Questioning My Questions...

So, apparently, I am incapable of just following a prompt - I guess I just like to do things my own way! :)

I was supposed to talk about good questions, which made me think about what questions I have used that have the biggest impact on student learning, as well as where I see the most issues with misconceptions. I think the idea is meant to be more like those "HOT" (higher-order thinking) questions that have been buzzing lately, but I am going to swerve and head a TOTALLY different direction...

Here's what I've noticed in my time as a math teacher - the issue for most kids when they "don't get it" in math isn't really centered on all those things that most of us complain about (imprecision, lack prerequisite skills, etc.). The issue I see the most is that kids literally do not comprehend what the problem means - they don't know how to relate what they are presented in math class to any kind of recognizable context. 

For example, if a student is doing the following problem: 2.80 + 7, and they do the following:

   2.80

 +     7

   2.87

Does that student really understand what 2.80 means? What 7 means? So if we extend this line of questioning, does this student understand place value? 

It seems to me that this student is just performing a memorized procedure for addition, without thinking about context or meaning. If we asked this same student the same question, but put dollar signs in front of the numbers ($2.80 + $7) would he/she make the same mistake? This could tell us a lot in terms of where to go to help fill in the gaps here.

It seems crazy to me that there is SUCH a huge focus on reading comprehension with students, especially early in elementary school, but there isn't that same idea being carried over to create "math comprehension." I have so many kids that are bright and capable but just don't know what certain numbers or symbols really mean. They get so caught up in jumping into a procedure that they often don't even use the correct values (see above example), or maybe they just write down all the numbers in a word problem and add them up because they see the words "all together" somewhere near the end.

So... Here's the point. The number one question that seems to help kids when they are struggling? I simply point to something and say, "So, what does this mean?" (or if they are looking especially unsure, perhaps, "What do you think this means?")

Then follow up with things like: 

"How do you know that/Why do you think that?"

"Could you write it out/show me/draw it/make a model?"

"What do you notice?"

.... Etc...

Now... I don't start with "What does this mean?" if I am teaching something brand new. Usually I do noticing and questioning first (my kids are too "cool" to call it wondering - so lame... LOL!), and "What do you notice?" is like my go to question when we are exploring, so I think it is probably a tie in terms of both usage and impact on student learning with "What does this mean?" but, seriously, everyone is already on the boat with noticing and wondering. I feel like math comprehension needs some love now! :)  Who's with me?

My Favorite Things

So... Technically this post is late, so in order to make it up to you, I decided to do a sort of combo of last week's and this week's assignment, but seriously people, my life is crazy! First of all, I am a teacher, I play in two symphony orchestras, I have ridiculous food allergies so I have to cook most of what I eat from scratch, and I attempt to exercise when possible. Let me just show you what my week has been like (kinda like "a day in the life" from last week)... BUT, I will highlight my favorites (from this week) along the way :)

Monday: Day off - Woo! I can "catch up," right? Wake up, exercise, shower, shove food in my face while I grade, cook, do a TON of laundry, and try to clean up the kitchen after my cooking escapades. At 5:30 I head out so I can drive an hour to my symphony rehearsal which gets out early (yay!) at 9:30pm, drive an hour home, see hubby for like 5 minutes, get all my crap materials for the week gathered at the door, go to bed around 11:30pm

Favorite Thing: Car audio jack for my phone so I can listen to podcasts (some teacher-y stuff, radio lab, cooking shows...). Keeps me alert when I put hours in on the road. And I learn cool stuff :)

Tuesday: Teach all day (duh), help kids at lunch and after school, shoo said kids out around 4:30 so I can drive to the gym, exercise for an hour, go home, cook dinner (I made pressure cooker braised pork short ribs, cut up a pineapple to throw on at the end, and roasted some broccoli), go to target with my hubby since he is leaving tomorrow for a big conference and this might be the only time I see him this week, prep my lunch, clothes, trombone, etc. and get ready for bed (I think I made it in bed before midnight, but I'm not really sure...)

Favorite Thing: Instant Pot! I am not kidding you - this thing is AMAZING. My hubby got it for me for my birthday and I use it probably twice a week. If you are busy and trying to still eat at home, this is a life saver. If you have food issues like me and can't eat out, well... just go get one. Like now. My page will still be here for you to read once you do ;)

Wednesday:  Head to school for a minimum day (we have staff meetings on Wednesdays). This sounds like it should be easier since classes are shorter, but we have ALL our classes (8 periods) in a row (until 12:50) then go to lunch at the end of all that, so I am always exhausted. Then after lunch (1:45) we went to a staff meeting that didn't get out until 5 or 10 minutes to 4pm, so I rushed back to my room to grab my stuff and had to jump in my car to drive to symphony rehearsal again. This time, we didn't get out early, so I didn't make it home until 11pm. I then had to make my lunch for the next day (Greek salad with marinated roast beef), get ready for bed, etc... Didn't see my bed until after midnight this time :-/

Favorite Thing: iPads in the classroom. When I found out my new school site was going 1-to-1 iPads this year, I was actually pretty nervous. I've heard plenty of stories about the challenges that arise in these situations, so I wasn't sure how I felt about it. Now, I am so grateful. After having to jump in my car and leave school after that meeting, there was no way I would have copies for the following day, and the copy machine is ALWAYS busy in the morning. Now I can send and track assignments digitally, so no copies means a little more sleep. By the way, if you haven't checked out Desmos yet and you are teaching math, go now. The classroom activities are especially cool, and you can edit or create your own. SO COOL! Again... I'll wait :)

Thursday: By now, I am feeling fatigued. I love my sleep and I have had a LOT of days in a row where I'm running on a deficit. I didn't think I was in a bad mood or anything, but a number of my students asked me if I was okay/upset/having a bad day - I must've looked like hell. LOL! We had an all 8th-grade meeting in the morning to discuss rolling out iPads, then went back to have class during the rest of the day. I had kids working in my room during lunch, and a number asked to stay after school again, so I said that was fine. A couple of the girls who asked to work with me came in after school and I helped them with classwork and homework, but lost track of time and had to shoo them out at 4pm so I could race back to town to teach trombone lessons (4:15 - 6:30 pm). Then, I had a moment where I considered going to the gym, but decided that sounded too exhausting and went home to cook dinner and get things ready for tomorrow. I actually made it into bed just a little after 10pm. SUCCESS!!!

Favorite Thing: Working with students 1-on-1 or in small groups. I have tutored people in various subjects since I was in 4th grade, which is probably why I fell into teaching, but there is just something special about the interactions you have and connections you make with students when there isn't a whole room full off them. One of the reasons I lost track of time and had to scramble out was because, even though we were working on past-due work (a frustration for me) and a subject that wasn't the students' favorite (a frustration to them), we were actually having fun. We wound up having a semi-deep life lesson conversation at one point, and one of the girls came back and told me how she went home all excited and talked to her mom about it. Pretty sure that's never happened with ANYthing I have ever said during class!

Friday: Finally! Teach teach teach, help kids, pack up all my stuff to grade, try to clean off at least a corner of my desk so it isn't a total disaster, and head off to symphony rehearsal again. Back home by 11, cart in all my stuff from the car (it took me two trips), get ready for bed, and crash.

Favorite Thing: Objectives/Standards Based Grading. I FINALLY could switch my grading system this year (at a new site and after pitching my principal, he said go for it!). While I have had a few newbie-type issues (educating kids and parents about it in a way that makes sense to them, progress reports always look way worse than they would if I were grading assignments, the fact that I can't easily change grades from past grading periods when kids do learn the skills that were a part of that grading period, etc), overall this has made a huge impact on my ability to provide feedback to students. Since I don't grade every paper, I can spend that time on giving feedback instead. Of course there are some kids who don't like the fact that their grade is entirely dependent on their ability to perform or produce with quality, but I feel like I am able to track students' knowledge and needs much more easily :)

Saturday: Get up, go to the gym, head to Costco, back home, eat leftovers because Costco took longer than planned, jump in the shower, try to make myself look at least passably nice, drive back to symphony rehearsal, eat dinner, then back to play the concert. The piano soloist was amazing, by the way. There was a reception afterwards at the ONE place where I can actually eat the food for the reception, but I was so tired that I decided to just hit the road. Home around 11. I tried to just crash but I could NOT sleep. I hate when my husband is gone, especially this long. For some reason, even though I have the WHOLE bed to myself and I can be in whatever position I want and hog all the blankets, I have a really hard time sleeping. I'm pretty sure the last time I frustratedly tossed and turned and looked at what time it was, it was around 1:45am. Ugh...

Favorite Thing: MTBoS. I KNOW that, with the fact that I now have ONE day (tomorrow) to grade, plan, cook a ton of food, do laundry, blog, and FINALLY see my hubby, there is no way that I could actually make awesome engaging lessons for the whole week. I have an outlined idea of what I'm doing for the week as well as an activity for Monday, but the rest of the details will be filled in based on ideas that I shamelessly steal from the army of fantastic and generous teachers who digitally enrich my life. Thank you for sharing ideas, uploading resources, and making me think about, question, and improve what I do every day. :)

On that note... if YOU have any favorites that have to do with radical expressions, rational/irrational numbers, etc. please let me know in the comments so I can go steal those too since that is where we are heading next :)

One Good Thing

Okay, so I think I might be stretching the assignment a little here since the "one good thing" I am going to write about actually happened before break, but I think it's worth bringing up!

Anyhow, my mom had to have a somewhat sudden surgery and I am the only family member who's even in the state, so when they said she needed a solid week of round the clock care it was obvious that I would be jumping in to take care of that. They wound up scheduling the surgery on the last day of school before winter break, which meant I had to miss that day.

I like to prepare my kids for sub days so I can put more responsibility on THEM, so of course I told them what was going on. There are always about a million questions ("Who's the sub? What are we doing? Will your mom be ok? Do I have to do the work? What if a chicken ate a taco? etc...), but as those questions died down, I figured that would be the end of it. Then one of my students (who tends to be easily distracted and goofy) stands up and says, rather passionately, "We have to do something." The rest of the class was already moving on to the next thing, so I went over to talk to her. She was determined that they (the students) do something for my mom. She was also gathering a steadily increasing crowd of kids who were in agreement. 

I didn't want to spend my precious instructional minutes on an art project for my mom, so I grabbed some butcher paper, put it on my back table, and told the class what assignments they had to complete in order to have time to sign during class. 

I did offer the opportunity to my other classes as well, but essentially, they had to really want to sign it because they had to be on top of it with their work. 

I was amazed at how many of my tougher kids, as well as those who tend to have a harder time in math wanted so badly to write messages to my mom - who they've never met. 

By the end of Thursday, when I gathered the poster up to take home, I read through everything to make sure no one "tagged" anything or wrote inappropriate messages (I do teach 8th graders). It was seriously one of the sweetest things I've ever seen from kids this age. There were lots of positive encouragements, a surprising number of "I love you's", awesome artwork, and a fair share of funny yet sweet, honest, and heartfelt messages (these last came mainly from my boys, who totally surprised me by wanting to participate in the project so much). 

I'm so glad I caved and begrudgingly allowed my students to make this happen - I have a feeling it's a memory that will stick with me :)

MTBoS Blogging Initiative

Ok - I've had this blog for over two years and I've posted a whopping 4 times (5 if you let me count this one). I realized that if I want to actually be a contributing of the MTBoS community I needed some help getting going here. So... I joined the January Blogging Initiation hosted by Explore MTBoS!

This means that I actually have to post stuff - and I have a mentor who will force help me to stay accountable :) 

You, too, could join in on this exciting adventure. All you have to do is dust off your blog and get ready for the first prompt to arrive January 10th!

Gearing Up for CMC South 2015

I've been kind of stressing myself out over the upcoming CMC South Conference and the fact that I am presenting by myself for the first time (twice in the same day, mind you). I am a different teacher  now than I was when I submitted those proposals, and I want to offer the best of my knowledge and experiences. So... I wound up changing everything at the last minute.

I actually do that all the time for my lessons too. I plan out everything - sometimes I even have made copies of things ahead. Then I get an idea or someone challenges my thinking and I have to go and change things at the last minute. I mean, I actually like that I'm willing to be flexible, but the fact that I can't just let things be sometimes is actually very annoying... Especially when I am a busy type of person and I have deadlines looming and piles of unfolded laundry and I didn't clean the bathroom this week and somehow I need to figure out how to get my 8th graders through 3 days of subs without losing too much mathematical momentum and I'm trying to ignore the fact that I'm kind of freaking out about presenting in 6 days and I think you get the picture.

It's funny. I showed some of the Jo Boaler videos to my math students at the beginning of the year and we had discussions about fast vs. deep mathematical thinkers. I am definitely one of the latter - I can't really take action on something until I see it from various angles and understand it and come to my own conclusions about where I think I should head. But once I get my mind wrapped around something, I can power out a ton of stuff. The problem is that I don't know a "fast" way to get to the point where I'm ready to be the work horse.

So... When I had my thinking challenged and found new ideas and resources and awesome people doing awesome things, I had to update my "mental model." This meant that all of the ideas that I had planned out for presenting suddenly were in flux and I wasn't sure where I was going to wind up. So after getting a TON of stuff together over the summer and feeling pretty sure of things in terms of my presentations, I suddenly had this ridiculous need to change it all around to match my updated (and still changing) view of what mathematics education should be. BUT, since it's still changing, I was feeling kind of paralyzed about how to move forward.

Well, today I decided that I was going to keep the best from the past, add in what new stuff I could already wrap my mind around, and ask the audience for the rest. I will admit, the idea seemed crazy at first, but I was realizing that 90 minutes is really not a very long time, and I want so much for the experience I offer for my attendees to actually fill a need for them. If I pre-determine every little thing, I don't think that's really possible. So I made my spiel, created an example to demonstrate, and then I'm going to poll the audience and go where they take me. Hopefully my audience is awesome so my presentation can be awesome too :)

Taking Another Swing At It...

Well, about two years ago I came home from the CMC-South Math Conference all fired up and wrote a whopping 2 blog posts... and haven't done a thing here since!

I had wanted to offer something to help other math teachers/students in some way, but I got busy, and deep down, I guess I wasn't sure what I could offer up that didn't already exist somewhere else. So, instead of worrying about giving the world something new, this is a purely selfish introspective post because my mind is running around with things and hopefully this will help me process and move forward :)

Currently, I am planning to go back to CMC and speak again - all by myself - in just a couple of weeks (TWICE, by the way - yes, I am totally nervous). I had to submit my proposals way back during last school year, BEFORE I changed grades and changed schools. Since that time, besides having my entire school-life-routine upended, I have slowly and grudgingly waded into the waters of the #MTBoS in hopes of finding inspiration, professional development, and like-minded math-loving teachers trying to make the school experience better for kids (AND teachers!).

Well, I did find those things, but I will tell you, it certainly hasn't made anything easier or more clear. If anything, I find that I am left questioning everything and wondering if I made the best decision(s). I feel like my best strengths as a teacher bring with them my greatest weaknesses and I can't seem to separate one from the other. I see value in both sides of most arguments, leaving me wondering which direction to head.

I tried about five times to write a good example to explain myself here, but I decided the wordiness required to get my point across just isn't worth it. Basically, the place my mind has settled for the time being is in thinking that it is really about balance and time and has nothing to do with choosing sides.

I want to focus on big things with kids - "things" like critical thinking, problem solving, analyzing situations, forming and justifying conclusions. Essentially, what I believe I really owe my students is the Mathematical Practices. And yes, I am using my content standards for 8th grade to convey those "things." The problem is... it just takes so much time. There is no way that I could teach every 8th grade standard to mastery this way, at least not this school year. So I have to make choices about where to focus my deep lessons, and also where to skim and skip. I have to balance the big picture (math practices, 4-C's, College/Career Readiness, etc.) with the small (grade level standards, past mathematical holes, standardized testing) and choose how I spend my time with my students. Is this hard for anyone else?

I want so much to do what is right for kids. The problem is... I don't always know specifically what that is, especially when I have to consider the needs of so many at a time. I've heard many times about the impact of a caring adult on a child. There are days where I feel like that's the only thing I know I got right... I hope, for now, that that's enough.

California Mathematics Council (CMC) South Conference

I just got back from participating in the CMC-South Conference in Palm Springs for the first time. What a great experience! I was lucky enough to have a joint speaking proposal accepted, so 2 colleagues and I shared our experiences and "advice" for starting implementation of Common Core.

The first thing I learned from the experience is that a LOT more middle school teachers are feeling pressured and overwhelmed about Common Core than I was aware of - they just don't know where to start! I will admit, I was in the same boat when we began this journey, but I am also incredibly grateful that my district had the foresight to jump in when we did. We are already in our second year of implementation, and we feel like we are still learning, changing, and growing so much. Yet, we also see how far we still have to go! So, I can understand the concern from educators who are faced with a rapidly shrinking window of time to get things figured out before they are expected to be masters of Common Core - leading students on a path to college and career readiness.

If you are interested in our presentation, it is available as a Prezi here: http://prezi.com/h-umx9hcgzqn/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

BUT, since you probably just want to skip to the juicy bits (since you are probably an overwhelmed and overbusy educator yourself) I will highlight the key pieces of our Q&A session at the end here:

1. What should I ask for from my school/district/county to make Common Core happen?
1. Collaboration - I will be honest. The best thing we did was work together. It is VERY DIFFICULT to navigate Common Core alone. There is so much to understand and think about. The content isn't much different, but the way we (as educators) think about it, teach it, and help students think about it is a huge shift in California (and I'm sure in most other states). If it were just about WHAT we teach, it wouldn't be that big of a deal, but we are talking about fundamental changes in the HOW and WHY we teach. Believe me, you will want to have some rich discussions with like-minded individuals. They won't all be pretty or fun (we had our fair share of disagreements), but you will all be better teachers for it. If you happen to be a one-(wo)man show and are the ONLY math teacher at your school/district, I highly suggest you reach out to others in your county, or even to other math professionals across the state and country. Our county has a huge number of these positions, so they actually created a county-wide "small schools consortium" where these individuals can come together to collaborate with the support of the county. (I can put you in contact with the county personnel who are running this program if you comment or message about it). Also, we used a wiki to plan and track our collaborative lessons and units. You can make one for free here: https://my.pbworks.com/
2. Time - This stuff is deep, complex, and new. You will need time NOT ONLY TO PLAN INSTRUCTION, but to understand how to even do the problems using common core strategies yourself! We had something like 10 full days of professional development and planning for implementation our first year, and we were still under water at times. Even now, in our second year, there are times where we are living day by day. 
3. Expertise - If you can find a knowledgeable and reliable source who can support your growth and knowledge about the common core, it will be a huge help in guiding your path. We are lucky enough to have a fantastic team of county math consultants who have offered embedded and enrichment opportunities for growth and understanding in Common Core math. Find someone who knows what they are talking about and use their knowledge!
2. Where should I start in terms of planning?
1. Understanding the Core - Many districts/schools are already offering general PD on understanding the Common Core. You have to take some time to wrap your head around the shifts in instructional practice that will have to happen in order to ensure that students are reaching these standards. Also, watch and listen to Phil Daro. He's my common core hero: http://serpmedia.org/daro-talks/
2. Assessments - Take some time to check out SBAC and PARCC released questions (I am an SBAC state, so I don't have much experience with PARCC). You will be surprised at the expectation for your grade level. You may have moments of anxiety at this time.... BUT, at least you have a chance to see the challenges you and your students will be dealing with. I do suggest checking out the SBAC practice test for your grade level at http://sbac.portal.airast.org/practice-test/
3. Progressions - I CANNOT RECCOMMEND THESE ENOUGH! I know, I just typed a whole sentence in all caps. ELA teachers of my past will come to haunt my dreams tonight... But, it really is THAT IMPORTANT! If you are trying to plan your instruction, the Progressions will show you examples with multiple solutions using common core strategies. They highlight common themes through grade levels, and more clearly define what the goals are for each grade, what students should be coming in with, and where they need to go. They are heavy reading, so prepare to reread some passages multiple times, underline, highlight, make notes in the margins, etc. These are kind of like "an instructional guide to common core math" and they are indispensable. They are also still in draft form, so some of them aren't even there yet. But they are constantly being updated, so start with what is there, and by the time you figure that out, there are usually more available. Here's a link: http://ime.math.arizona.edu/progressions/
4. Math Practices - Okay, hopefully you've actually seen these by now. They often get touted during the preview/overview portion of Common Core professional development, and then everyone starts looking at the content standards and these fall to the wayside. Here's the deal - it is totally possible to teach the content of the common core standards using the strategies and tools of the common core, but without hitting any of the math practices (for example, if I teach solving an equation with a tape diagram, but I just teach the tape diagram as another procedure without focusing on what I am doing and why I am doing it). That is NOT Common Core! I will be honest - in my personal opinion, a student will get a better education from doing only the math practices (and not worrying about the content standards) than they will from hitting all of the standards without the math practices. Now, this doesn't mean you should set out to "teach MP1" today (by the way, it's annoying when people refer to the Math Practices by number - use the text so we all know what you mean! Just for reference, "MP1" is Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them). The math practices should be embedded throughout our instructional practices. A lot of times, it is as simple as questioning more deeply, focusing on representation and process rather than answers, or highlighting multiple solution paths. 
3. What are some reliable resources?
1. http://www.corestandards.org/math - The Common Core website itself. 
2. http://www.illustrativemathematics.org/ - This site is designed and managed by Bill McCallum, one of the authors of the common core. Search by standard, then click "illustrations" - a pop up window with examples of problems that hit that standard are listed, with connecting standards shown. This is a great way to answer "What am I supposed to teach to reach this standard?"
3. http://commoncoretools.me/author/wgmccallum/ - This is Bill McCallum's blog and it offers a lot of updates, tools, resources, news, and other cool stuff about common core math.
4. http://commoncore.tcoe.org/Math/Home - This is my County's website of ALL common core materials/tasks/lessons that they have vetted as truly being "Common Core". You may not get the quantity of google, but you will find much better quality, and you will know you are hitting the standards. Also, the left hand side of the page lists all of the county consultants, and they are all willing to answer questions and help guide understanding of common core math, even if you are not in our area. 
5. http://map.mathshell.org/materials/index.php - If you have heard of MARS tasks, this is the new home (and expanded version) for that. There are lessons, assessments, and tasks that are searchable by level, standard, math practice, etc. It takes a little while to figure out where everything is, but this is a really fantastic resource. 
6. http://www.insidemathematics.org/ - Resource for math educators. Some good videos of lesson exemplars, etc. Good stuff, just not as much of it as you would probably wish. 
7. http://illuminations.nctm.org/ - This website existed before, so many of you probably know about it. It offers lessons and web tools to help students learn math. Many of the lessons are great if you edit them to fit your needs (I find they are difficult to do completely as is and still hit everything I need them to in the day, but still a good foundation so you don't start from scratch!)
8. http://blog.mrmeyer.com/ - Dan Meyer is becoming a big name in this movement. You can find TED talks about him, and definitely check out "Dan Meyer 3-acts" for some great inquiry-based activities that teach math content. This is his blog, and most other stuff can link from here, but you could also google him and find plenty. 
9. http://www.nctm.org/ - Again, probably something you already know about, but they are still good :)
10. http://www.cmc-math.org/ - Check out the "for families" stuff. Lots of people were asking about how to help get parents bought in, and there are some good ideas here. 
4. How can I find other reliable resources on my own?
1. Search by standard, rather than just "common core." Unfortunately, a lot of people and organizations are just reworking old materials, and slapping a pretty "Common Core" sticker on the front. Be discerning and don't get fooled! 
2. Ask yourself if the lesson/activity/task/assessment will actually hit multiple math practices
3. Use materials vetted by your state (or another state) or some other official agency that really understands what the common core standards are about for your area. 
5. What do I tell parents when they say...
1. "My child is advanced and he/she should be able to take algebra and geometry for HS credit at the junior high - I don't want them with all the remedial kids in Common Core" - Common Core courses are actually more difficult in terms of the levels of thinking and learning that must go on for students than any of the "advanced" classes (like the California algebra for 8th grade class from the past). Those classes taught a LOT of surface level knowledge (students would memorize and regurgitate), but they often didn't understand what was really going on with the math, so they could not generalize foundational mathematical properties to future problems. Also, the most important and usable math a student will use in their future adult lives comes from middle school content. If we accelerate a student through this material without proper depth, we are creating more problems than we are solving for students. Also, the opportunity for depth actually creates much more complex problems for students, so even high-achieving students will be challenged. Besides, even if we put a student in a traditional California 8th grade algebra class, they don't actually meet all of the standards required for common core algebra in high school, so they would have to take the class anyway. Why waste the time?
2. "How am I supposed to help my kid with math homework if I don't even understand what the heck you are doing?" http://www.scoe.org/files/math-at-home-english.pdf - This is a document for parents starting in Kindegarten for how they can be involved in the math learning of their children. They also have a translated spanish version (how cool!) http://www.scoe.org/files/math-at-home-spanish.pdf
3. "Common Core is just an excuse for the government to mess up my life. I don't want my child to be a part of this conspiracy" http://www.scoe.org/files/parent-survey-misic.pdf - If they answer yes, then they actually DO want Common Core! :) It's not about politics or government. In most cases, the Common Core standards are a HUGE improvement over how math has been taught in the "high stakes" environment of standardized testing. Good math learning is good math learning no matter who it comes from. It just so happens that the government actually put a foot in the right direction this time. 

WHOO! That was way longer than I intended. Sorry for the marathon, but if you made it to the end, I hope you found at least SOMEthing useful and useable in your common core journey. Also, if you have found other resources, tools, strategies or just good information that has been of use, please post to the comments!