Blog Journal 4

ELA STANDARDS

The ELA technology standards matrix that I decided to explore was for grade level eight. The standard focuses on a student's overall ability to create sentences correctly and utilize proper grammar and punctuation in the forming of sentences and even paragraphs. This standard additionally explores the various mediums to which contact can be presented and the ability to integrate multimedia at large into traditional teaching methods. Through the use of technology and various online tools, this standard also focuses on the student's ability to gather information online to generate presentations that will thoroughly allow a student to display an appropriate level of understanding of a topic. With my current skill set, I do feel properly equipped to implement this standard if I were to be teaching this grade level. I feel I'm equipped to do so because throughout my entire tenure as a student I have been a digital native and learned at a very early age some of the very same standards that were meant for eighth-graders during my time as a fifth-grade student. From a technological standpoint I was considered a very advanced learner and learned and built upon the skills from a very early age I feel very comfortable navigating the standards and feel I would do a good job teaching others.

CPALMS

If I was an educator, I definitely would utilize the CPALMS website quite frequently. In my brief interaction with the website, I can say I am blown away by the abundance of resources made available to educators. I think a website like this would be very beneficial as an educator who may just be entering into the world of teaching or even an educator who is tenured and might even want to revamp the way their lessons are structured in their classrooms. I think this website provides great space for that. The resource that I decided to take a look at further falls under the world of theater and is a playwriting podcast lesson plan. This lesson plan provides educators insight on how to guide students to work in teams to create a podcast based upon research they found on a chosen playwright. Not only would I use this lesson in my classroom because I am a theater fan but I would also use it because it allows students to understand the value of conducting research online, properly finding and citing sources, and additionally it will allow students the ability to work with others to utilize computer tools to create a podcast thus giving them greater exposure to the greater tools and functions of a computer.

INTERNET SEARCHING

As a teacher who will educate others on the tools of the internet, I think it is essential to be well versed in the tools of the modern world. In addition to this it is imperative to ensure that you know how to quickly, safely, and efficiently navigate the web as this may be an essential tool to use in your classroom setting. It is important that you know how to quickly navigate the web because during instructional time every second matters to the students learning experience and it is important that if you were trying to integrate online material into your lessons you know how to quickly find these resources. It is equally imperative that while you were finding this course material your devices that may be connected to external displays or projectors may be showing to your students at any time, it is important that while searching the web adult content or any inappropriate material does not appear on the screen from the search environments you are using. It is equally important that you know how to navigate the web efficiently in a manner that allows you to should the most relevant material to students that will best fit the content you are teaching. There were not any tools that I had not learned about in this lesson because prior to this I actually watched the same video for another class while learning about online resources in High School. One tool that I wished was taught in this was how to use third-party tools to conduct reverse image searches!