One of the biggest bang-for-your-buck Common Core standards is W.CCR.10, which basically says, “Write frequently for many reasons.” And the amazing thing about writing is that it achieves so many things simultaneously. For example, in the “Writing to Read” meta-analysis report, researchers found positive effect sizes for all kinds of writing, ranging from the mundane […]
Waging War on the Bad Guys
I recently had the privilege and pleasure of traveling to two beautiful towns — Harrah, Oklahoma and Lebanon, Missouri — and speaking to two beautiful groups of teachers about the non-freaked out approach to the Common Core that we in the Teaching the Core movement have been working on over the past year. On my […]
Germany and Long-term Student Flourishing
Within 12 hours, I’ll be on a plane bound for Germany, all thanks to an awesome study tour fellowship through the Transatlantic Outreach Program (if you teach any area of social studies, you need to look into this). But before embarking on this two week adventure, I’d like to share some questions I’m holding that […]
Why I Will and Won’t Care if Michigan Legislators Block Funding for CCSS Implementation
If you’re in a Common Core state, chances are there is a raucous coalition of folks desperately seeking to abandon ship. I can’t even begin to fully explain this phenomenon (I’m hoping you, the awesome community of Teaching the Core, will help fill in my gaps), but I can tell you that the actors in […]
Dave’s Summer 2013 Reading List
Wow, this year has flown by. Last Friday, I walked out of my school for the last time this school year. (This morning, I will re-enter it for world history curriculum work, but let’s ignore that for a moment.) The beginning of summer means, to me, the beginning of some semblance of reflective leisure. Sure, […]