This blog is inspired by a band called The Evidence, from a song entitled “of Haves and Have Nots”.

I have mixed emotions about the Common Core and Essential Standards.  On one hand, it’s what I have been doing in the classroom for years: making my course better by inserting science, math, english, etc. into my curriculum.  For me, it’s the only real way to teach music, and to keep the subject viable in the world today.  So, when I began seeing the changes to our curriculum, I got excited.

Then, I began looking at things a little more closely, and I began to get a little worried.  My standards didn’t change too much, just some unnecessary rewording.  It was the addition of the “21st century skills” and holding teachers accountable for a lot of things that we didn’t really couldn’t control.  The inclusion of technology based instruction, even to go as far as include it on our Teacher Evaluation, was a stretch for me to go nationwide.  Not that I disagree with it, because I firmly believe that kids should be able to work in our computerized world.  It’s the mandate that gets me worried.  Here’s why:

Our country, and our state especially, tend to implement a lot of things that look really good on paper.  Things that sound really good when discussed, and things that make parents really happy when it’s printed in the newspaper, or placed in an article on the internet.  The problem is that most places aren’t given the resources to correctly enact the “mandates” that come from above.  And by “resources”, I don’t necessarily mean just the latest and greatest technological equipment.  I mean training and practice on how to use this stuff in the classroom.The results are usually, at least in my observations of numerous years of teaching, are teachers that are forced to use technology in their classrooms in places that it’s not really needed, or use it as a dog and pony show for their observation day, and get the kids really excited, only to have it disappear the next class period.  I had a P.E. teacher this past year on observation day setup up a Powerpoint presentation about the human body, and have the students interactively work with it during gym class.  He had supporting videos, and question and answer sessions during the presentation, and linked it all to how the effect of exercise helped the human body.  In any other situation, this would have probably been a great lesson.  The students however, couldn’t learn anything because they were in awe of the lesson, being it the first, and last time that the teacher ever did something like that in class.  It was observation day.  When asked later why he didn’t do stuff like this all the time, his response was “it took me a week to reserve a projector, computer, and everything needed to do the lesson.  It took me another week to learn to use all the stuff.  The PE dept doesn’t have access to all this stuff on a regular basis, but man I really looked good on observation day!”

This incident, and many, many more that I can speak on, I think drives home my point. 21st century learning goes way beyond technology, and state and national mandates that make you use it aren’t always the best way to go, especially if your teachers do not know how to implement it.  But of course, I could be wrong.  If your school, or department, or whatever, has the means to stay up the latest technology, then you are better than others right?  I mean, when I walk into a school that has laptops bolted onto each desk, and Smartboards plastered on every wall, then that makes them a better school, right?  A teacher that uses technology in every class, everyday, is a better teacher, right?