21st Century Education (Insert Question words here)

I agreed with most of the points made in the article, "How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century." I struggle with it because it focuses more on theory than application. It just scratches the surface of some of the problems with the state of American education today. For example, when (not if) we move past the NCLB-style of "easy assessment," what will teachers assess, and how? I remember from our 330 course that Dr. Dietrich asked "Are we assessing what we value?" As we well know, life is not as easy as choosing between A, B, C, or D. More likely, we will need a bit of A and C (and maybe E) to succeed at our task.

Also, how do we expand this vague "global education" without expanding our school budgets? At a time when administrations are cutting back and keeping the "essential" courses, I don't know how foreign language classes and technology and the arts electives are going to survive, but they must! With that, what can we take away from purportedly successful I.B. programs to bolster our curricula? Instead of thinking of creating a new curriculum for a global ed course, we should view it as a perspective or lens that we view all our classes.

I'd also like to know how we go from "group work" to developing "EQ" and "good people skills." How can we tell the difference? How can we value those skills and work them into our assessments? We know technology is playing a larger part in our lives. If we do not have the perk of specific tech courses, how can we as English teachers develop or use Web 2.0 apps to expand and enhance student learning while building tech skills? I know that web education is trending, but how can I use it when I don't know the quantity and accessibility of school computers? And how many of my students have computers at home?

Finally, I would love to create an interdisciplinary environment in my classroom. We know that we don't make students read a novel so that we can assign comprehension questions. It's about life. When writing is such a core part of our curricula, we need to show students that it is not limited to literary analysis essays (although that's about all I wrote in my high school lit courses). If writing can be used in history, science, art, etc. courses, (and just for fun, too!) how much better chance is there that our students will understand and value writing and will not abandon it after graduation? (This goes for reading as well.) Without a doubt, the student must take charge of his/her learning. Every one of us in this class understands that--we're all in college! The professor isn't going to learn it for you. The same goes for the job world. Our goal is to bring kids to believe and understand that for themselves. School should prepare us for the "real world." If our classrooms look/act more like the real world, won't our students have a better chance of success when they go beyond our schools' doors?

P.S.--If there's one thing I'll do when I become a teacher, I will make sure that every student that graduates will know how to shake hands!