Over the last few years, common core has been implemented into our public school system. There are so many different opinions on the common core curriculum and here is what I think.
I am an education student in college who is learning how to teach the common core, and who is receiving professional development to help me receive practice in teaching and working with the common core. I could not be more thankful to be learning these techniques. When I entered college I knew I would have to learn to "teach to the core" and I thought I would hate it. Instead, I am falling in love with this curriculum.
Throughout my education so far I can see why so many people are against the common core and that is mainly due to the intense use of vocabulary and technique that has been updated to fit our society's rapidly increase in knowledge. For myself and other education students, we are being taught this increased vocabulary and receiving hands-on experience with the common core. We are receiving proper development making it so much easier to understand the content featured in the common core. With the teachers I have spoken to this is a common issue they have expressed.
Experienced teachers struggle with the common core because of the advancement in is technique. They were not given proper developmental training on how to execute the core into their lessons. Perhaps if teachers had been provided training on using manipulative's in the classroom and given adequate resources to learn the change in vocabulary then the common core would have had a more positive outcome in the word of education.
The core itself is a beautifully written curriculum that uses explanations and a "prove it" method as a basis of learning. The point that I have been taught is to always ask the student "why". By asking them why we are getting an insight of their learning by seeing how they are coming up with their answers. When we ask why it is also a great way for the teacher to reflect and see how the child took in the lesson that they taught and how effective their approach on the topic was. As for math in particular, the core has implemented the use of many manipulatives.
The use of "digi-blocks", a "wreck and wreck", building blocks and many other tools to provide hands-on mathematics. Through my training at Buffalo State College we are getting first-hand experience in the classroom working with all these tools to teach math to elementary school children. Asking children to prove why they chose the answer they did reassures them that their answer is correct and shows you (the teacher) that they understand the reason for why we asked them to perform the question. Giving children useless problems does not want to make them learn, but by giving them explanations for why we are asking them to learn the material they are more inspired and more willing to learn it.
To conclude I think that the common core is a fantastic curriculum that I am proud to teach; and with proper development and teacher assistance our current teachers will come to love it too. Had the curriculum been introduced with more resources for the teachers to use in learning how to teach with the core instead of teaching to the test I feel that the common core could have been more appreciated.
