Teaching to Exceed the English Language Arrts Common Core State Standards

            Common Core State Standards can become tricky for teachers now days. They do however, set goals for students, but they don’t tell you what or how to teach. This is where it gets tricky because as a teacher you have to come up with your own ideas on how to teach these certain areas. I know that an English Language Arts teacher I hope I can generate engaging curriculum to meet these standards for my students. I think this is one of the best things about teaching because you get a chance to be creative. Also, you get to try new things. If you do something with one period of your class and it doesn’t work, then try something new with the next period. The nice thing is you can start fresh again in the next hour or so. If something didn’t work for you, pause, reflect, and think of something better that will work for the next group. I like how the article talks about “teaching to the test.” Some teachers are just focusing on certain curriculum and only teaching to prepare them for the tests. Students need a wide variety of different skills not only for school reasons, but for life as well. If a teacher is constantly just teaching for the tests then these students are more than likely not going to take much away from your classroom. This is my opinion because once they take that test, all those topics they learned will most likely just leave their brain. If you are doing more than just teaching to the test I believe that teachers will notice how successful their students are going to be later on. The students will probably end up thanking you for doing so. I plan on using the CCSS as a road map for my teaching like the article explains, but I do not plan on just focusing on that. I want my students to know that their education is important to me and I want them all to be well rounded students.