Blog 5

HAPPY WEEK 5!

I played around a lot on the ELA standards and technology website and looked at various different grade levels but paid most attention to grades 9-10 because I want to teach highschool. There was A LOT of reference to technology, the digital world, and multimedia in the 9-10 grade standards. I think I grasp a lot of the concepts and would be able to teach them, but am afraid I would run into some technical difficulties as of now (thank gosh i'm in this class I guess)! I feel ready to teach vocabulary, word linkage, word meanings, relationships, organizing ideas, topics, etc. I have a lot of practice on connecting ideas well with transitions, specific vocabulary, and creating a good flow in writing. However, there were a lot of standards (as I mentioned) using the internet and digital media with some programs i've never heard of before, so I'd need to learn more about that.

Once again, when looking at the CPALMS toolkits, I looked at the highschool focused resources/tools. One tool I thought was cool and so useful was "Be careful with your comma's!" interactive tutorial. This one grabbed my attention because i'm sure by highschool kids are confident that they know when and where to use a a comma, but yet they frequently misplace them. I would use this resource in my classroom because it's not just a boring video with corny jokes, it's interactive and actually tests if the students are using the comma's correctly. It's not too long and split up into a bunch of modules, where a student can choose to skip if they know that module. In between modules there are practices. Then at the end there are final practices to make sure you can combine all the different ways and rules they taught the student about comma's. You fill in blanks, hit links, etc. and it doesn't leave the student bored!

Lastly for this blog, I attached my newsletter assignment. I actually really liked this assignment because it was such a real life example, it was really like I was creating a newsletter for my future classroom. I learned how to keep the content in two columns even with a header, clipart, and photos. At first everything was misaligned, but I learned how to fix it properly. I think next time I should try to make the second page as aesthetically pleasing as the first. It'll help keep the attention of the person reading the newsletter. I liked the assignment, it tested my knowledge but wasn't too difficult. Have a great week class! Check out my comments on Sierra & Courtney's blog!