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Answer Respondent CCSS does not allow teachers to implement methods and subjects we KNOW will foster true Anonymous learning. Just say NO! Save our next generation before it is to late! Anonymous At Tahlequah Schools Common Core was implemented last year. I do not agree with what we were told to teach, and do not feel that Common Core is better than what we were doing. Also scores did drop dramatically. 5th grade teachers wer told to not teach spelling - do you Anonymous honestly think 5th graders know how to spell all words? Citing evidence from the text, in my opinion, is not superior to old fashioned drawing conclusions and thinking. I don't feel like most of the literature is beneficial. Much of it only serves to increase racial and class envy. Parents aren't aware of common core, but are now starting to ask questions because they notice something is different in the classroom and the overall atmosphere. Our entire staff is stressed out this year trying to implement all of this common core crap. As teachers, we are not allowed to inform the parents or discuss common core. Our administrators are adopting common core for funding, yet as teachers we are stuck in the middle knowing it's not right but not allowed to speak up. It's hard & I cry now! Anonymous I speak up anyways, whispering to as many parents as I can to do more research on common core. CC is so complicated. I notice the normal parent has a hard time understanding what exactly we are expected to be teaching to their kids. I hate being caught in the middle. It makes us teachers look like the "bad guy" and I strongly disagree with 90% of what I am forced to teach. But I need my job to pay my bills. I squeeze in as much other "old" stuff as I have time for, but it's not much. I don't even understand what some of the instructions request of me. If I don't understand the vague instructions, why would my students? I just finished my first common core progress reports, and I struggled trying to give my students number grades. It seemed very confusing and hard to judge because they were so vague. I prefer our old system of grading which was obvious and clear cut with A,B,C,D, etc. Anonymous There is not enough time in a day to possibly do all the requirements that are expected. It is overwhelming and exhausting, as well as impractical. I find myself feeling upset because I have taught for 12 years and feel like the children are paying the consequences of me trying to worry about my job rather than if they are truly learning or not. It's not fair for us teachers that really care to teach students life lessons as opposed to just plain boring bookwork. I've been told all of my centers must be literacy based, which doesn't allow for creativity or learning through play. Top down standards don't work. Young children are not developmentally ready for most of the elementary curriculum, except science, which is a joke. There must be basic science Anonymous content to enable understanding of the process skills. Items for the OCCT program were reviewed by Oklahoma teachers and teachers had the voice to change any question which did not meet the objectives or standards. The PASS objectives were specific and teacher friendly. Common core is very vague and some of the standards are in total opposition to proven methods of teaching children which have been in place for years. The elementary math is extremely confusing and asks teachers to teach in a way that children Anonymous are not cognitively ready for. A strong foundation in math facts and early understanding of number sense is ignored and replaced with standards that young children find frustrating and
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extremely confusing. The best thing our legislature can do is to get Oklahoma out of common core. Our children and teachers are worth all that can be done to help them excel and it is NOT common core. They take up time. We need time to really teach the students instead of worrying about tle Anonymous evaluations. The standards are an attempt to dumb down students who excel and push everyone through a tube of commonality. So wrong! I'm supposed to be leaving out important skills in my first grade classroom, like money, calendar, and patterns, but they say it is more rigorous. I don't feel like my students will be more prepared under CCSS . Unfortunately, our state supt is Anonymous going to try to pull the wool over everyone's eyes by renaming it OAS and telling everyone we aren't following CCSS because they're not Oklahoma values. We're not helping our kids to become successful, contributing members of society. We're teaching them to be test takers. As a kindergarten teacher I feel the common core standards are not developmentally Anonymous appropriate for young children. Common core systematically trashes America , runs down America's achievements, brainwashes the kids into disrespecting this country and what it has always been about. CC is poison. That's what IT is about. Don't take my word for it--get the texts for each grade level. Check out the history and social studies sections. Watch the trashing of America systematically develop and expand Anonymous through each grade. With CC, everybody will be swallowing the identical agenda, repeated across the academic disciplines and vertically up and down the grades. It is a draconian method of brainwashing out of existence any possibility of an opposing view. Tell the parents--if your school uses CC, get your kids out of there and Home school them with David Barton history materials. I don't feel that the Common Core objectives have been research enough. For example Kindergarten objectives want them to think abstractly! Kindergarteners are not Anonymous developmentally ready to think in abstract term!! I was under the impression that Common Core was going to raise our children's standards, but not like this. I've taught 2nd grade for 8 years, and love it...but this year I just feel frustrated and exhausted. I read my teacher manual and instructions and am a 37 year old adult finding myself barely able to understand the vague directions and what they are asking of me. I do my best to teach these CC standards with many different approaches and go over it as much as I can. The truth Anonymous is I am only one person and they expect me to check off ALL of these crazy amounts of benchmarks and overload of materials on a daily basis. It's physically impossible and mentally draining not to mention overwhelming for me to be able to teach. The kids stare at me with blank stares because I know they can't possibly comprehend the amount of material and/or the topics that I am supposed to be covering with them. We all feel like we're failing miserably! It's rigorously over their heads and mine Common Core scares me for our children. I've been an Oklahoma educator for 23 years and feel I know the methods to teach children that are appropriate for their developmental stage. CC's standards do not fit into the right stages of their brain development. I am also strongly against the progressive agenda that is being pushed through the use of "informational text". Anonymous These are not my core values and I will not teach them and don't want them for my children. Common core squashes the rights of parents, states, and local schools. We must stop this takeover of our children's minds. Also, I will not be voting for Gov. Falling a second time. I am a
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republican but I do not see her supporting the RNC or Oklahoma's conservative values. She's been quite a disappointment! The common core standards are developmentally inappropriate for early childhood grades. They are extremely vague and have an overall lack of interest in what is best for young children. These new standards will not make children higher achievers. Raising standards when students are not currently meeting the benchmarks will only lead to frustration for our students. No matter how hard these students try, they are always told that it is not good enough. Public School teachers morale is dropping and will continue to drop and continue to contribute to the already present teacher shortage. Career teachers are becoming so dissatisfied with the constant bombardment of new standards that they are choosing to leave the profession they love. We need leadership that celebrates our teachers and encourages them. We need a leader that has classroom experience and knows the needs of our schools and Anonymous can realistically form a plan to improve our schools. The current administrations of both the United States and the Department of Education need to stop the push to raise a group of Sheeples! I never want my children to behave like everyone else's. I don't want them to think like everyone else. I want them to know their rights as stated in the Constitution and how this affects them. Keep pushing this and there will be Anonymous back lash from those who want no part of it. Homeschooling is not that hard. Also your current administration needs to stop cutting funding for schools. Our school lost 1/4 of it's budget this year and now there is no art class and no Spanish. Thank you for making our school struggle. These standards are not developmentally appropriate for early childhood! The kindergarten Anonymous standards are absurd! I've been in the classroom for 31 years. I've been through many changes but to me, this is the most devastating change of all!! I believe we are setting up many children to fail! I have a hard enough time getting across what I'm trying to teach my 2nd graders now, much less, trying to teach them something that they are not developmentally ready for with the CCSS!! Anonymous We are also going to lose many great teachers, young and old, who do not agree with the standards and will choose to leave the teaching profession or simply retire, because they've had "enough"! I know.....because I'm one of them!!!

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