Common Core?

[Jay]

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/common-core-parent-facebook-post-indiana-school-181841158.html

[Jim]

Back to the subject, doesn't this eliminate the parents from the kids' schoolwork?

Not necessarily. The parents will be able to interact with kids and their teachers

 

If you don't know how the math is supposed to be done, how do you review it?  I have friends who have a daughter in 7th grade, he was a straight A student in math, went all the way through calculus.  He doesn't get a lick of what she is doing, when she is struggling, he can't help her at all.

MT, give your friends this link. If they truly do care and want to be apart of their child's education they will love you for this. It is called the Khan Academy. I am relatively new to it, but I can tell you so far it is nothing short of wonderful. Check it out. 

 

https://www.khanacademy.org/

 

I have an eighth grade student myself, and so far so great. Let me know what you think. 

[Catwhoshatinthehat]

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/common-core-parent-facebook-post-indiana-school-181841158.html

 

Saw this article yesterday and read some of the comments.  I'm not in school anymore nor do I have kids in school but I had a teacher back in 96/97 who would show us the easy way to do some things in our pre-algebra class but then show us the longer way he expected us to do it on a test.  Made absolutely no sense to me and over half of that class ended up failing because even if you got the right answer doing something the easier way you got no credit.  

[Jim]

Most of her kids do well for their own level, but they're still beholden to the standards test and have to do homework in prep for the test. Above is the result. It sucks for the kids. I don't see how they can force these kids with moderate to severe learning disabilities to take the standards exams. I feel so awful for them. My wife tells me how badly it impacts the self-worth when they're testing. It's like trying to read aramaic for them

Sad

[Blarg]

[mp170.6]

The problem with the curriculum development is the authors are educators with no real world, private sector experience.  They have no clue what skills are required once students enter the outside work force because they've never experienced it themselves. 

 

Math has been a joke for decades in grades 7-12.  Look no further than your nearest community college to see how many remedial math classes they teach.  It's so bad even the California State University system teaches remedial math. 

 

English is another embarrassment.  Precious high school time is wasted with Romeo and Juliet, Lord of the Flies, Animal Farm, other fiction, writing poetry, etc, etc.  And then kids graduate from high school without the requisite vocabulary to fill out job applications or comprehend what is said on the news or written in newspapers.  The number of remedial English classes taught at community colleges is also staggering. 

[happybat4]

These same experts have our kids toward the bottom of the pack in education for developed countries.  Sorry if I'm a little wary of their expertise. 

don't believe the tests that say we are at the bottom. We actually test all of the kids, while other countries simply kick out the low scoring kids.

[maximus p]

don't believe the tests that say we are at the bottom. We actually test all of the kids, while other countries simply kick out the low scoring kids.

Yeah this.  Plus we test a lot of immigrant children that come from countries where the schooling is not so much.  Our top students rank well with the top students in most other countries.

[arch stanton]

Seems like the only way to get to the bottom of common core is to follow the money.

[mp170.6]

It may have been wasted on you, and you may have had teachers that couldn't wield literature as an effective learning tool, but it's beyond ignorant to claim that reading and responding to literature is a waste of time for building useful skills for the workplace.

 

Instead of so much literature, how about reading and responding to current events so kids are able to interpret things like a newspaper?

[Tank]

Not necessarily. The parents will be able to interact with kids and their teachers

 

MT, give your friends this link. If they truly do care and want to be apart of their child's education they will love you for this. It is called the Khan Academy. I am relatively new to it, but I can tell you so far it is nothing short of wonderful. Check it out. 

 

https://www.khanacademy.org/

 

I have an eighth grade student myself, and so far so great. Let me know what you think.

The math teacher in my school uses Khan academy exclusively with the kids. They hardly ever crack open a book. Not sure how much I like this approach.

[Don]

Instead of so much literature, how about reading and responding to current events so kids are able to interpret things like a newspaper?

What's a newspaper again?

[deepdrive]

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/common-core-parent-facebook-post-indiana-school-181841158.html

Wow. The guys an engineer who can do differential equations, but he can't use a number line to recognize a simple place value mistake?

 

I hope I don't get stuck with a phone he designed.

Edited March 27, 2014 by deepdrive

[halomatt]

Lots of good discussion here.  I've been teaching for 16 years now and I've seen a lot of bull shit in our educational system.  I have no answers, either.  It's a damn shame that we do this to our children and that we can't seem to put childrens' education as THE PRIORITY in our state.  I hate that it's so damn political and ulitmately the children suffer and the teachers get shit on because they care but can't seem to get the people that make the decisions listen. 

 

Of course I'm overgeneralizing, but I see the hypocrisy daily.  It's hard to be part of this sinking ship.