Blog 4: ELA Standards and Online Resources
With technology's demand increasing, the standards of education are changing. I decided to select first grade to see what the ELA standards for that grade level include. To my surprise I saw the standard LAFS.1.W.2.6 which enforces the use of technological tools, with the help from adults, to publish writing. As a future educator, I believe I am fit to implement this in a classroom with my level of skill at this current moment. However, my skill set is that of a junior in college, not 6 or 7 year olds. I do believe that it will be hard to implement the learning of high level technology, such as using Smartboards, class blogs, and online storybooks to children who are supposed to be learning basic motor skills.
To help implement education in a classroom, I think it is very important to have interactive lessons. With that, I have chosen a student resource that is an interactive tutorial on sorting shapes that I believe would be beneficial in my classroom. The tutorial on shape sorting is very helpful because it provides the students with a background story, tells the students that the objective is, and then carries the story along with the lesson. There are also exercises for the students to participate in which goes back to the idea of an interactive lesson. And it concludes with a lesson review. I think this tool is a great asset to a classroom because it provides variety in teaching. Students are not listening to the teacher talk for the entire time. Instead, they are watching videos which can be seen as fun and engaging in the material that is portrayed through the videos.
This week, for my portfolio, I did a lot of activities that included searching the internet and found out that I am not very strong with this. In fact, I usually just look at the top 5 results from my search and select from those. However, as a teacher it is important to be proficient at searching the internet because the internet is home to a million resources that can better the classroom. This week I was introduced to doing advanced searches via Google. I think this is a great skill to learn because it narrows down the information you are looking for while providing you with information that meets all the criteria. This is a great way to find resources that may be hidden on the typical Google search. As a current student and a future educator I think I will make use of this tool to enhance my schoolwork as well as my classroom.
Wow, I am amazed by the fact that children of 6-7 years of age have started learning how to use technology and online writing. Teachers surely will have a tough time teaching small students from easy things to more complex technology skills.
ReplyDeleteHi Ashleigh! First off, I love the way you have styled your blog page! I think what you brought up is great about how you will have much more extensive knowledge and use of many different softwares and applications, but that you will be aiding to a younger level in teaching so you have to kind of take a step back. I think that can be difficult, but also rewarding knowing that you are helping these students learn and better use technology. Great work!
ReplyDeleteHi Ashleigh, great blog post! I agree that interactive lessons are very useful to have in the classroom. It helps keeps the students engaged while also being entertained, which is something that is hard to do especially with younger students like the first graders you have chosen to discuss in your post. I also wrote in my post about how it is important for teachers to be able to effectively search the internet , for material can be used to improve lesson plans and make for a more solid teaching environment.
ReplyDeleteHi Ashleigh. Cool blog page, you seem to know much more how to use this applicator. Way better than my own.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I understand the difficult it could be to try to have young children to operate technology and certain software's because their limit of understanding. Yet, I would not sell them short. A lot of the younger generations under us are coming into this world learning how to operate smartphones, computers, and such at a very young age. Maybe in some aspects certain terminology or aspects of applicators/sites/softwares, etc can be challenging but I believe children can pick up the basics of application of some of these technological tools.