EngageNY is officially kicking my butt. I now know, clearly, why teachers in New York have been so upset about Common Core. These lessons are just ridiculous. Here are some examples:

I spent about four hours today working on lesson plans today for sixth and seventh grades. I got two days of planning done for sixth grade and one and a bit for seventh. I had to hunt high and low for the directions for a protocol, which turned out to be in Appendix A.

I am being asked to give my sixth graders an "Entrance Ticket" assessment that tests their comprehension of a chapter that they were assigned to read the previous night. They are supposed to get five minutes to answer three very basic comprehension questions. The idea is to hold kids accountable for their reading assignment/homework. For my lowest kids that five minutes will be consumed by taking out a sheet of paper and writing their name, date and period number at the top of the paper. Many of those same children will also have neither the comprehension nor the recall to answer the questions correctly. So my choices are to ignore the assignment, give it as suggested or figure out a way to differentiate it for ELs and IWENs. Not sure yet how I will go after this.

It's late and I'm tired. Over and out.