These Teachers Probably won't be Appearing in a YouTube "Rah Rah" Common Core Video.

The Common Core standards have been distributed for teacher review and implementation and may not be as thrilling as presented by the private companies developing the standards.  A high school English department studied them and this writer finds them just a bit lacking.  From the Washington Post:

The Common Core exemplar we worked with was intellectually limiting, shallow in scope, and uninteresting. I don’t want my lessons to be any of those things.



How does this teacher's article compare with the youtube video about English teachers singing the praises of Common Core?  It would be interesting to ask those teachers about their beliefs of Common Core once they've studied and tried to teach them.  Teachers may  have to be team players and get excited about teaching in the way they are being mandated to do so, but according the Post article, there is a sense of foreboding an exactly what this teaching accomplishes...and what it does not.

Common Core focuses on collaboration, for teachers and students, but academic excellence doesn't seem to be on the menu.





 
Chorus:

Got to get me some standards
Some standards I can use...
Yeah, I'm here with my computer
And my DIS-AG-GRE-GATIN' shoes
I got 'em bad, I got 'em good,
These Common Core Blues...
Well, I'm just an English teacher searchin'
Sittin' waitin' for a sign
You know there's somethin' heavy on my brain...
And it's standard 11-12 RL9
Gotta keep pushin', though my head hurts,
Keep tellin' myself, it's all gonna be fine!
We come from 'cross South Dakota,
Our training is the key.
We're here for COL-LAB-O-RATION,
COL-LAB-O-RATION for our posterity.
So we're singin' this here blues song
Just to save our sanity.

Chorus

Gotta check out all this info 
Common Core magic's what we seek,
Gotta toss the dusty garbage
From our lessons, oh, are we gonna tweak!
Gotta spread the word to all the peeps
Gotta spread the word to all the peeps
Rusty relics are gonna FREAK!
In preppin' my lessons
I gotta shift into rewind
I want 'em to KNOW, UNDERSTAND & DO
So we won't be drivin' blind.
No, I don't wanna leave 'em,
Don't want to leave all those students behind!
Oh, but Time, she's against me
Tryin' to align standards I can use-
Gonna, pray to the inservice gods
Pray, pray to the inservice muse...
Please please give us the time,
The time to plan, align and light the fuse!
Cause those students are comin' in
From 'Bama, Philadelphia PA
They're bringin' all sorts of skill sets
(Who can make sense of this anyway?)
Well the common Core Standards
Are gonna hook us up, hook us up for success today.

Chorus

Many have been here before...
Many will come this way again.
Challenges? Yeah, we can name a few!
But now, fellow teachers, we must begin!
Continuity, communication, and materials...
Finish this by..wait, finish this by WHEN?