Blog #3 2.1.16

      I feel most confident with RL.7 "Multimedia:" Literature & informational text. Throughout my K-12 schooling experience, all of my teachers have displayed the use of these standards. In middle and high school my classmates and I had a lot of assignments that had to do with acting and displaying our take on the topic assigned to us. Thankfully, we did more than just read a bunch of novels and essays. Our teachers put and emphasize on student exploration of the topics being discussed. I duel enrolled at my high school and in my ENC1101 class we read the classics like Odysseus,Oedipus, and death of a salesman. Once we where done reading and discussing the plays, when then watched the movie and compared and contrasted it to the text version. So I believe I have the most knowledge about those particular standards.
        I would say I need more preparation on standard W/WHST.8 "Use multiple sources". I would like more clarification on what the difference is between a primary and secondary source. I also would like to know how to find the differences between a credible and an unreliable source. And most importantly, a better understanding on how to avoid plagiarism.
     As I have said before, most children now-a-days have some sort of technology that they use everyday. Most of the kids I know today have an iPad or and iPod touch or some sort of electronic device that they use. Some kindergartens are even giving iPads to children for them to use--I know it is crazy. I believe technology use can be very beneficial in the classroom, but to an extent. I think that 3rd grade and up could probably handle things like discussion groups online or chats with their fellow classmates. The World Wide Web is another story however. This is all different kinds of crazy things posted on the internet, and as an educator in charge of a classroom of young students it is my job to monitor their computer use and make sure they don't see anything they should not be seeing at such a young age. Digital citizenship guidelines are super important when teaching students how to use the internet. These guidelines help point students in the right direction when using the internet for the first time. By the end of elementary school I believe students should be aware of copy right laws, know how to be responsible and respectful online, and navigate their way around basic websites.
      I have never created my own newsletter or classroom document from scratch before, so this was both a exciting and challenging experience for me. Figuring out to how to type on different columns gave me a little bit of trouble, along with a few aspects of Word I have never used before. I get really excited when I get to make things like this for "my classroom" so I put a lot of time into it because I wanted it to be just perfect. This assignment had me navigating around Word and finding cool things I can do with this document that I have never done before, like word art and cool graphic banners. It was a little frustrating and time consuming but I am glad I have experience with creating newsletters now! I didn't like how tricky some of the formatting was or how when I change the font or color of a word it would sometimes change to whole document from that point on. I know newsletters are super important because they help communicate with the parents, what their child is learning and what is expected of them. So with the experience I gained from this assignment I feel like I already have a great start with learning how to create my own documents for the classroom.