News 12 This Morning at 6 o'clock // Tuesday, July 11, 2012
AUGUSTA, GA -- This upcoming school year will be the first time in history forty-seven states will have the same curriculum in grades K through 12. They're called the Common Core Standards. It's a huge undertaking, one the school board has been working around the clock with teachers to prepare for this school year. This week it was time for the math teachers in our area to hit the books.
Down the mathematics hallway of Cross Creek high school, hundreds of math teachers from Richmond and surrounding counties rush to class. It's an unusual sight that had teachers in the hot seat. They raised their hands and answered all of the questions. "We're getting the states familiar with the new mathematics," said Peggy Pool with the Georgia Council of Teacher of Mathematics.
For the past year, 7th grade math teacher Natasha Birt and her colleagues heard the term Common Core, now it's time for them to implement it in their classrooms. "We'll be teaching all the same things, trying to get in line as a nation," said Birt.
"It's going to be more rigorous, more thinking," Pool added.
Nicole Ice, a high school teacher and facilitator at the three day math academy said, "There is going to be more emphasis on collaboration and communication."
For the next two days nearly 300 teachers will brush up on old content, learn new techniques and become the student for a day in preparation for the common core standards.
Birt says her 7th graders will be introduced to more ratios this school year, while some other topics are shifted to other grades. "Some grades have a lot of new standards and content that they've not had to teach before," added Birt.
Students will be expected to do more than just memorize. "In other words show more work and work on extended mathematical tasks," Ice said.
It's all in an effort to maximize student understanding of math and get most everyone in the nation back on the same page. The math academy taking place is helped organized by the State Department of Education and Georgia Council of Teachers of Math.