I get so excited when our Tchers’ Voice Survey results come in. I can’t wait to see what you have to tell us. With our latest July survey the message was very clear: you want more Common Core!
79% of you selected the Common Core State Standards as one of the top 5 topics that are important to you. Back in January, our first Tchers’ Voice Survey, showed that just 48% of you selected Common Core. That’s a pretty big surge in interest—and we understand that means your schools are starting to implement the Core and you want to be prepared.
All of us at Teaching Channel are ready to help. We enlisted our Teacher Laureate, Sarah Brown Wessling, to share her “Top 10 Common Core Insider Secrets.” Sarah has been working with the Core for two years—and her new, detailed white paper has some wonderful insights.
It’s free to all registered members of our Tch community. If you’re not yet registered, just take 30 seconds to sign up, and the white paper is yours.
Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to point you to our library of Common Core-aligned videos. We have more than 100 videos inside classrooms where teachers are using the Core Standards.
Our July survey reveals that about a third of you have already tried a lesson idea you saw in one of our videos in your own classrooms. And, 89% of you said you plan to try something in this new school year. We are so pleased to know that!
I want to share a few of the comments we received from those of you who have tried a strategy in your classrooms.
One teacher saw big changes in class culture after trying our “Morning Meetings” video:
“My students had a lot of trouble getting along before we had daily morning meetings. We started taking the time to talk about problems in the classroom and problems amongst the kids started to decrease.”
Another teacher tried one of our Common Core math videos and found great success: “Students were engaged. They used the language of mathematics. They verbally expressed that they learn from manipulatives, and enhanced pair or group work.”
There were so many wonderful comments—and I do want to add that it is so gratifying to see that 100% of you who tried a video concept in your classrooms, found it useful.