Sunday, August 21, 2011

Common Core - and books

Are any of you going to common core standards? We start rolling them out next year. At this point I know very little beyond that.

They say it will have little impact on the way we teach. Right.

We have been recreating the wheel in high school for 4 years now with the GPS math - so now we start over with CC.

So, let's talk books.

When I was first teaching a veteran teacher lectured me - a lot - about how you don't need a book. I haven't had one for the kids for 4 years. He was right - I don't need a book.

I can still teach, still provide links, still give problems.

The lack of a book hobbles me a little, but not horribly so.

It is crippling the kids.

They need a book to take home. Something with answers in it to check. Something with explanations. They aren't going to write the notes - they need the notes.

I see more of the same in the future.

We have survived (with lowered scores, people, but we survived) without spending millions on books. I am betting we won't see books again anytime soon.

2 comments:

Pissedoffteacher said...

At Packemin, the veteran teachers still use books. The newbies all use worksheets and can't teach without them. It is so sad.

Education has become a farce. Just pass themt through. No one cares whether they learn anything at all.

LSquared32 said...

This one's just Algebra 1 I think, but it appears to be free and legal for anyone to use
http://teacherweb.com/NY/Arlington/AlgebraProject/hf0.aspx