Social Media and the Curriculum...Do They Align Somewhere?

Once again I was perusing through my twitter feed and came across a link on how to use twitter in the K-8 Classroom it was originally posted by @web20classroom and retweeted by @ASCD . As I read the post I was became excited and have decided that I am going to give this a shot in my classroom in this coming year (I teach Grade 4). I also decided that I want to get my students blogging this year and have been working out the logistics on getting them started on that. As I was thinking about it all I was thinking about all the content I need to get through in a year....how can I integrate these great tools and ways to engage my students into the curriculum content? If you're wondering the same thing....sorry I don't have an answer yet....this brainwave just hit me today....haven't really worked on the logistics yet.

This did however get me thinking about the curriculum and whether or not the curriculum is connected and ready for 21st Century Learning. I love doing project based learning with my students, letting them learn, discover and problem solve collaboratively but it is not a quick and easy process unfortunately. In Grade 4 with students who are just getting used to working in a collaborative environment these projects take time and thus I run into the problem of covering all the content (Maybe I shouldn't be admitting this to the world?). My question is though, is this due to imperfect planning on my behalf? (some of it for sure...I'm human!) or is because the curriculum is full of so much content (much of which is very accessible to students via the internet) and does not focus anymore on the skills students need to be successful in the 21st Century? (Problem solving, technology, working collaboratively, etc.)

As I venture into my next year of teaching I hope to get my students on their way to become connected, 21st Century skills equipped, learners using the tools they have available. Hopefully I will at some point be able to integrate them fully into the content that must be covered!