My Teaching is Completely Different

Even if I wasn't using computers and iPads in my classroom, my teaching would still be completely different from what it was five to ten years ago.  Way back when, I started learning about teaching for true understanding, critical analysis, and creative creation.  These ideas was alluded to in my teacher training, but that was so long ago they were just in their infancy for most of the teaching community.  Working with manipulatives and understanding the concepts and patterns of math BEFORE showing how to record them with arithmetic algorithms was just the first step.  Now I ask students to use what they know to solve problems well above their grade level using teamwork and critical thinking skills.  Being smart is using what you know to figure out what you don't know.  Even after this arduous process I won't check students' work because that's not how it works in the real world.  Mathematicians and scientists don't have anyone to tell them if their theories and calculations are correct.  They compare results with their peers, so that is what my students do.  Storytelling has changed as well.  No longer do I accept just regular writing.  I want exciting and precise vocabulary, proper organization, and exactness of detail.  And the excuse, but they are just first graders won't fly with me.  They aren't JUST first graders, they are FIRST GRADERS!  Empower the students, teach them foundational skills, get out of their way, and they will amaze you.  Now, add in to this the use of computers and iPads and the revolution grows.  Geography takes on true meaning when you are in the midst of a mystery location call, bloggers have a world wide audience, your partner on that last project was not your buddy from class but your buddy from across the world.  My students have close to the sum of human knowledge at their fingertips.  But as Harold Wheeler says, they need to develop their crap detectors, because let's face it, there is a lot of crap on the internet.  My kiddos don't me to teach them details, they need me to teach them how to find the accurate information they need in order to solve problems.  If you can be replaced by a video, you should be!  So, with the switch to the "new" common core I wonder what is "new" about any of it.   Assessing the processing of information, critical thinking, and problem solving skills of students is nothing new at all.  It is just so much more exciting and customizable with technology.