Schools across the world are figuring out new and unconventional ways for students to learn and show their learning creatively as a foundation of the classroom. One particularly popular piece of pedagogy spreading across the academic landscape, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), is rooted in three main creative principles: multiple means of representation, multiple means of expression, and multiple means of engagement. And although Pink Floyd’s 1979 assertion that to school systems, kids are “just another brick in the wall”, might feel rebellious and edgy, it is far from the truth in terms of modern education theory. The worry that standardized systems of education stifle the innate creativity of students is by no means new. The suggestion: Education kills creativity. Have supports in place for students and families struggling with the increased rigor of the classroom.Always share data to back up these decisions. Communicate to both students and parents the specific steps you are taking ensure that what is happening in the classroom is meeting the needs of your students and the values of the community.Make sure your district’s curriculum and your lesson plans have been revised to reflect what is working and not working in the classroom.Recommendations for undermining the meme: If your school district is not modeling this flexibility, that’s a very different conversation. If a strategy of learning (including those associated with the math assignment you didn’t like) does not help students meet their needs, the CCSS gives educators the flexibility to develop and work with better strategies. Teachers now have a common language with which to speak about how to most effectively meet the needs of the 21 st century classroom.Īll of this promotes the standards as the guidepost, and the curriculum as a living document designed to be revised and improved upon as necessary. If something is working spectacularly at schools in the State of Connecticut, those practices can be adopted and replicated in other schools almost immediately. The beauty of a set of common standards also allows for better collaboration between teachers. This allows the educators-those who know the students-to decide the best method of delivery in the classroom. They are standards-not a prescribed lesson-by-lesson curriculum. The CCSS also puts the ownership of the curriculum back into the hands of the teachers. But, as the CCSS was in part reviewed by employers since its inception, this is the type of work required by the up-and-coming job market. This sort of education takes more work, more thought, and more time. With this, students dive more deeply into a topic than they have in the past, spending time to understand its complexities, and, more importantly, apply this knowledge to everyday life. Whereas in classrooms of the past, students were able to be rewarded for an easy regurgitation of what their teachers feed them, these standards ask students to think more critically about content. ![]() This is not the job market of ten or even five years ago. For some, this in itself feel daunting, but the truth is, the worldwide market is more competitive. We need to understand the bigger picture. However, there are also a lot of misunderstandings about the Core that should be addressed before we rage against a fairly well-vetted system, simply due to a less-than-savory photo of someone’s kid’s math homework for the night. ![]() We’re by no means going to make the claim here that Common Core is the utopia of education standards. There are a whole variety of memes out there that have actively attacked Common Core’s methods of teaching-in particular certain strategies for teaching mathematics at the younger levels. The suggestion: Common Core is ruining education. And so, in our modern-day online obsession with outrage, we must often ask ourselves if we are actively engaging in thoughtful discussion that explores holistic truths or are we hastily processing our gut reactions through a simple self-satisfying rant? In part two of still installation, Education World looks at more of social media’s most-shared memes that critique our education system, explores both the truths and misunderstandings leading to their viral nature, and recommends ways for educators to actively disrupt their messaging in their classrooms and greater communities. Sometimes these arguments are rational and based on solid reasoning sometimes they are meant to appeal to the basest of human nature. “Memes” are the medium du jour, and our modern education system by no means escapes their ceaseless heckling. If there’s one thing the Internet likes to do, it’s criticize.
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