3 - ELA, Technology & Newsletters!

The ELA standards are very important in the classroom setting. I feel most comfortable and most prepared with almost all of the standards. From reading them, the one that seems most difficult to me is the one titled, SL.2 “integrate and evaluate.” This standard is very different for all grade levels, but I feel like it would be hardest to meet with grades K-2. Kindergarteners are not very good readers so having to display words in a paragraph on the screen for example might be difficult. Controversially, it would be very simple to represent items quantitatively and orally. Young children are good listeners and are interested in numbers and how they work.

I would like to use the internet with my students. Through the internet, I believe that discussion groups would be very helpful. I wish all of my classes now had them so people could ask questions outside of class and others could respond. This would be super beneficial for everyone in the class because usually more than one person has the same question. I would need to address the rules of the discussion board and that everything must be school appropriate. The students that I would use this program with would be high schoolers. I feel that kindergarteners and elementary school students are not prepared and mature enough for an online class discussion group.

I have learned a lot from designing a newsletter on Microsoft Word. I learned how to create boxes with shadows in the back of the text along with how to make columns in my newsletter. I was very confused and didn’t know how to do a lot of the requirements so I easily got frustrated (until I figured it all out). Next time I can make it longer and more interesting to read but overall I feel like this assignment will be very useful in the future. I now know how important newsletters are and that they take lots of time and creativity.