Common Core

I think that I am entering a time when education is not only changing, but transforming. I could not be more interested and excited to see where it takes me and my students.
The talk about Common Core State Standards has been looming in my mind since I took Intro to Education in the Fall 2010 but I didn't really understand what it was all about.
When I got placed at Horizon Middle School, Common Core was all I heard and all lessons were planned around.
I was getting used to having the words "Common Core" float around and implementing them into my lesson plans.
I feel like the transition to Common Core will be beneficial to students because it focuses on key concepts that are essential for growth throughout grades 1-12. As teachers, we don't just simply teach a concept and move on, each standard builds upon one another instead of just teaching it and never using it again. Though that may be beneficial for our students, it could also be detrimental. If a student does not grasp a certain concept and we move on to another standard, they could fall behind. I haven't noticed this too much in the classroom, but it is just a worst case scenario.
I am very impressed with the accessibility of the CCSS. It doesn't have to be a 900 page document that costs as much as the pages that are contained in it. Although a paper copy is very nice to have, I think the recent dependence on technology serves a great purpose for this. I have the CCSS app on both my phone and my iPad. It's nice to be able to access them at random times during the day or at night because of my crazy schedule. Also, the app was free to download and is easy to navigate through.
The only negative I have about CCSS is that it isn't prevalent to every subject area such as the arts. This doesn't effect me personally, but I know music majors in my sequence are struggling with the transition to CCSS.
Overall, I am very excited to see where CCSS will take education.