{"id":102213,"date":"2017-12-29T05:03:08","date_gmt":"2017-12-29T12:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rankin-preparing-colorados-students-for-an-unforeseen-future\/"},"modified":"2017-12-29T05:03:08","modified_gmt":"2017-12-29T12:03:08","slug":"rankin-preparing-colorados-students-for-an-unforeseen-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rankin-preparing-colorados-students-for-an-unforeseen-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Rankin: Preparing Colorado\u2019s students for an unforeseen future"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Joyce
Joyce Rankin<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Speakers and panelists from across the nation discussed directions education is taking and how our schools can prepare students for an ever-changing future.<\/p>\n

Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, spoke about school choice and the role of parents in selecting the best school for their children. She continues to be an advocate for school choice to advance opportunities for all children. Several sessions highlighted success stories from students and parents who had taken advantage of school choice in their communities. At the conclusion, Ms. DeVos stated \u201cThe rising generation represents 100 percent of our future; let\u2019s give them nothing less than 100 percent of our effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a general session, we heard about the importance of technology courses at all grade levels to prepare for future jobs that we can\u2019t currently define. Jeb Bush described it like a quarterback throwing to a receiver. \u201cYou don\u2019t throw directly at the receiver, but where he will be when the ball is caught.\u201d We must teach all students the basics of technology so that they can meet the changing needs of an unforeseen skillset of the future.<\/p>\n

One speaker said there were over 3.5 million truck drivers in the United States. What will happen when we embrace driverless cars and trucks? This was just one example of how jobs will experience change in the future. It\u2019s important to prepare students to adapt to changes so that the economy thrives and our citizens lead satisfying lives.<\/p>\n

Colorado currently uses blended learning and online courses to enable students to learn skills that would otherwise be unavailable at their school. An example is a student in middle school currently enrolled in an advanced Calculus course online. He is joined by three other students, in various grade levels, from other school districts across the state. Technology is opening up many opportunities that weren\u2019t available even two years ago. It is also moving so rapidly that we need to teach the basics of computer science beginning in Kindergarten. And yes, there are fun applications currently available, online, for Kindergarten students. Future careers will depend on this knowledge combined with the creativity and flexibility to adapt.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Department of Education, with community participation, is reviewing the Colorado State Standards and adding new standards for computer science. We need to prepare future teachers by including computer science in all teacher preparation programs.<\/p>\n

Moving from an \u201c8-track system\u201d will not be easy. However, with \u201c100 percent of our effort\u201d we can give our students a chance for a successful future.<\/p>\n

Joyce Rankin serves on the Colorado State Board of Education representing the 3rd Congressional District. Reach her at joycerankinsbe@yahoo.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rankin Speakers and panelists from across the nation discussed directions education is taking and how our schools can prepare students for an ever-changing future. Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, spoke about school choice and the role of parents in selecting the best school for their children. She continues to be an advocate for school […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":102214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5758,6334],"tags":[125],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-102213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columnists","category-columnists-guest-columns","tag-newsletter-opinion"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102213"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=102213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}