A recent Education Week article reveals the frightening truth that teachers are feeling unprepared for implementing the Common Core State Standards.

An excerpt reads:

The study by the EPE Research Center, an arm of Editorial Projects in Education, the publisher of Education Week, found deep wells of concern among teachers about their readiness to meet the challenges posed by the common core in English/language arts and mathematics.

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Throughout the course of this school year, Atomic Learning has been following several teachers to see how they are transitioning classroom lessons to implement the CCSS. Videos captured from these observations are part of the trusted ed tech training leader’s Atomic TechCore solution, a set of tools that assist school leaders in providing teachers the resources they need to address the critical technology components embedded within the Common Core State Standards.

Catlin Tucker is one of those teachers working through the challenges of implementing the standards in her California English classroom. Here's a preview of the training Catlin has helped develop to assist her peers in implementing the CCSS in their lessons: http://youtu.be/A25IqcouUns

The introduction of new standards are creating quite a bit of stir and a bit of confusion. Not only have the CCSS changed the content being taught, more than half of the standards contain a technology component. To help with the change, Atomic Learning has developed Atomic TechCore to help educators implement the new standards.

Last week, we introduced Catlin’s story. This week, meet Tim, who is video journaling his story on how the CCSS affect his math classes.  

Aligning curriculum to the Common Core is a major task many school leaders and teachers are working through. In this video, hear from a former district employee about a new resource to help school leaders in building and executing a solid Common Core implementation roadmap.

Learn more about Atomic Learning's Atomic TechCore solution.

Learn how to transform your classroom lessons to teach Common Core State Standards in the Atomic Catalyst course starting October 11th! Register today!

Have you heard about Atomic Learning's Atomic Catalyst—instructor-led PD—course centered around Atomic TechCore’s Lesson Wizard, where classroom lessons are created that empower students to achieve the rigor of the Common Core State Standards?

One participant shared:

Thank you for your help and expertise. Learning about the Common Core and all the resources out there online about them has given me confidence to speak up about the standards.

When participants are finished with the course, they gain a thorough understanding of how to create lessons that align to the Common Core Standards. During the course, they have guided practice designing 3 such lessons in a collaborative, facilitated environment.

Learn more about joining an upcoming session and register for the course starting on October 11th!

Check out this Education Industry Insight presentation at the Gilfus Education Group's Innovation Showcase Theater: "Planning for the Technology Components of Common Core" presented by Jeffrey Roth of Atomic Learning. Recorded at the annual ASCD Conference, Philadelphia, March 2012.

For a demo of Atomic TechCore, Atomic Learning's suite of tools developed to guide school leaders in building their Common Core implementation road maps, click here.

In a recent article, Education Week reviewed ways to trim the cost of implementing the Common Core State standards. Suggestions to limit expenditures include:

• Moving away from hard-copy textbooks and doing more sharing of online materials.
• Using computer-administered technology to offer formative assessments.
• Delivering professional development through a mix of in-person and online instruction. 
• States, districts, and charter providers must be willing to stop purchasing goods and services from their existing vendors if they don't meet their current needs, and seek out new vendors willing to take advantage of the opportunities the new standards present. 

While Atomic Learning agrees that all of the ideas have merit, we offer an additional solution: using a collaborative approach to plan the implementation of the new standards. Atomic TechCore includes:

The Atomic TechCore solution from Atomic Learning helps school leaders and educators plan and execute a solid road map for curriculum to meet the requirements of the Common Core State Standards.

New to the Atomic TechCore solution is the lesson entitled "Fish Tank: Research, Writing, & Presentation," which uses an online wiki to create a collaborative environment where students present and discuss information related to an allegorical story they have read. Students will learn Internet search techniques, as well as how to evaluate the information they find on the Web for credibility and accuracy. 

Have you been wondering about how the Common Core State Standards will affect your classroom? The most recent Harvard Education Letter from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Nine Ways the Common Core Will Change Classroom Practice addresses the key shifts in the standards.

In Mathematics

1. Greater Focus
2. Coherence
3. Skills, Understanding, and Application
4. Emphasis on Practices

In English Language Arts

A recent commentary piece called “Give the Standards Back to Teachers” was featured in Education Week. The article shares that a lot of people have played a role in the development and implementation of standards through the years, but ultimately, it is the teachers who need to own the standards—and the teachers are responsible for making sure that the standards affect student learning.

In a recent poll discussed on the Education Week website, most teachers surveyed were aware of the Common Core State Standards.

With regard to public school teachers, awareness continues to grow, which should come as little surprise given that states and districts have become more active in ramping up their implementation efforts."

Need a kickstart for your district’s Common Core planning and implementation?  Atomic Learning recently announced the launch of Atomic TechCore, a suite of tools for school leaders to build their Common Core implementation roadmaps.

Atomic TechCore consists of a set of collaborative planning tools that assist school leaders in identifying the professional development and technology needed for their schools to be successful implementing Common Core.

Is your district struggling with developing a strategic plan to meet the requirements of the Common Core State Standards? Atomic TechCore, a suite of tools for school leaders to build their Common Core implementation roadmaps, is now available.

Atomic TechCore consists of a set of customizable planning and collaborative network tools that assist administrators in identifying the professional development and technology needed for their district to transform teaching to align to Common Core standards, and in communicating the resulting findings and implementation plans to those impacted within the district.

The Atomic TechCore solution includes:
•    Planning tool for school leaders
•    PD and lesson plans for teachers
•    Lesson assignments for students

Atomic Learning gives the Curriculum Director resources to quickly find examples of how technology can support different subject areas and plan and implement Common Core State Standards. Through the use of Classroom ready projects, teachers learn to effectively integrate technology in the classroom, empowering them with forward-thinking training to prepare students for 21st Century careers. These resources can be used as basis for, or to augment, training sessions.

A recent article in Education Week asks the question “How Much Will the Common Core Cost?” The article highlights money-saving ways to implement the Common Core State Standards, the largest implementation savings are linked to using technology in three areas: curriculum materials, tests, and professional development.

At Atomic Learning, we didn’t design Atomic TechCore to save districts money on implementation costs; we designed a product that would allow educators and administrators to collaborate to determine the best way to incorporate the new Mathematics and English Language Arts standards into curriculum. This meant encompassing professional development, lesson planning, and student delivery, in addition to rubrics to gauge learning metrics all in one tool.  With Atomic TechCore, districts are able to review existing tools within the district to make sure that the components of the standards are woven into the classroom as seamlessly and as efficiently as possible.