Aaron Levine's EME2040 Blog

I chose the Vocabulary Mastery CPALMS resource, as I would like to become a high school English teacher one day. I generally found that this resource did a great job of teaching students fifteen new vocabulary words by including relevant graphics that will do a great job of helping students remember the words. I also thought that it was effective that in addition to giving the definition of the words the resource also included a sentence using the word and bolding and italicizing the word to help it stick out. The source even gave the word's origin and included it in yellow. I personally find changing the color to be a great way to help students remember information. One problem I had with the resource was that it took a very long time for each new piece of text to pop up in the slideshow. I don't know if this was just happening for me on my desktop here in class, or if this is an actual design flaw. If it is just a design flaw, it would require a teacher to keep scrolling on...

One ELA standard I would feel comfortable teaching is helping my students comprehend and critique. I found that all too often in high school, students liked to critique before comprehending what they were reading, and have realized the importance of understanding what you're reading so that your critique is legitimate. One standard that requires more learning on my part is learning more about using digital media and technology. Though I am proficient in MS Word as well as Powerpoint and I feel pretty comfortable on the web, I am no expert in complex document formatting. I look forward to learning more about digital media in this class. I think it would be cool to make an assignment in which students had to use an movie making application like Imovie or Video Editor for Free to work as a team to prove that they have a command of the material and review the material with the class in a fun, entertaining, and educational way. I would also try to find videos reviewing what I taught i...

As a student, I've used MS Word for pretty much all projects that have required me to type out documents. Some of these projects included typing up research reports and writing English Language Arts essays. I always found MS Word the most easy to use and versatile word processor of the ones I've tried. I've also seen my teachers use MS Word to make quizzes and exams as well as to make study guides for the class to use for exam prep. On the topic of copyrighting, I would be sure to educate my students about the consequences surrounding stealing others' work and would make sure that they understood how to properly cite quotes that they use for papers. I would also demand that my students create a bibliography and I would randomly audit students finding the quote that they used within the bibliography to make sure they were being honest. Also, if I created an educational system that I thought was innovative enough to pay the money for a copyright, I myself would copyrigh...

One thing that influences a student's use of technology in the classroom is diversity in the classroom. Since there are students in with many different personalities and coming from many different backgrounds. Because of this, students have different needs, which can oftentimes be met in the classroom with the proper technology. For example, there may be a student who is from a foreign country who needs a translator iphone app or a computer game designed to help the student master English grammar. Computer games and iphone games in general can be very good for students who have trouble focusing, as the opportunity for the students to win can often give them the motivation necessary to stay focused. Games are great for teachers as well. I remember teachers making jeopardy games on several occasions, which they would use the smart board to allow the students to play, to help prepare students for tests and quizzes. One ISTE Student standard within my skill set is "creative comm...

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