Journal 3

ELA Tech Standards 

I explored the ELA standards common in elementary classrooms, like Kindergarten and 1st grade as those grade levels are my area of interest. As an individual, I feel like I am best prepared to allow the children to explore a variety of digital tools which can be done through the process of hands on learning. Using SmartBoard technology would be an aid to this hands on learning system as students will be able to engage with the material first hand, providing a tactual method of learning. However, using tech features to locate important information would require more skill on my part as I do not think that this skill will be used often in elementary classrooms. But, I can familiarize myself with this method of learning and try it out to benefit the students learning experience in class. 

CPALMS 

I explored the Kindergarten educator toolkit as in the future I hope to teach this area. I first noticed a planner from iCPALMS which makes lesson planning easy by recommending teaching resources for a variety of subjects, in different age categories. Under the math category I found an interactive learning activity which allows children to recognize rectangles, squares, hexagons, and other shapes necessary for development. I found this activity to be engaging for young students as it first reviewed what should already be known before starting the lesson and then branched out and provided a broader explanation as to what will be learned. I think this online framework will be effective in a Kindergarten classroom as young students are drawn to colors, characters, and interactive learning methods, that of which is supported in this activity. 

Newsletter Design 

The newsletter assignment was a great way to build skills in Microsoft Word, but was not without difficulty. When I first began to construct the newsletter I was confused as how to add a boarder and banner overhead but through research and google I developed a polished finish project. However, I think that I could have used more meaningful graphics to complement the text and overall make the page more visually appealing. Looking forward, this assignment offered me new insight into format in Word that I will be using for lesson plans, class announcements, and educational planning as a teacher. Overall, this project taught me to explore new options, experiment with new texts, fonts, and colors, to showcase personal style, and was in return a good opening project to build Microsoft Skills.