appropriate texts using technology in the classroom.
 Students would need to know how to access the app and how to access the books the teacher assigns to them to listen to within the app. I personally assign them through the mailbox on Epic! The students receive mail and can open the mailbox and there the students have a surprise of books hand picked for them to master the content presented such as seasons. It can be assigned to the whole class or just certain individuals to differentiate instruction within the learning environment to best meet each student’s needs in the classroom. This provides students the opportunity to choose the text they would like to listen to at the time. It gives them accountability in their own learning. It is engaging and a great tool to utilize in the classroom.
I discovered the tool through Instagram, @epicbooksforkids. This page allows me to see new books added to Epic! And also consider different texts that might captivate my student’s interests.It is a great way to promote literacy in the classroom and get students to fall in love with reading. The books are engaging and students get excited about collecting badges and leveling up on Epic! It is a great opportunity to build student’s knowledge on a topic when it is added to the instructional planning by adding texts and assigning them to students to better build each student’s knowledge on different concepts and topics.