NJ Education Report

Before Common Core I was a typical math teacher.  I had my curriculum maps and and state standards which read like a skill and drill check list that I marked off one by one whether the kids understood them or not.  I used really “great” methods and math terminology like “butterfly method”, “keep switch flip”, “leave opposite opposite”, and so many more that I would love to forget.  I moved to Kentucky the year that KCAS (Kentucky’s Common Core) was adopted and thought “how different could it be?”  The answer to that question can be answered easily with a quick peak inside my classroom today. 

Today, my classroom is cognitively busy and alive with excitement about numbers.  We no longer focus on skills, timed tests, facts, or catchy phrases to make students remember things that have no meaning to them.  Today, we do math talks, counting circles, estimating, and reasoning instead of direct instruction.  We take the time to understand numbers and their meanings rather than memorizing facts.  I don’t drill random formulas and information into students heads so that they can remember it long enough to pass a test rather than understanding it to a depth that can be applied to real life.