This document provides 10 tips for 21st century classrooms. It recommends rearranging desks into groups to promote collaboration over direct instruction. It also suggests upgrading technology like using a Smartboard, allocating resources like one computer per group, connecting with IT support, using internet resources to enhance lessons, ensuring lessons promote critical thinking, presenting multiple ways to learn, breaking large projects into steps, setting high expectations, and using varied instructional strategies and assessments.

1. Top 10 Tips for 21st
Century Classrooms
1. Rearrange desks into group seating: real knowledge in a 21st century classroom happens
when students seek out the answers, instead of receiving them directly from the teachers. A
group seating arrangement allows students to work together while observing and discovering
new topics.
2. Upgrade Technology: Replace the blackboard with a large touch screen or Smartboard if the
budget allows.
3. Allocate Resources: Give each group only one computer. If students have their own
computer, they will focus on working alone and the rearrangement to promote group
collaboration will prove useless
4. Connect with your computer technical support division: This division can be used as a
resource to help you integrate different forms of technology into your classroom. These
personnel can also help you select technology that will best meet the needs of your curriculum
area.
5. Use Internet resources to support instruction. There are many internet resources that can
be used to help enhance lessons. Do the research and find out what can be utilized to enhance
your lessons.
6. Be sure lessons are developed to promote adequate rigor. Learning tasks should be
rigorous and require students to think critically about their learning.
7. Presenting multiple opportunities to learn. This may include additional time, a different
modality such a visual representation, or pre-teaching text prior to an assignment.
8. Chunking big tasks. Break down large projects, term papers, or research assignments into
manageable tasks so students can receive feedback at various steps along the way. The teacher
should serve as facilitator and offer guiding support as needed.
9. Set high expectations: Since the goal is to help all students be successful with complex
ideas and concepts, it is important for educators to use a variety of strategies that support student
learning in rigorous ways.
10. Instructional strategies: What variety of research-based strategies am I using or do I need
to research that will help students to understand the content?
Multiple approaches to demonstrating learning: What variation in assessment practices am I
using to allow students to demonstrate their learning in different ways? How frequently are
formative assessments used to determine who needs additional support?