My Take on the Common Core

       I have done more reading on the Common Core this week than ever before in my life, much beyond our few required readings.  I was completely unaware of most of the debates circling around the Common Core.  But my own view of the Common Core, before my research in this class, was simply the burden it has brought in the last two years on an individual level.  By departments, we have spent our time aligning our curriculum to the Core, and tried to figure out how to cover every last standard in mathematics in just three years (there are 127 basic math standards at the high school level).  This has lead to a just a bit of stress at times!
      So, not a big surprise, my view of the Common Core before this was rather negative.  However, after quite a lot of research, I can see a few positive things about it.
      One thing I began to realize, in my interview with my district's curriculum coordinator, was that before standards appeared (NCTM, Maine Learning Results, the Common Core), there was no "standard" for teachers.  Each individual had to kind of guess what to teach each year.  Ever since I started teaching, we have always had standards to follow (first the Maine Learning Results, then the Common Core.)  So I can't quite imagine what it would be like to not have any standards.  But for teachers who have been teaching a long time, they remember when they didn't have that additional guidance.  So, in comparison, I can appreciate a little better what I now have.
     I think the Common Core has more to offer than I first thought.  And I think that if it is treated as a good set of standards to refer to, as opposed to the ultimate, end-all for exactly what we should teach every day, then we can perhaps find some balance.