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The ICC is definitely working hard to get us where we need to go. We need to get our staff, school board, and community to understand that doing nothing is not an option.

We also need to be very supportive of each other during this process. It will definitely be a change for many (most?) teachers. We need to celebrate our successes and build upon them. We also need to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it when things do not turn out how we hoped/planned.

The change can be the toughest part, sometimes it is just a different way of doing things can make the biggest impact.

I know I should be more positive, but I am still not sold on it. I don't have the answer,and agree we need to do something, but I don't know if this is it. Time will tell.

Are these standards just "good to know" or will schools be asked to merge their current standards with those of the ICC?

From what I've learned...schools will be asked to document how they are meeting each standard. Sort of like quasi-state standards, if you will. Not sure if it is to *replace* local standards though. This is where I'm unsure.

Districts will need to do an alignment of their curriculum with the core. They must cover everything in the core. My understanding is the core is supposed to be a core, and you should have time to add more than the core for the "local control" component. How they will be assessed is anyone's guess at this time.

The Iowa Core Content Standards are Iowa's state standards. This was put into code in Senate File 588 from the 2007 legislative session. So, every district is responsible for implementing all of the Iowa Core Content Standards. As for how this relates to the Iowa Core Curriculum, the statements I've heard coming out of the DOE are that by implementing the Iowa Core Curriculum, districts will be implementing the Iowa Core Content Standards, and going beyond them. Districts are not expected to do any merging or additional alignment work between these two documents. The idea is that if you implement the ICC, you won't have to engage in separate or additional work to implement the Iowa Core Content Standards.

I like that "grade spans" pushes teachers in the span toward collaboration. I see that collaboration in the reinforecement and building aspects.

How would you define success in post-secondary education? Thinking back to the near-decade I spent in college, I would say it's a mix of interpersonal skills, finding and pursuing goals and passions, and realizing the importance multiple literacies.

good description, Russ. The more I teach high school students, the more I think about what it means to "prepare them for postsecondary success." Does it mean lecturing for 60 minutes so that they're used to it when they take Bio 101? Does it mean assigning them 15 page essays in preparation for College Composition? Or does it mean preparing them with the essential content so that they have the appropriate pre-requisite knowledge their freshmen year of college? Or is it a combination of all of the above? I think if we can help them see the "life long learning" thing...AND somehow develop a relentless pursuit for excellence. I think it'd be cool if a student was so fixated on learning that he/she studied every single problem/concept/idea (wouldn't leave me or the computer or whatever other resource alone) until he/she was confident that it was understood. TOTALLY idealistic, but cultivating this type of passion towards learning seems to be a sure-fire ingredient for success at the post-secondary level.

Have you read Friedman? I have a little...there's also plenty of push-back on this guy's ideas.

I think these are all great...but think back to the '5 essential characteristics' and formative assessment, etc. How will we be able to "assess" these skills? It's tough to assess these soft skills, in my opinion.

Yes, these are definitely broad topics. What underlying, assessable skills make up these survival skills?

I like to say, "let's talk about it later..." It gives students a chance to cool down and me a chance to think about it...as well as keeps the class moving forward.

This is a great idea! How much of my class time is spent with students telling me "I forgot my book" or "I had pizza last night" or other things that may be interesting, but not relevant to what we need to do!

I agree. A lot of time during class is spent on nonrelevant discussion. We need to refocus to keep the class flowing.

If you haven't thought about a bell-ringer, you should. It gets the students working right away and gives you time to take attendance and do other things for the first few minutes. It may seem like "busy work," but you'll eventually figure out how to use the bell ringer to maximize your instruction, too.

I can go either way on this one. I used to post objectives, but students didn't really get into it. Instead, I post a bulleted list of the day's activities on the board, i.e. 1) Discuss HW 2) Go over quizzes 3) Circumference of Circles 4) Area of Circles This takes away the "what are we doing today?" questions and gives students an idea of what to expect for the day. It also establishes a nice routine, helps you metacognitize before the day, and provides a 'back-up' in case you freeze. It's not uncommon for students to say, "hey..weren't we supposed to go over our quizzes?!" when I've mistakenly moved on.