Blog Journal 3

     The ELA standards are very useful guidelines for educators, and I could definitely see myself using them in my own teaching career. I looked at the standards for educating grades 11 and 12, as I would like to teach that age myself, and found all of the standards useful and applicable. However the one numbered LAFS.1112.WHST.3.8, which regards students using the internet to find and evaluate sources, really stood out to me. I feel comfortable with this sort of task as I do it all the time as a history major, and I feel it is very important for students to know the capabilities of the internet for research, as well as its limitations.

     When I was looking over the vast CPALMS toolkit, one tool that stood out to me was the history tutorials, which are sort of like video slide shows with images and narration. While these are certainly not supplementary and would not serve as a main classroom activity, they could be very useful in students looking into events they are personally interested in, or for reviewing information before a test or paper. These tutorial allow students to learn about what they are interested in, at their own pace, and anywhere with an internet connection.

     The newsletter assignment was interesting to say the least. While I have used word extensively during my time as an undergrad, this assignment forced me to use some of the graphical design features of word which I had never needed to make use of. I certainly feel more comfortable with features like borders and tables than I was, although truth be told I'm not sure I'll be able to use them much during the rest of my time as a student.