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"'We must reimagine middle school science and math not as a way to prepare students for high school, but as a place where students are inventors, scientists, and mathematicians today.' So say Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager in this exciting guest article about the Maker Movement and its implications for kids, schools and STEM studies. Martinez and Stager are the authors of a must-read book, Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom. In this informative post, they encourage STEM educators, school leaders and teachers across the curriculum to transform our classrooms into centers of innovative thinking and experimenting. ~ Anne Jolly"

"Interview with Janet Hale concerning the Common Core State Standards"

"I was just given a copy of the GaDOE's Curriculum Maps for ELA 9-12th grades. I need some help from you before I quit my job and lead the charge for every other high school English teacher to do the same. I have taught for many years, am am good at my job, am an asset to the school at which I teach, and love teaching."

HHJ MTTC PP Handout 2012

"A new report offers a "bleak picture" of the state of state science standards across the nation, with just over half earning a grade of D or F. Among the 10 states to receive a failing grade were Idaho, Oregon, and Wisconsin. (See the full list below.)"

"Calculators. Protractors. Spreadsheets. Computer algebra systems. Dynamic geometry software. You might not realize it, but the Common Core State Standards for mathematics make explicit reference to the use of all these tools, and others, in learning math. I discovered this as I was gathering information for a recent Education Week story about calculator policies for the forthcoming common-core exams. It turns out that the standards have a lot to say about using technology."

"Until the release of the Common Core State Standards, many educators didn't realize that writing skills need to develop incrementally, with the work that students do at one grade level standing on the shoulders of prior learning. It would be hard to achieve this high level of craft and knowledge if students weren't moving steadily along a spiralling curriculum, practicing and extending skills in each type of writing each year. After all, in math, teachers agree on content and ensure that students move up the grade levels with the essential skills that teachers agreed upon. That same focus on writing as content, as a set of skills, will move grade levels of students forward, rather than individuals who happened to get this teacher or that. Writing will needto be given its due, starting in kindergarten and continuing throughout the grades."-LUCY CALKINS

" I say "rough sketch" because, let's be honest, Arizona doesn't look like that. But it's also a rough sketch because you need far more than three colors of white board marker to tell the full story of the states' collaborations to build both the PARCC and Smarter Balanced tests. Related Posts Why Indiana Is Scaling Back Participation In Common Core Testing Consortia PARCC Before Today's Governing Board Meeting: Five Things To Know About PARCC Ritz: Pausing Common Core Rollout Keeps Standards, Assessments Aligned Education Next: Common Core Is A Set Of Standards, Not Curriculum Minnesota Warns Parents To Prepare For Lower Scores On New Common Core Tests How Michigan Might Provide A Template For States Hoping To Leave Common Core How Science & Social Studies Teachers Are Transitioning To The Common Core Topics The story isn't only complex because of Indiana's recent "pausing" of both the Common Core's implementation and the state's participation in the PARCC consortium. (Though state officials have stopped attending governing board meetings, Indiana hasn't officially left the group, so Elle still colored them blue.) Explaining to me why she mixed her work with my work of art, Elle broke it down like this: 20 states and the District of Columbia participate in PARCC: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Dakota*, Oklahoma** 24 states participate in Smarter Balanced: Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Delaware, Hawai'i, North Dakota*, Alaska*** * North Dakota participates in both PARCC and Smarter Balanced. ** Oklahoma announced this week it will develop its

Upcoming Webinars and Archived Webinars including Common Core State Standards and a variety of other topics.

"The Common Core has embedded within it some Big Ideas that shift the role of teachers to curriculum designers and managers of an inquiry process. How can project-based learning (PBL) help with this shift? "

"The common academic-content standards that dozens of states are now adopting are better overall than 33 individual states' standards, according to an analysis released today by a Washington research-and-advocacy group." Provides a REPORT CARD for each state's standards in comparison to the ELA and Math CCSS.

"WHAT MAKES THE BAD TIMES UNIQUE ? THE BAD TIMES is the first graphic novel to be produced on the topic of the Great Hunger. Although it is aimed at young readers, like all graphic novels, it can be read and appreciated by people aged from 8 to 80. More than simply telling a good story based on a tragic event in Irish history, THE BAD TIMES contains many teachable and relatable moments that can introduce young people to issues that are relevant today - concerning social justice, human rights, emigration and dislocation, and love and humanity in the midst of catastrophe. To assist educators, a number of key curriculum questions have been created by Dr. Anne Dichele of Quinnipiac University and can be found HERE. Additionally, historical background and primary sources have been provided by Professor Christine Kinealy."

"Achievethecore.org has ready-to-use modules include PowerPoints, videos, facilitator's instructions, and hands-on activities. Ideal for PD workshops, professional learning communities, and self-study."

"The information presented in these materials will assist Canadian educators using NCTM products and materials to better connect the Canadian mathematics curricula to the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) "

White Paper

"When teachers understand what makes texts complex, they can better support their students in reading them. How is reading complex text like lifting weights? Just as it's impossible to build muscle without weight or resistance, it's impossible to build robust reading skills without reading challenging text. The common core state standards in language arts treat text difficulty as akin to weight or resistance in an exercise program. This is in contrast to most past discussion of this topic, which emphasized how overly complex text may impede learning. Such discussion therefore focused on developing various readability schemes and text gradients to help teachers determine which books might be too hard for their students. The new standards instead propose that teachers move students purposefully through increasingly complex text to build skill and stamina."

A focus on NGSS

"A year-long effort to define a common set of academic standards for English and math culminated on June 2 with the release of the final version of the Common Core State Standards, which aim to establish consistent learning goals across states. The K-12 English, language arts, and math standards are intended to ensure that students in Kentucky have the same learning opportunities as students in Wisconsin, for instance, and were developed in collaboration with content experts, state officials, teachers, school administrators, and parents."

Most Americans aren't fluent in the language of money. Yet we're expected to make big financial decisions as early as our teens - Should I take on thousands of dollars of student debt? Should I buy a car? - even though most of us received no formal instruction on financial matters until it was too late.

"This section defines and explains the ten thematic strands that form the basis of the social studies standards. The explanations give examples of questions that are asked within each thematic strand, as well as brief overviews of the application of each strand in the early grades, middle grades, and high school."