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RE: Thoughts and Ideas From an Online High School Teacher and Ex-Homeschooling Mom-I Think I Know What I'm Doing!

Hello and Welcome!
I'm interested how you compare your home-schooling experience to the k12.com curriculum. They say they are common core compliant (or words to that effect). What do you think about common core?

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Hello!

What a great a question and I am going to answer it using my different roles.

As a parent and ex-homeschooling mom, I do not like Common Core. I think having a national curriculum that teaches our students to study for standardized tests is wrong. I believe, with Common Core, non-English speaking learners, and non-traditional learners are left behind. And, it removes the creativity and fun in learning. Also, it has mutilated the teaching of simple math.

I am a homeschool evaluator for my county. Which means, at the end of the school year, homeschooling families come to me for evaluations. As a certified teacher, I have to decide whether to promote students. I see many families that say they left the public school system because of the way Common Core requires teachers to teach math. Parents are told it is better but don’t like seeing their kids cry while trying to master the math concepts.

I have always tried to make learning challenging and fun for my daughters. I had the freedom to make educational choices. I think we should all have freedom to make choices.

As an online high school teacher, I have many different types of students. Though, most of my students are in blended (hybrid) schools. As an online teacher, I do what any brick-and-mortar teacher does; I make the best of it. I try my best to use technology and other pedagogical methods to make learning more fun. I want to help students succeed, but I also need to feed my family.

Ah I see. I was wondering because if you google "common core bill gates" you come up with some interesting facts. eg. Bill Gates promotes and funds common core but not for his own kids. Enough said. I realize you have some balancing to do.