Thinking about Common Core, I am ready. I think.

This week has been hectic. I really wanted to get my classroom set up so that when Pre-Planning actually starts I can...well plan. Not decorate. I was asked to go to a Leadership Seminar with my administration and a couple of amazing teachers. I was looking forward to it and really enjoyed dialoging with them about Common Core and getting teachers to change their mindset from being extremely standard focused to teaching our students how to THINK and solve problems. So the excuse that we don't have time for Oral Language or real world math and science would not be acceptable anymore. Our speaker Keven Baird was exceptional. He said in a nutshell - "Don't worry so much about the standards but the critical thinking skills needed to figure it out! Failure is OK."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_E._Baird

This really blew my mind because I know my standards front and back and I am one of those teachers who is determined to teach everything they need to know before FCAT. Now, I don't think this is bad, but I do think I need to spend more time letting my students explore, discover, fail, and talk through their learning instead of always giving them the answer when I see them about to make a mistakes. Most of us would refer to this as teacher prompting or guiding but I think we are afraid to let them fail because WE don't want to look bad. At least that is how I feel. Plus my students do great on the FCAT. But I am missing the point. It isn't all about the FCAT.

He also said that out of 30% of our high school students who do really well in Math and Science only half of them even want those kinds of jobs! Like doctors, scientist, inventors and goverment jobs. Um. Who is going to even do those things if our high schoolers would rather work in retail or construction? Now we need people for all those jobs too and it's important. But the students who do well in those areas, aren't interested in them as a career. Why? Because they are bored. They aren't engaged. Because their teachers are too focus on a test.

Some really great ideas and links to getting our students ready for Common Core were:

1. Read more informational text. Example - pair up a literary selection with a informational text. We always read The Tale of Despereaux at the beginning of the year so a pair up could be with castles, monarchy, mice, rats, dungeons and even an author study! Yes. Mind blown! Why didn't I think of that?

2. Talk a grade level up from what your teaching. So I should be using 4th grade key words and vocabulary as I talk. This was a Aha! for me!

3. Talk about being College and Career Ready even in Kindergarten. Engaged them in math and science through reading.

4. Fourth and Fifth Lexile (lexile.com is a great resource to find out levels)  ranges have the biggest change. And our textbooks have gotten easier. You have to supplement with other texts.

5. Use current events in your classroom with magazines such as National Geo for Kids, Time for Kids, Ranger Rick, Weekly Reader and even USA today. These are informational text on a higher Lexile level.

6. When you are teaching math and science there is no 1 right answer without proof. We need to teach students how to find the truth through backing up what they think is right.

7. Have guest speakers from the fields of math and science come and share with the class.

8. Be a student led classroom. I am going to let my students have input on what they learn while still teaching the thinking skills they need to solve the problems they will face.

Now just some other great ideas as we were talking...

1. I am thinking of doing Shark Week but with books and videos. Having the kids choose a topic and really diving into that as we teach LA. I would love this to be a school wide thing too!

2. Starting up lots of Professional Learning Communities based on different things like Differentiated Instruction, Kagan Strategies, Whole Brain, and others.

3. More real world and problem based learning activities that stem from Higher Order Thinking.

4.Do more Writing in the Content Areas

5. Having the students plan out a virtual field trip. For example having them figure out how much it would cost to fly the class to Italy. They would plan the trip! What a way to cover a myriad of skills.

6. Ever heard of Lego Intentional Play? Each child has a set of Legos where they then creatively construct a picture summary of what they have learned. Example: After learning about the civil war create something with your Legos that gives a snapshot of the civil war that also shows me compassion. Or create something that shows animal life cycles and interdependence. Yes. I want some Legos!

http://www.tammyredmon.com/why-your-5yearold-more-of-team-player-than\

7. Use more pictures in assessing.

I know that was a lot but I need to assimilate. If you managed to get through all the list...leave me your thoughts about the Common Core Shift...how are you gonna get ready?

Tiffany