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"A large color photograph of an iceberg on display in teacher Angel Chavarin's fourth-grade classroom at Laurel Street Elementary may not be the typical prop for a language arts lesson. But Chavarin is hoping visuals like this largely submerged icy mass will help his students better understand the concept of inferences, which are, in effect, "the tip of the iceberg.""

"Reading a picture book aloud from her armchair, 20 children gathered on the rug at her feet, kindergarten teacher Jamie Landahl is carrying on a practice that's been a cornerstone of early-literacy instruction for decades. But if you listen closely, you'll see that this is not the read-aloud of your childhood. Something new and very different is going on here."

Visual that encapsulates important points about the CCSS

"There may be no crying in baseball, but there's certainly math and science. On a recent Friday morning, students at the Center for Academic Success, a charter school for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade in Sierra Vista, learned that Pythagoras might have played as big a role in baseball as Babe Ruth. They began by learning the distances between the bases on a Major League Baseball field and mapping its geometry. They found isosceles and right triangles, talked about the Pythagorean theorem and how it's applied to the triangle formed by home plate, first base and second."

"Last spring, Susan Sluyter quit teaching kindergarten in the Cambridge Public Schools. She'd spent nearly two decades in the classroom, and her departure wasn't a happy one. In a resignation letter, Sluyter railed against a "disturbing era of testing and data" that had trickled down from the upper grades and was now assaulting kindergartners with a barrage of new academic demands that "smack of 1st or 2nd grade." The school district did not respond to a request for comment."

"This collection of blog posts highlights lesson plans, ideas, and other useful resources to help you bring Common Core-aligned lessons into your classroom. We're actively building this repository of ideas every week, so make sure to bookmark this page. You can also follow #CCSS or #CCSSChat on Twitter for the latest updates."

"When I first started teaching writing in history class a number of years ago, I was totally focused on the students just getting their ideas out and being able to write on historical themes."

Visual By Mike Fisher of Bena Kallick's posting on Common Core Standards: Uncommon Shifts in Practice

"Calls for shared curriculum for the common standards have triggered renewed debates about who decides what students learn, and even about varied meanings of the word "curriculum," adding layers of complexity to the job of translating the broad learning goals into classroom teaching."

"What is the framework? A Framework for K-12 Science Education identifies the key scientific practices, concepts and ideas that all students should learn by the time they complete high school. It is intended as a guide for those who develop science education standards, those who design curricula and assessments, and others who work in K-12 science education."

"About the Mini-series This video mini-series has been designed to provide an efficient pathway for understanding and implementing the most significant shifts in English language arts and literacy instruction. Ranging from seven to ten minutes in length, each video tackles one important topic and then provides tools that educators can begin using in their classrooms immediately. The order in which the videos are watched is not critical, so please feel free to start with the one that seems the most intriguing."

"A video documentary on learning mathematics for K-8 teachers and administrators; 1 one-hour video program Many people - in and out of school - find mathematics frustrating, difficult, even impossible. This documentary uncovers a surprise: Mathematical creativity - expressed in art, architecture, and music and valued by industry - is built into the brain and can flourish under the right conditions. A remarkable 12-year study following students from first grade through high school demonstrates the brain's surprising natural abilities for learning math. The study, led by Professor Carolyn Maher of Rutgers University, brought results that are corroborated by new research from leading cognitive psychologists. Discover ways to unlock this natural human gift for mathematics in classrooms, workplaces, and homes. "

"Until this year, Ena Baxter, an English teacher at Hillcrest High School in Queens, would often have her 10th graders compose papers by summarizing a single piece of reading material... "

"In the last year, there's been quite a bit of chatter about whether textbooks that claim to be aligned to the common-core standards really do meet that mark. A Consumer Reports-style review of K-8 math materials found that nearly all of the textbook series analyzed were out of sync with the common-core standards (though that review has since come under fire and been revamped). Other researchers have called claims of common-core alignment a 'sham.'"

"In response, we asked her if she was willing to send us her argument-writing unit so we could share it with other teachers. We're pleased to publish it below, including all of her handouts and recommended videos embedded. And, of course, all students age 13 to 19 can find this year's contest here."