While I don't agree with all the points Anthony Cody makes in this article, I do think that it is important to learn about criticisms that some people have. With an issue as huge as the CCSS, we should all draw our own informed conclusions by learning about both sides of the story.

Great interview with professor Myra Zarnowski of Queens College about nonfiction and the Common Core state standards. I.N.K. (Interesting Non-Fiction for Kids) is a great blog by non-fiction authors...a good one to follow!

Alfie Kohn is a thought leader that I really respect. His opinions always seem to resonate with me. I'm curious to dig into this interview to find out what he thinks about the CCSS. He certainly has some criticisms of national standards that are worthy of consideration.

So wary of publishers that claim to be "aligned" to the CCSS. How is that possible when we don't know what the assessments look like?

The group of states with high-quality CCSS resource collections continues to grow. Came across this site from Hawaii this week and it looks good. I still wish that there was a common resource site for all states (it only make sense with the "common" core, right?) but right now, there isn't. I also wish every state was offering as much as states like Hawaii, Kansas, North Carolina, and others.

I found this helpful for thinking about dealing with the CCSS demands regarding text complexity.

What do ninjas and the Common Core have in common? You'd be surprised.