What are YOUR 7 essential survival skills for the 21st Century? (you can use Wagner’s 7, create your own, or a mashup of the two.) Define the skills as you understand them.
What could incorporating these skills look like in your class or school?
What can you commit to in your classroom/school this year?
How will you measure your success?
When looking at this week’s discussion post, I was unsure if my 7 essential survival skills were supposed to be for myself or my students. After a little bit of reflection, I realized that it didn’t matter. As a lifelong learning, the skills I need to instill in my students are the ones I need in order to be successful myself. And the ones that I use to be successful can be translated for my students, I just have to teach and instill in them what has been taught and instill in me. Here are my 7 skills for survival in no particular order. Some of them have been repeated from Wagner’s and some are my own. I feel like Wagner discussed high school students almost exclusively, but I teach K-8 students. Some of the skills that he discussed need a foundational level before the students can achieve success in a different skill.
Wagner’s Original 7 Survival Skills: (2008, p. 67).
- Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
- Collaboration Across Networks and Leading by Influence
- Agility and Adaptability
- Initiative and Entrepreneurialism
- Effective Written and Oral Communication
- Accessing and Analyzing Information
- Curiosity and Imagination
Erin Kiger’s Original 7 Survival Skills (and an explanation):
- Experimentation Leading to Mastery: The questions I get most from students in class has to do with their grade. They don’t want to do something that will take points off or what’s the minimum they had to do to get all the points. Students are not “trying for the sake of learning” they are trying for the grade. I completely agree with education blogger and teacher Krista Penrod (2017), who shares that “We want (students) to feel comfortable making mistakes within the walls of our classrooms, knowing they have our support and direction to make right choices” (para. 14). I want them to feel confident and safe that they can take an assignment I give and tweak it, elaborate on it, and/or change it. Use the assignment to meet their learning needs. Then try to complete the assignment. If it doesn’t meet their needs, if it doesn’t show their learning (my needs) then change it and do it again. You won’t be “punished” with a “bad grade”, you will only receive a score when you and I are satisfied.
- Asking Questions: This skill is twofold. The first part has to do with knowing when not to ask a question. All too often, directions are given in class and then a handful of students will need the directions repeated. To tackle this in my class, I verbally give the directions, they are written in our LMS, and I (usually) provide a step by step video on how to accomplish the task. At this point, do not ask me what to do. Students need to know when NOT ask a question because the resources are in front of you to find the answer. The second part has to do with literally asking questions, ask as many as they would like, if they do NOT have the resources to find the answer. This open question forum can come when there need to be clarifications made, when students want to try something different, if students need adult support (academically or not), etc. These are questions that cannot be found by using Google or referring to any source of directions. Another key point that I would like to state is that the questions do not always have to be asked of the teacher. Learning to rely on your peers and which peers to rely on is itself a very important skill.
- Self Reflection and Feedback: Our society does not opening encourage self reflection. We are too busy. The same can be said in our classrooms. In order for students to be successful, they must be provided opportunities to evaluate their learning and their work, not only at the end, but also THROUGHOUT the process. It is incredibly frustrating to put in time and effort into something to find out everything you did was completely wrong. If a student needs to make adjustments, they need that opportunity early on. This is where feedback comes into play. Education blogger and teacher, Melissa Chouinard-Jahant (2017), says that “In order for feedback to truly be meaningful, purposeful and have an impact on learning...it needs to be honest and sometimes critical because our students will not grow as learners if they do not feel a push to progress, urgency to reflect and the ability to provide feedback to others as well, especially the teacher” (para. 4). Feedback, especially constructive feedback, can sometimes be hard to handle. We work so hard to praise and provide positive feedback, that giving information that asks for students to do work differently or again can be difficult. If we build the relationship with students, if they understand why the feedback is important, and if they feel safe that the reflection and feedback are two-sided, then hopefully that skill will grow and they will learn to be more comfortable both giving and receiving feedback.
- Curiosity and Imagination: Curiosity and imagination at an elementary level are one of the most critical skills, not that we need to instill, but that we need to continue to develop. With guidance from us, students should be able to transition from imaginative play to imaginative solutions. (I like “imaginative work”, but the word “work” has such a negative sound that is almost equated to taking imagination out.) Students should be encouraged to ask “Why?” questions about the world and encouraged to find answers, not just accept the status quo. Even more important than finding answers, students should be encouraged to make the changes!
- Collaborative Partner and Team Work: At an elementary level, many teachers are working with students to develop the skills needed to work collaboratively. However, I have noticed that as the students leave elementary and begin working in middle school, those skills are disregarded, sometimes by teachers and often times by students. It is easier for one or two people to do all the work then to worry about the person who may do nothing, or may do it wrong. These skills need to be continued to develop throughout students’ school careers. Students should also be exposed to ways to handle a peer who is not working collaboratively. What would we do in a professional setting? What can our students do, besides just do it for them?
- Internet Skills: This skill doesn’t need much of an explanation. The internet is constantly changing and the amount of unknown vs the known is dramatically different. Not only do our students need the skills to navigate the internet for information, they must also have the skills to do so safely. And yes, when I talk about the “internet”, I also mean apps, games, music, etc.
- Play the Game: Teachers, like students, are all different. Teachers must learn how to adjust themselves to suit the needs of many different students in one class, moment to moment. As adults, we also adjust ourselves to interact with different adults of different personalities. This is easy when we are with our friends. This is not so easy when we are with someone that we may not like or respect. However, to avoid conflict and at times, to get the job done, you “hold your tongue” and behave respectfully, despite the behaviors of someone else. This is what I call, playing the game. Students, don’t always know that life is a game. Teaching students to “play the game” or “put on your game face” will get them through situations that may not be the most wonderful, but it will not be like that forever. School is just like an athletic game or a video game. Sometimes, we just have to do what the coach tells you or beat the level the game gives you, even if you don’t like it. Once it’s over, you can move on to things you enjoy more or spending time with people you enjoy more.
The reality is I don’t know exactly how this will look in my class yet because I am completely changing my class. My vision for this year is to teach a technology skill the first week in which we implement it into a class project that reflects some aspect of Catholic Identity. For example, using the 10 Commandments/Beatitudes/Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy to teach the Apostles about the Digital Citizenship components. After that class project is completed, students will have a menu of choices that they can complete dealing with Digital Citizenship. They can complete as many or as few as they would like in order to achieve a certain amount of points. Points are given based on the ease of the task and how many classes it takes the student to complete the task. So where will the survival skills fit in that? I don’t know. everywhere?
This year I am trying to completely change my approach to technology in the classroom. It is one of my goals to provide students more choice and integrate more Catholic identity. With those changes already in mind, I know that some of the survival skills I laid out will be addressed. For example, Experimentation Leading to Mastery, Asking Questions, and Curiosity and Imagination fit nicely into my idea to allow students to have a menu of items to show mastery of a technology skill or concept. Additionally, as the technology teach, Internet Skills is a critical component of my curriculum.
September is our first full month of school so we will be covering the various components of Digital Citizenship. As I said before, my goal is to provide students with a menu of projects they can choose and complete to show they truly understand the importance of internet safety. My last goal for this year, after having written my survival skills is to provide my students, and myself, with a structured opportunity for feedback. When I see 500 different students in a week, it becomes a little overwhelming, so I’m not exactly sure how I will implement the structure without getting lost in the process myself and become inconsistent with providing my students opportunities for reflection and feedback.
The way that I will measure my success is stated above. If I can work with my students and provide a foundation for the skills that are needed, without becoming inconsistent, then I know I will have been successful. I know myself as a teacher, and as a person, well enough, to know that I become inconsistent, when I have become too overwhelmed with everything on my plate and have essentially given up on an idea. My hope is to use the skills to guide my instruction and use the reflection and the feedback to prevent inconsistency. I can take the information and adjust as needed.
Chouinard-Jahant, M.(2017). You Can't Break a Stick in a Bundle: Having Difficult Conversations with Students. iTeacher iMother, Number 315. Retrieved from
Penrod, K. (2017). How Do You Deal With Splashing and Shouting? Love Learning, Love Life, Number 2. Retrieved from
Wagner, T. (2008). The Global Achievement Gap. New York, NY: Basic Books.
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