The Common Core Question

Common Core is under attack. As we all know, Common Core is a new set of standards that is meant to raise the rigor for our students, teach them to think deeper, analyze more and learn to figure things out there own way. The Common Core standards make some people very nervous. I think the public as a whole is uninformed about what Common Core is and what it is designed to do. When you have an uninformed public, plus a radio guy who likes to stir the pot, you have problems. In the above video, Glenn Beck, with all his knowledge and wisdom about education and being a teacher, talks about the Common Core and how unbelievably awful and dangerous it is. He claims that Common Core will make our students into slaves, strip states of their rights, strip parents of their rights, teach that communism is good, and read nothing but manuals in reading class. He argues that the Common Core will data-mine our students and keep track of 400 things about each student. His claims are wild and outlandish, but uninformed people watch this and get really worked up. I think we should be cautious and smart about things. How do you feel about the Common Core? Don't watch one opinionated radical guy talk about Common Core and believe it to be gospel. Research and form an intelligent view on common core. We should never do something or not do something "just because." It is good to ask questions, look at both sides, and use our brains. It is not hard to find articles about common core arguing for it and against it. I encourage you to do some reading and talk amongst yourselves about this topic. After all, we are the ones that will be using it. 

Opus Math makes it easy to incorporate Math!

We are all Math Teachers, right? Well, if that's true, we better have some tools to help us non-math teachers. Opus Math gives you a quick, easy way to generate Common Core State Standard math problems. Simply search the Opus data base by standard, topic, type of math, etc. and then choose from a long list of questions. Once you have selected a bunch of questions, you can then generate a print-out for the students. You can also generate an answer key so you don't have to actually do the math problems yourself. You can also generate a google doc, which makes sharing online easy. Opus makes it easy for everyone to help with Math and the Common Core.  Simply sign up for a free account and start hammering those math problems! 
Application for Education: For me, I am going to do two things with Opus: First, I am going to use it for my Homeroom once or twice a week. Second: I am going to print off a bunch of them and have them ready for my study hall kids who get done with their work. With my stack of Opus sheets ready to go, math practice is always available. I am also going to provide links on my website to common core math practice since you can build them in google docs as well.

Click to see example

Common Core and Social Studies

View Interactive Common Core-Social Studies Tech Tools

Common Core ELA standards: All in One Place

Common Core is a big thing in education. Even though I teach social studies, I need to be hitting the ELA common core standards. So to make sure I am doing this, I thought it would be a good idea to have all the ELA standards in one place, a "quick reference sheet" for me to look at. I feel that having all the standards in one list, in one place will help me incorporate those standards easier/more often. So I thought I would just share the list in case this is something you would find beneficial as well. Instead of having to flip through links on a website or scroll through the Common Core app, use this list to see all of them at once and pick out which ones to use.

 Common Core ELA standards List