Blog Journal 3

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 in class on Teachertube.com and Youtube.com and recommend them to my students for them to check out to help prepare for exams and review material discussed in class. One youtube channel in particular I would recommend that my students check out is Khan Academy, because I find that Sal Khan does a very thorough job of explaining the topics he reviews in his videos, and has made a ton of them. The age range of my students will probably be anywhere from 7th grade to 12 grade. To make sure they are prepared digital citizens, I would have them make their own social media accounts in which they were only allowed to post assignments and share academic articles and videos from the web. This would not only make them proficient with the form of social media we would be using, but would also help them understand the importance of being careful about what they post. I would also be sure to teach my students about copyright laws so that they understood why plagiarism is such a serious crime. Since I plan to become an English teacher, my students will end up writing at least one research paper a year, and will need to understand why it is essential to cite all of the sources that they take quotes from.

From working on the newsletter design, I've become more comfortable with how to format an article. I learned how to use columns and became more familiar with how to use graphics within an MS word document and how to use word art to brighten up my document. I also never knew how to shade a column before working on the Newsletter. Next time, I feel like if there were more things we had to do to a single article rather than having us do three separate articles might have been a bit more effective. In my future career, if I am sending a formal letter to the parents of my students, I will not be daunted. I will have the tools and skills I need to make a letter that is both aesthetically pleasing and effective in sending the message I need to communicate.

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