Why Common Core?

This is a three-minute illustrated video explaining the need for Common Core Standards.

Dr. Odom and the transition to Common Core Standards

Sarah B. Odom, Ph.D

I had the privilege of hearing Dr. Odom Speak at the MEGA conference this past summer and her session was the best session I attended.  Her message on Transitioning to the Common Core was very timely and relevant, and a summary of her talk can be found on her blog, http://sbodommusings.blogspot.com/ . 

In her lecture, she used the book Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson and Kenneth Blanchard to illustrate the challenges of moving from traditional state standards to the Common Core Standards.  She also shared her experiences in helping other states make the transition and was candid about both the challenges and successes facing Alabama as we go through this process.

The paper.li blog she created is excellent in both design and information.  She has resources and videos that are posted and has done a great job of presenting a well-rounded case for the benefits of adopting the CC standards.  One of the things I found intriguing is that she has several links/videos of experts who are not happy with the Common Core.  I found this interesting because I believe that in order to have a balanced conversation about the Common Core standards, we need to look at the strengths and weaknesses of the standards and make improvements and changes along the way to best serve our students. 

Dr. Odom's website/blog is http://paper.li/sbodom1969/1314560678# and will be posted along with her blogspot site in the Common Core Resources section of this blog.

Developing a PLN (Personal Learning Network) for the Common Core

The idea for this blog came about as a result of a summer class I took that centered around the idea of creating a PLN (Personal Learning Network) and through collaboration with Janet Slaughter, who is the district Testing Coordinator and the webmaster behind the county's Common Core website.  We are two members of a larger district team that have been given the responsibility of facilitating and disseminating information on the transition to the Common Core standards from the Alabama Course of Study.

As Alabama has begun the transition into the Common Core Standards with the implementation of Math standards this year and the integration of English/Language Arts standards next year, many teachers and administrators are earnestly seeking guidance, resources, and support in making the transition smoothly.  While other sites and blogs exist such as the State Department’s ALEX College and Career Ready website, we wanted to create a place that would specifically help educators in our county and indirectly help others in Alabama.

There are at least 4 major issues confronting educators making this transition:

1.  Understanding the shifts in theory and practice of the Common Core

2.  Weeding through the vast amount of resources to find tools and ideas that are relevant to our teachers in Alabama and Madison County

3.  Creating a timeline for implementation that provides artifacts and evidence of measurable goals

4.  Having enough support and the ability to reach out to ask questions, to collaborate, or to offer advice.

It is my hope that this blog as part of the Madison County Common Core website will address each of these four issues by becoming a place where educators can dialogue, recommend, and inquire.  Creating this forum for discussion will create a place where "iron sharpens iron" and collaboration will smooth the integration of the Common Core standards into our curriculum.  By contributing to posts and comments, educators can develop virtual relationships and connections that will aid in transitioning to the Common Core and can use the ideas and resources found here to aid in creating their own lessons and planning. 

The way we will keep the blog relevant and fresh is by inviting the implementation team and teacher leaders to each take a CC mobile app, website, or conference and give a summary as to what they found useful or beneficial from that resource. 

In this way, we can start a conversation and prevent everyone from having to “reinvent the wheel”.  The collaboration this should inspire is part of the objective of this entire project and will go far in encouraging educators to develop their own Professional Learning Network. 

Thoughts on the Common Core for Teachers

What do the new standards of the Common Core mean for teachers? Again, we look at college and career as our starting point. In most careers, the professional must always be learning and growing in order to stay relevant and current in his or her field. This has been true for teachers, but now the need for professional growth and development is even more important. How do professionals and college students do their work? To make a broad generalization, the work often involves researching a problem and collaborating with others on a solution. Many of the projects and procedures in the business world require individuals to meet, email, or pick up a phone in order to secure resources and relevant data in order to be successful.

This will now trickle down to how students will learn. Of course students need an individual skill-set as a starting point, but the role of the teacher is shifting from an instructor of teacher-led instruction to a facilitator of student-led learning. Collaboration is more than just an educational buzz-word. It is the vehicle by which learning takes place.

This means that teachers must be growing and learning along with their students and must constantly hone and modify their craft. Teachers must filter everything they do, not through a formal set of standards, but through the filter of relevance and efficacy. They must change the way they present information and must be able give a rationale for what they impart to their students. This very well might strike terror into the heart of those dogmatic teachers that have a habit of dodging the question: "Why do I have to learn this?" because they are now expected to have an answer for that very inquiry!

Teaching this innovative way with these new standards shouldn't overwhelm or discourage us as educators, but rather energize and excite us as we now have the directive and the ability to encourage students to take ownership of their own learning. We are now in a position to create life-long learners who can think for themselves and yet are adept at working together to create synergy and find solutions.

Thoughts on the Common Core for Students

I am excited about the Common Core standards and what they brings to Alabama and most of the nation as a whole.  The idea behind the CC was to start with college and career standards and work backwards rather than the traditional way of building up from kindergarten/first grade.  The problem with the traditional way of progression was that many students were completing high school but finding themselves unprepared for college rigor and workplace expectations. 

By working backwards, gaps and holes that had been overlooked in traditional education are now being filled.  This has created standards that are much more rigorous and relevant to what our students will need when they leave the sanctuary of our halls for the challenge of the real world. 

"Shift" is a word that you will see over and over again in the transition into CC standards.  In math, the overall shift is one from basic math practice and repetition to real-world application and number theory.  Mathematics will focus more on depth and less on breadth with attention give to deep understanding and mastery of anchor concepts instead of the shotgun exposure approach that has been taught in the past. 

In reading, the shift to requiring textual support to justify answers and the return to working with complex text and vocabulary will challenge our students to become higher-level thinkers.  This will equip them with the skills to reason and communicate effectively.  No longer will a story or an informational text be given merit based simply on how a student "feels" about it but will be put through the student's academic critique of analysis and evaluation to determine the validity and relevance of the passage. 

These are just an overview of some of the shifts the CC bring, but they illustrate the difference in the CC standards versus our traditional Alabama course of study. 

Welcome to the Common Core Alabama blog

Our hope is that this blog will be a vehicle for sharing resources and ideas for implementing the Common Core standards in Alabama.  If you are reading this blog, you probably have at least a rudimentary knowledge of the Common Core standards and are most likely aware that Alabama is integrating the Common Core math standards into Alabama's course of study this year.  Next year will begin the integration of the language arts standards into our course of study.

In Madison County, we have been given the task of creating a plan to integrate both math and language arts Common Core standards into our current course of study.  We are researching how other states have gone through this process and we hope to be able to benefit from their pioneering of this implementation.

We see the process as requiring three steps:

1. To explain to our personnel the philosophy and shifts behind the Common Core standards through sharing information related to the standards.
2. To develop a roadmap and timeline for the district and our individual schools that will give step by step instruction for implementing the standards.
3. To equip our personnel with Common Core tools, strategies, and resources that will ensure the successful adoption of these new standards.

As this is new territory for all of us, we welcome professional questions, comments, suggestions, and feedback as we learn from each other.