Common Core Use In My Classroom/ Informed Opinion

There are many pros and cons to the Common Core initiative but in this post I will focus on some of the positives that apply to my teaching area. As the International Club sponsor here at school I have the unique opportunity of inviting, meeting, and socializing with groups of exchange students from all over the world. In the springtime we have a question and answer panel sessions with the kids and the one thing that alarms me as an educator year after year is their view of the American school system. Time and time again the students comment on how easy their classes are in comparison to what they were doing at home. The more advanced students often express how they feel like they were going backwards and would have to catch up when they returned. One comment that especially struck me was a German student who said that she felt that she was never made to think and that back in Germany they spent far more time critically thinking instead of memorizing things. From my understanding common core right now I can definitely see how students will be asked more often to problem solve, reason, and use higher level thinking skills. In the article What-Are-Some-Pros-And-Cons-Of-The-Common-Core-Standards.htm it states that students will no longer be allowed to come up with the right answer because they will have to state how they arrived at their answer and be able to defend it.

Over the years I have slowly incorporated more technology based projects into my teaching as a way for students to use what they have learned.   It seems to me that with the countless resources that the internet brings that this is a natural way to incorporate the standards.  I teach the basic skills in class in a more traditional way and most often back up my lesson with something from the internet as well as a web 2.0 based culminating project.