Journal 3

The standard that I have chosen pertains to grades six through eight. Standard LAFS.68.WHST.2.6 basically says that the students should be able to use technology such as the internet to come to conclusions about relationships that they have researched as well as present new ideas that they have found through the internet. As of now I feel comfortable implementing this standard especially after completing the word formatting check and the newsletter assignment. Word and Google Docs are the two most common applications that students use in order to present new information, usually in the form of an essay. In order to get them comfortable with using more than just basic word functions I would teach them to use the insert table and flow chart functions. These features are better at displaying relationship based information.

I would probably use the Instructional Resources took from CPALMS the most in my classroom. I find this tool very helpful because it provides you with lesson plans for any grade level and academic subject that you are looking to teach in your classroom. These lesson plans include learning goals for the students as well as key words and an estimated instructional time. I find the instructional time most important because teachers are constantly trying to follow a strict timeline in order to cover all material before end of the year exams arrive. By including the estimated instructional time, teachers could plan their months out easier and actually stick to it.

My favorite skills learned from the Newsletter Design assignment were the border function and the column function. As a teacher especially, letters home to parents usually have some kind of artistic value to them and I think adding even just a simple border gives those letters a livelier look. The same can be said for the column function, it gives the letters more dimension and makes it more pleasing to the eye to read. Otherwise, the letters would look like time consuming essays that the parents have to read. WordArt was also a fun skill that I learned more about. I did not know that you could bend or flip the letters by using WordArt. To improve my newsletter I would construct it on a non-apple computer so that the structure of the newsletter is not lost when you export it.