Something I've been struggling with in my mind for several months is learning how I might make my Curriculum Unit more teacher-friendly by aligning it with the new Common Core Standards. Listening to teachers and reading the school board reports, I hear that now everything in the classroom must be aligned to these standards.

The problem is, I don't even know what the Common Core Standards are or how I might do this. Subbing in various schools, I have picked up on the fact that teachers themselves are struggling to figure out the standards and what to do with them. So how is someone like me going to figure them out? And how important is it that I do this? The more I look into it, the more questions I have and I'm not sure who can even answer them.

I started by asking a few teachers, who seemed to think I was on the right track. Then I turned to the internet to find information. I don't know if I need to find someone to help me, or if I can figure out what I need to know by just digging around on my own. But there's only one way to find out--start digging. I'm already getting brain-strain.

I want The Orange Slipknot and my Curriculum Unit to be useful teaching tools in the classroom. Teachers will be more likely to buy them if the necessary work has already been done for them. As an author who is also working in the school system, I hope to use my knowledge and experience to help me market my book to teachers. Being an author is more than just writing a good story--there is lots of work to do after the book gets published.