16 May Common Core: Teachers Are Not Prepared
Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” is a classic. When I think about today’s bridge over troubled water, I think about how prepared I am to implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). I think about how to bridge Common Core State Standards and Career Technical Education (CTE) together.
I work in a vocational high school as a CTE commercial art teacher. Most of my CTE colleagues and I have heard of the CCSS, but we aren’t prepared to use the standards in the classroom. In doing my own research, I learned that the mission statement for the CCSS Initiative is to “provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them.”
As a CTE instructor, I feel left out of the loop compared to the academic subjects. There has not been a clear understanding of the CCSS. Some CTE instructors feel the CCSS is for language arts and math teachers, and others feel they are just being forced to add another acronym to their vocabulary.
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