Networking and the Common Core

One of the strengths of the Common Core is that educators from different districts and different states
can work together to share knowledge about teaching and learning. Teachers no longer have to work in isolation; rather, they can build upon their own and others expertise to create powerful learning experiences for their students. No longer do teachers have to rely on the textbook as the sole means of curriculum delivery, and even more powerful, teachers do not need to individually come up with rich, complex problems for students to grapple with.

As I think about these networking and sharing opportunities, I am reminded of the work of the DuFours who stress that the students are not my students or your students; rather, they are our students. Perhaps the Common Core and the many opportunities for sharing between educators is the beginning of a paradigm shift away from competition and isolation. The goal of the standards is for all students to be college and career ready, not just the students in my school.

"We must learn to think together in an integrated, synergistic fashion, rather than in fragmented and competitive ways.... "
         
                - Joanna Macy, Noetic Sciences Bulletin, Winter 1994-1995, p. 2