Connected Conversations & the Common Core

Over the course of the past school year, you have been challenged by administrators and your building PDC reps to become a connected educator. It has been great seeing educators in the building stepping up to the plate and reaching out to connect with other educators. I have benefited greatly from the connections I have made through the use of social media. I thought I would share an example of a connection that was made this morning.

Earlier, Chris and I had the opportunity to speak to a middle school principal in Sacramento about his school implementing standards based grading.  A teacher at this middle school had come across our PD Blog and forwarded what they had found to the principal at this school.  Chris received an email asking to set up a meeting and this morning that took place.  During the conversation I kept thinking to myself that I would have never thought that I would ever talk to a building level administrator in Sacramento, California about standards based grading.  This is just one example of how the internet and social media sites have allowed collaboration of educators thousands of miles apart possible. After getting over my initial thought, I soon was thinking about all of the countless opportunities our students have/could have/will have in the future to collaborate with students around the world.  I began to think if our students were capable or able to seek out and find other students across the country that might have information they needed?  Are we teaching them to seek out other students?  Do our students know how to communicate with other students?  What can we do to ensure our students can properly communicate and collaborate with other students? As we move forward with our implementation of the Common Core, these are the kinds of questions we need to be asking ourselves and each other.  We also need to take the time and teach our students how to find and communicate with others outside of our area.  These are skills that will be necessary for our students to function successfully in the future.