By Candace Alstad-Davies

The term “future ready” means exactly what it sounds like. If your goal is to be a successful teacher and deliver a high-quality education to your students, you must be future ready. Our world is built on technology and students must know how to use and implement it in every day life. As a future ready teacher, you make sure this this happens.

Luckily, being future ready doesn’t necessarily mean knowing what device is the latest and greatest. Future ready means being open-minded about changing ideas and technology, willing to adapt teaching techniques and integrate different technology in the classroom, and able to collaborate with fellow educators to devise methods for maximizing the learning potential.

Find out how you can become a future ready teacher and provide your students with the skills they need to succeed in today’s world.

More: 8 Undeniable Traits of the 21st Century Teacher

Modern

Future ready teachers use technology to help all students develop basic technological skills that will be required throughout all academic levels, as well as the personal and professional world.

Some of the most important skills to bring into the classroom include word processing, email, database entry, Internet research, online networking, graphic design, and several others. Future ready teachers take it one step further and include digital citizenship lessons, i.e. maintaining privacy, not divulging identifying information online, avoiding scams, and maintaining a respectable image online, as well.

More: 7 Awesome Ways KidsEmail Helps Students Learn

Curious

All future ready teachers must possess a growth mindset, and instill the same in students. This way of thinking promotes the idea that a person can achieve any level of intelligence, or acquire any types of abilities or talents through study and hard work.

Encourage students to be adaptable, develop new skills, and test new technology. As the teacher, you must adopt the same mindset, and be willing to transform and adjust as technology, the local community, and the global world change; try new tools and don’t be afraid to make mistakes.

Work with parents to develop the same outlook. Host or help facilitate parent workshops that focus on technology, safe Internet usage for their children, and helping kids develop the skills and attitude needed to succeed.

More: 8 Apps to Promote Growth Mindset in Learning

Realistic

Bringing the real world into lessons not only helps prepare students for the future, but it also makes the content more engaging and therefore memorable. A few real world-teaching moments include:

• How to diffuse tense or potentially violent situations online.
• How to communicate with different personality types.
• How to show empathy and compassion for others
• How to recover from setbacks
• How to overcome weaknesses or fears

Use role playing, brainstorming sessions, group projects, and other hands-on activities to help develop these skills in students and prepare them for the real life events that they’re sure to encounter.

Collaborative

If you’re looking to create a future ready classroom, don’t ignore the resources all around you—your peers who are doing the same. Collaborate with fellow educators and administrators to gather helpful materials and resources, learn their educational philosophies and teaching techniques, and more.

If your school doesn’t already have one, suggest establishing a Future Ready Committee or Technology Team to examine such topics. If your school is already well underway with one of these teams, propose a district-wide committee to enhance your brainstorming and expand your resource pool.

More: How to Expand Your Personal Learning Network With Social Media

You don’t need to have access to technology to be a future ready teacher. All you need to do is use the resources available to you to bring the real-world into your classroom, collaborate with other teachers, and teach students the skills they need to succeed in today’s world.

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