Blog Post Three

          I’m familiar with most of the concepts taught in ELA being I want to be an English teacher. I’d say that I’m most comfortable with the standard that encourages students to use the internet to publish work they’ve produced, allowing them to display their work for the world. In previous classes, I’ve created websites and blogs that served as a platform for my writing assignments. It was convenient and worked perfectly as a portfolio. I’d also say I’m familiar with the first standard, which deals with understanding the meaning of words and using tools to clarify words that are ambiguous. I still do this all the time and would be happy to show my students how easy it is to broaden their vocabulary (using technology). I think I’ll definitely need to experiment with digital design before teaching my classes about digital media. I’m really only familiar with PowerPoint and Prezi, but I want my students to be aware of all that’s out there to help them succeed. 

            My favorite tool that I found in the CPALMS toolkit was the Original Student Tutorials for Language Arts. There’re 141 lessons ranging from 6th-12th grade. I found lessons on poetry, vocabulary, grammar, logical reasoning; it seriously had everything. The coolest thing about them was that they included the standards they were directed towards teaching, which helps ensure teachers are teaching the correct material and providing students with the necessary knowledge. The lessons even start by including learning objectives! This will definitely be a website I utilize, or even just reference (I feel like relying on these lessons could get boring) as a teacher. I think students would truly benefit from the structure and content in the lessons, helping them succeed in my class. 

            From working on the Newsletter, I was able to discover new features on word that I didn’t know existed. First off, I could never figure out how to insert page boarders until I took this class! I think they’re a cool element to make Newsletters more visually inviting. I also discovered how to shade a section of text. I thought that you could only shade textboxes, which made uncovering that feature very exciting. I like that Word is fairly easy to use, but sometimes it can be tricky. For instance, inserting pictures can be a hassle sometimes, along with headers and trying to keep my text-columns even. But besides that, I think it’s the perfect software for teachers and students. Next time, I think I’m going to include less text and bigger pictures; my photos are small and I don’t think they make a big impact on my Newsletter. From this assignment, I learned how to create a functional Newsletter for my student’s parents, which will allow them to stay updated on what exactly their child is learning. Feel free to check out my Newsletter as it will be posted below!