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CommentsDisplaying freedom_gurl35's 10 most recent comments.

• Glenn Beck Eviscerates MSNBC Promo Claiming Your Kids Belong to the ‘Whole Community’ — and Makes Some Scary Connections

  April 8, 2013 at 8:45pm

  And this is exactly why I am getting out of education. I have zero desire to raise other people’s children. If that’s what being a teacher means now (and yes, I believe we’re at that point), then I’m finding my way back into the private sector.

• If It Weren’t So ‘Sad’ It Would Be ‘Hilarious’: Educators Continue to Reveal and Blast ‘Common Core Standards’

  March 18, 2013 at 8:37pm

  I agree that teachers feel like data drones. I do. The big push this school year is “data”: data to determine how students have mastered a skill, data to determine how quickly students catch on to something, data to determine how effectively I have facilitated yes, facilitated – not taught) a skill, etc. Not to mention, the End of Course and “Common Exam” tests required as part of the Race to the Top money my state was granted by the federal government. I don’t have time for anything else, because I have to collect, analyze the data, and then determine what I must do to amend activities to ensure students “get it”.

  I didn’t sign on to this when I started teaching.

• If It Weren’t So ‘Sad’ It Would Be ‘Hilarious’: Educators Continue to Reveal and Blast ‘Common Core Standards’

  March 18, 2013 at 8:28pm

  In reply to marybethelizabeth.

  Plus, there’s a big difference between real world education, and dumbed down education. Common Core doesn’t provide a solid learning foundation in reading and mathematics, so learning “real world” stuff in high school doesn’t matter because the students don’t have the fundamentals.

• If It Weren’t So ‘Sad’ It Would Be ‘Hilarious’: Educators Continue to Reveal and Blast ‘Common Core Standards’

  March 18, 2013 at 8:18pm

  In reply to marybethelizabeth.

  No, the data collection is designed to track students from kindergarten through high school graduation. I should know: I teach Common Core ELA.

• Newt Gingrich Says ‘Dominant Wing’ of GOP Is ‘Mired In Stupidity’

  March 16, 2013 at 11:40pm

  The fact that Newt believes Jeb Bush is part of the future of the GOP fills me with strong dislike for him. Never been a Newt fan, and his comments at CPAC don’t fill me with any warm fuzzies.

  He’s part of the GOP Establishment. Stop listening to him!

• Is the ‘Common Core’ Initiative Dumbing Down America’s Students?

  March 15, 2013 at 7:29pm

  In reply to BamaTeacher.

  @TheFederalist – North Carolina. We just got rid of “Ma” Bev Perdue.

• Is the ‘Common Core’ Initiative Dumbing Down America’s Students?

  March 15, 2013 at 7:18pm

  In reply to TheOldMan.

  You can’t leave it out, though, not when the state and local school systems have in place standards of evaluation that requires teachers to produce proof that they’re teaching according to the standards.

• Is the ‘Common Core’ Initiative Dumbing Down America’s Students?

  March 15, 2013 at 7:17pm

  Is the ‘Common Core’ Initiative Dumbing Down America’s Students?

  YES. I’ve seen what “discovery learning” has done to students in math. Kids I teach today at the high school level have a hard time thinking out higher order mathematical problems. If the discovery is inherently wrong, how can a teacher correct what the student has wrongly discovered? It takes twice as long to undo what has been incorrectly learned. If the focus is on “mastery”, how can a student master anything without a teacher first showing them steps to help them towards mastery?

  I have the same issues with the English Language Arts curriculum. Giving up good quality literature for 50% of my class, to teach “informational text”. No, it’s not the phonebook, but when my wealth of info comes from the AP, I know I’m being forced to teach principles I believe are wrong. With little to no emphasis on longer reading & writing pieces, and hardly any grammar at the high school level, I fear I’m teaching kids to keep their attention spans as short as possible. How can you write a multi-page essay if you don’t have the stamina for it? How can I teach them to vary sentence structure when they don’t know what good sentence structure looks like? Informational text doesn’t have that; literature does!

  I’m so frustrated. I wish I could get out of education, but right now I’m stuck.

• Is the ‘Common Core’ Initiative Dumbing Down America’s Students?

  March 15, 2013 at 7:10pm

  In reply to BamaTeacher.

  As someone who lives in a Race to the Top state – and who is teaching for the first time with the CC – I can tell you that we do not have this kind of experience with Common Core. I teach English and am required to teach “informational text” for 50% of my courses. I’ve had to take out a lot of really good quality literature (including some things the students LOVE) in favor of teaching boring articles that have little bearing on student lives.

  Not only that, but the writing standards are just as bad. With the focus being on short written responses, students are not going to have much experience with longer essays and research. Plus with little to no emphasis on grammar & spelling at the high school level, I feel like I’m destroying future thinkers.

• Is the ‘Common Core’ Initiative Dumbing Down America’s Students?

  March 15, 2013 at 7:07pm

  In reply to aplingtjayonia.

  This happened to North Carolina, too. This state has turned purple because of all the New Yorkers, Floridian retirees, and other Northeasterners who have moved here because of “the weather” and “the mountains”. Now we’re subjected to their Marxist thinking and it makes me nuts.