Common Core

I believe it was 2010 when I first heard about the Common Core Standards that were “going to change education as we know it”.  At first, I didn’t really know what to think about the idea. As the team leader for the six “Elementary 2” classrooms, I was sent to one of the first seminars that the AZ Dept of Education was putting regarding the new standards. I came back from that 3-day intensive training looking like a deer in headlights. The complexity of the questions and curriculum seemed much harder that I was used to, and I was so sick of hearing the word “rigor”.

As a Montessori teacher, I worried that the new standards were going to force a school like mine to dilute our program, and lose touch of our philosophy.

“Follow the child”

“Show them the why before you show them how”

These were the statements I was afraid we’d lose sight of.

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I signed up for another training the next fall, and that’s when things changed for me. I started to understand that what the Common Core is really trying to do is exactly what we’ve been doing for hundreds of years as Montessori schools. It is leading the students to really analyze information and “understanding the why”. We will still be able to follow each child.

So, as I hate the expression “teaching to the test” I do feel confident that what we’re already doing will ensure our kids do just fine with the Common Core Standards.