This article was published in the Lenoir News-Topic.

North Carolina, which adopted the Common Core in 2010, has had standardized curriculum guidelines since 1898. But the Common Core is different, both because of its national ambitions – proponents hope it will eventually be adopted in all 50 states – and its emphasis on in-depth work and project-based learning.

“The Common Core focuses more on why we’re doing what we’re doing,” said Katrina McEllen, high school director for the Caldwell County Schools. “You’re going to see the teacher as more of a facilitator than as the traditional figure up in the front of the room.”

As the Common Core is implemented, students are doing more group work, and teachers are asking more questions, trying to guide pupils toward the answer instead of showing a specific example and having the copy it. Continue reading →

This article was published in the Lenoir News-Topic.

After a year of implementing the new Common Core state standards, Caldwell County teachers and administrators are awaiting a verdict on just how well they did.

That verdict is likely to come in the form of a large drop in standardized test scores, but a drop doesn’t mean the verdict will be bad.

The standards, which outline what students should know after completing each grade, have been adopted in 45 states and the District of Columbia. In North Carolina, the standards were implemented during the 2012-13 school year.

Administrators in Caldwell County said they feel the first year of implementation went well, but they won’t know for sure until the results from statewide standardized tests come in this November. Continue reading →

This article was published in the Lenoir News-Topic.

Before the next time it rains, go out and look at the sidewalks surrounding the square in downtown Lenoir.

There you’ll be able to see, in sprawling pastel color, the things that make second-graders happy.

Kids from each second-grade class at Davenport A+ School marched to the center of downtown Monday, armed with buckets of sidewalk chalk. They were there for an integrated-learning project based on a book they had been read in the classroom – Nancy Poydar’s “Cool Ali.”

As the cluster of kids arranged themselves, legs criss-crossed, in the square, local artist Charlie Frye treated them to one last reading of the book. It focuses on Ali, a little girl in a big city who, on a sweltering day, relies on chalk drawings of all things cool to bring the temperature down. Her illustrations of north winds, beach umbrellas, polar bears and dots of snow come to life, cooling down both Ali and her neighbors. Continue reading →

This article was published in the Lenoir News-Topic.

A few months into her tenure as principal at West Lenoir Elementary School, Kristy Hollar is trying to build community.

She has worked to make sure parents know what’s going on at West Lenoir each day, she said, and was heartened by high attendance at the school’s Friends and Family Day, at a recent family movie night and at the first PTA meeting of the year.

Hollar, a Caldwell County native and former assistant principal at West Caldwell High School, said it’s important to her that school employees work as a team with parents of the 176 students at West Lenoir. Continue reading →