exploring 21st Century Skills

The 21st Century Skill that I think is most crucial to my students lives would be ways of thinking.
 I teach 1st graders and since they are just learning how to do critical thinking, problem solving, making decisions and how to use their creativity these are all important skills as the foundation of their lives.
I am very strong believer in project learning. I think it opens up the way for students to learn using their best learning skills, whether that is through traditional books or through technology. 
Teaching research skills gives students the lifelong skills they need to be independent learners.  For example you are doing a science unit on the life cycle of a butterfly. The research can be done through a variety of sources. The students could use videos, books, diagrams; they can go on to websites and talk to different experts on the topic. You can see the metamorphosis live or in videos for those that are visual learners.
 For their finished project students who enjoy writing and does not struggle with it can make a hard copy book in their handwriting, others may like to type it out and include pictures from the web, while others may want to use Movie maker and show their findings that way, then there are those that want to show a 3D version of their research or even act it out.
This allows their own creativity through the way they produce their product. If they are working with a partner this allows for collaboration which is another important skills to learn. Project learning helps with decision making they have to decide what is important to include in their final project, which that also goes along with problem solving.
To asses a project you can produce a rubric which I believe is another life learning skill needed. To know what you need in the end. This puts the score in their pocket  to achieve.

When my older two daughters started middle school, the school was starting project learning. For an example for my article above, my oldest was working on a project that included learning about speed, velocity, angles and etc. They learned how to do math through this project, they learned the history by talking about roller coasters and how they were created which went back to more math, along with writing they had to do research about the different roller coasters and this included (an expensive but worth it) field trip to Disney for hands on learning research.