21st Century Learning Environment
At Wishing Well Schools, we believe that education should be exciting, hands on, experiential, and continually evolving in order to provide our students with transferable skills needed in this rapidly changing world. Technology integration is more than just exposing students to varied pieces of technology or replacing books with an iPad. Its heart is in the educational experience itself; cross-curricular units of study, project based and problem-based lessons, real world connections, and carefully written and executed units of work that link to all areas of the curriculum are crucial for a holistic and organic educational experience.
What is a 21st Century Learning Environment?
Our STEAM and Design and Technology lessons are carefully planned to ensure that technology integration is used as a means to enrich the learning experience. We teach coding starting in 3rd year Casa and believe it is a fundamental skill; as crucial as reading and math in today’s world. Although coding has just become a part of the Ontario Curriculum, we have taught it as part of our curriculum since 2015 and our students are far ahead of their peers in this area of learning.
We have a variety of materials and resources to use for seamless and meaningful technology integration into our program of study and are always finding new and innovative tools to introduce to our students. Project-based learning using the LAUNCH and Design Thinking pedagogies help students to further delve into a problem and develop their problem-solving and critical thinking skills.
What is a 21st Century Learning Environment?
- Critical thinking, problem solving, reasoning, analysis, interpretation, synthesizing information
- Research skills and practices, interrogative questioning
- Creativity, artistry, curiosity, imagination, innovation, personal expression
- Perseverance, self-direction, planning, self-discipline, adaptability, initiative
- Oral and written communication, public speaking and presenting, listening
- Leadership, teamwork, collaboration, cooperation, facility in using virtual workspaces
- Information and communication technology (ITC) literacy, media and internet literacy, data interpretation and analysis, computer programming (coding)
- Civic, ethical, and social-justice literacy
- Economic and financial literacy, entrepreneurialism
- Global awareness, multicultural literacy, humanitarianism
- Scientific literacy and reasoning, the scientific method
- Environmental and conservation literacy, ecosystems understanding
- Health and wellness literacy, including nutrition, diet, exercise, and public health and safety
Our STEAM and Design and Technology lessons are carefully planned to ensure that technology integration is used as a means to enrich the learning experience. We teach coding starting in 3rd year Casa and believe it is a fundamental skill; as crucial as reading and math in today’s world. Although coding has just become a part of the Ontario Curriculum, we have taught it as part of our curriculum since 2015 and our students are far ahead of their peers in this area of learning.
We have a variety of materials and resources to use for seamless and meaningful technology integration into our program of study and are always finding new and innovative tools to introduce to our students. Project-based learning using the LAUNCH and Design Thinking pedagogies help students to further delve into a problem and develop their problem-solving and critical thinking skills.