Teachers Go Back to School for Common Core

Several teachers went back to school this week, relearning ways to teach math to meet the new Common Core Standards.

Eleven teachers spent the week in math camp at Whitman High School where Beth Reed, a math specialist in the Lindenhurst school system, taught her teacher-pupils the intricacies of preparing for Common Core requirements. That meant learning new ways to navigate modules of teaching and new vocabulary to match the standards.

Maureen Damm, director of the teachers' center in the South Huntington district, said, "The goal is to have greater understanding of the concepts" so that teachers could better implement the standards.

When the New York State Education Department released test results based on the new standards were released recently, scores dropped significantly in many districts. Many educators and parents said the tests were given before the new curriculum was completely in place, leaving students unprepared. 

And the results rattled many in the educational field.

"We're excited about Common Core as a concept," Damm said. But "It's a very emotional issue: we're being judged as teachers. It really is a different way of looking at things."

Reed, who works with classes from kindergarten to eighth grade, said, "Overall, I like Common Core. I wish they'd given us more time" to prepare for it. "Common Core is a great thing. It takes time. Teachers have to relearn what they learned in college."

Susanna Lopez, a seventh and eighth grade math teacher in the ESL program at Stimson, said the five daylong classes at math camp would help her on several levels. She learned "how to guide the parents by finding bilingual resources, to understand new terms and new strategies" for teaching on another level.

And one of the key issues, whether the third through eighth grade students who took this year's test were prepared, Michelle Keogh has a goal. The William Rall kindergarten teacher said she went to math camp so she "can set the foundation for success for what the kids need to know. They'll be starting with new concepts and will be using these new concepts. I can't wait to get in there."

Members of the class came from districts in South Huntington, Wyandanch, Lindenhurst and Malverne.