Week 2 

I have been learning a great deal about implementing and deciphering standards. I have always heard terribly negative things about Common Core, but have never understood its purpose (or anything about it, really). 

However, I now find Common Core very useful in a school. I think it is a great idea to create goals and standards that we expect our students to be able to achieve by the time of their departure from our classes. Common Core helps guide us as teachers, reminding us of our end goal for our students. Having these end goals guide us as we create our curriculum in our classroom, they don't replace our curriculum. I think I would feel like I was completely lost if I did not have the standards to help guide me as I tried to figure out what to teach my students. It takes a load off of our shoulders to be able to focus on differentiating instruction, using different methodologies, and assessment! 

Flipping our classroom is a flipping awesome idea. 21st Century students are technologically savvy and enjoy learning online, so I think it is a great idea to send them home where they will need to watch videos, interact with websites, etc. in order to learn the content needed for the next class period which will be filled with discussion and application of what they had learned the night before. My only concerns about this would be if students had a sticky situation at home where they didn't have internet access or legitimately didn't have time to do the work. Further, what do you do with students who didn't do their homework (for whatever reasons)? I also don't see many practical uses for this in a music class room, but I am open to exploring/creating uses for it! 

All in all, I feel that I am getting a better grasp at the flow of this class and I am genuinely excited to come to class every week! We have great discussions in class and I am definitely learning a ton!

Until next week,

Peace-Austin Beasley