What am I going to do as an English teacher to engage with the 21st century skills?

 I am a teacher of the 21st century. What does it mean for me a 51 year-old teacher born in the 20th century?

Honestly speaking, it is very difficult to teach nowadays. Teachers in the 21st century face challenges that their predecessors did not. The new 21st century learners must master more than the core curriculum to succeed in secondary and postsecondary institutions, as well as in the workplace. The traditional three R’s have to be transformed into seven C’s: critical thinking and doing, creativity, communication, collaboration, cross-cultural understanding, computing (ICT-literacy), and career and learning self-reliance. Instead of teaching using chalk a modern teacher needs to be an information technology expert, a technician, an artist and an actor. More than that, I try to remember that I am a digital immigrant forced to work with digital natives. My students can do a lot of things working on their computers, tablets, mobile phones. Sometimes they say why they need a teacher when they have got a Google?  Can it really be true? I try to follow them, even learn from them but sometimes they cannot understand me. I work harder but they study worse. I use modern technologies but they are bored during my lessons. A traditional Russian question – what to do?

To change myself is the only thing to do I think.  I completely agree with this opinion once found in the Internet “To be an effective 21st century teacher, a teacher must first possess the very same 21st century skills that their students are expected to have. And, in addition to those skills, they must be able to help all of their students obtain and develop 21st century skills”. Thus, teaching 21st century skills will be challenging and exciting because it will be a new experience for both teachers and students. To be an effective 21st century teacher I must to be a collaborative lifelong learner and a global educator.

Working at school for 28 years I am sure school has a lack of individuals, who can make decisions and cope with the stress of the changing world of schools. At the same time the modern teachers need to be able to work in teams, cooperate with colleagues and parents. Working with new technologies is also important in relating to students.

I suppose that the main 21st century teachers’ skills are the following: critical thinking, professional development, collaboration, making content relevant for the students, correct using traditional experiences in modern schools.

The challenge for teachers today is to make lessons relevant to students’ everyday lives. Developing critical thinking skills in the 21st century is crucial because the world becomes more complex. Giving students an understanding of globalization will create effective future leaders because they will be capable of seeing things from a world view. We must maintain student interest by learning which prepares them for life in the real world.  Besides, we must instill curiosity, which is fundamental to lifelong learning. And finally, we must be flexible in how we teach. Therefore, teachers can never stop learning themselves, attending seminars and trainings on new developments in the profession.  

I suppose that the main 21st century teachers’ skills are the following: critical thinking, professional development, collaboration and making content relevant for the students, correct using traditional experiences in modern schools. So I must learn all my life. There is a good English proverb “Live and learn”.

But I am convinced that the main skill for the teacher of the 21st century is  to be a person. "Only a person can educate a person" (Ushinsky).