"The dinosaurs have faced extinction for a second time and have lost again. It wasn’t a meteor that got them this time, but the Common Core standards...
"I was trained as a teacher in the ’90s. At that time, we were taught to discover what our students were interested in and then create cross-curricular units of study that would build upon those interests to instigate learning. Because our science study in second grade included changes in the Earth over time, our teacher team took hold of that to build a unit on dinosaurs...
"Now the dinosaurs are dead. This will be the second school year that kids will not participate in that unit of study. Why? Because teachers were instructed at the beginning of the year to take a look at the files in our drawers and leave them there if they did not directly line up with the Common Core...
"I grieve for the lost dinosaurs. I grieve for the challenge and energy I got as a teacher from striving to get to know my kids and create lessons for them that would keep them engaged. I grieve my autonomy and my ability to use my professional judgment..."And I grieve for the teachers.
Please read her whole essay.
Why can't teachers teach about dinosaurs in Common Core?
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