Standards, Standards, and More Standards.

I were to select ELA standards for my classroom, I would implement LAFS.910.L.3.4, LAFS.910.SL.1.2, and LAFS.910.WHST.3.8. Standard LAFS.910.L.3.4, helps students to widen their knowledge of words with multiple meanings and exposes them to more vocabulary words. LAFS.910.SL.1.2. Standard LAFS.910.SL.1.2 allows students to find more resources when providing evidence for their papers such as polls, surveys, and graphs. Lastly, Standard LAFS.910.WHST.3.8 stresses the importance of finding and using credible sources on the internet, to provide solid and trustworthy evidence to support students' arguments in their writing. 

If I were to select a CPALMS resource, I would select English Language Arts 9-12 grade resource ID#: 30944, also known as "Vocabulary Flashcards-Vocabulary Building & SAT Prep". The purpose behind using the flashcards would be to prepare students for exams, like the SAT, and equip them with a further knowledge of vocabulary words. Students today don't tend to willingly read in their free time, so their exposure to vocabulary is limited. The richness in student's essays today is lacking because they don't think to use a variety of language, and don't recognize vocabulary words in standardized testing. Taking the hour per week to study vocabulary would be a simple, but beneficial additive to the classroom setting. 

The newsletter project was fulfilling and gave me a real glimpse into what planning for my classroom would look like. It allowed me to add my personal flare, just as I would with my future class. I wanted to give the "students" a full on view of what I expected from them in the upcoming month. Giving students the opportunity to plan their assignments ahead allows for success and execution of their assignments. 

Using our Resources Efficiently

In my experience in the classroom over the years,  MS Word has been a staple for students and teachers alike. It allows for endless creative outlets to produce almost any kind of document imaginable. I've used it to write essays, create flyers, and make title pages for binders- but I know that the possibilities for it are endless. For teachers, MS Word is what makes their world go round. They tend to utilize it to create tests, worksheets, newsletters, posters, and more! Since so much of teaching  centers around providing documents, MS Word truly allows teachers to do it in the most efficient way. I don't know how teachers ever managed to make their tests and worksheets without it!

But when we use these tools to create content, we have to be careful that we're not stealing something that doesn't belong to us. Copyright is something that I see becoming more and more of an issue today whether it's with music in Youtube videos or designs on t-shirts. At my high school, every club had a t-shirt. I remember signing up to receive a t-shirt representing the junior class, and we weren't allowed to purchase it because the design was too similar to the logo of a brand called Patagonia. When producing logos and titles in schools, it's extremely important to do similar adaptations and avoid copying. I would really emphasize to my students that, just like plagiarism in an essay, it is wrong to steal the works of others. I would point them to different resources that search for authenticity in content and makes sure that they are not stealing the works of others. To help my students avoid this issue as a whole, I would try to train them in Word and other resources, so that they can get creative and make their own original content using word art or shapes.

Aside from informing my students about issues surrounding copyright, I would work to educate them on the importance of academic honesty, privacy, and cyber bullying. All are morally fueled concepts. Since I wish to not only teach, but shape, my students, I would continuously influence my students to treat others with kindness and have integrity in all they do. I would have them use Turnitin for academic submissions, I would remind them to keep their passwords secret for privacy, and I would have a confidentiality policy in my classroom-encouraging them to come to me if they ever were struggling emotionally, like with cyberbullying for example.

Technology in the Classroom.

In the modern-day classroom, the inclusion of technology is almost guaranteed. We're exposed to all assortments of technology in classrooms, whether it be personal devices or the teacher's tools. we live in a day and age where technology is applied to every aspect of our day to day life. Smartphones, tablets, car apps, smart watches, etc... We are well on our way to the majority of the appliances and products we use becoming mini computers, in a sense. The same goes for the modern-day classroom, Teachers and students alike are totally comfortable with technology, so it makes sense that it is integrated into the classroom. In attempts to keep up with our ever-evolving technology era, ISTE standards are put into place.

ISTE stands for The International Society for Technology in Education. The ISTE is defined as a "nonprofit organization that serves educators interested in the use of technology in education" (Google.) A standard listed in the ISTE that hits home with me is the "setting personal learning goals and applying approaches made possible by technology and reflecting on their effectiveness." It is essential, as an educator and as a student, to be able to identify strengths and weaknesses. We need to pinpoint what it is we need to learn in order to improve ourselves. I would want to implement this idea into my classroom, and would encourage my students to embrace learning through their provided technological resources. A standard that I would have a harder time adjusting to is "create learning opportunities that challenge students to use a design process and computational thinking to innovate and solve problems." This is a challenge for me because I struggle to be creative in a computational sense, as I am not as "tech savvy" as I would like to be.


In terms of digital natives, I believe it is only going to escalate. Right now, technology is relevant to every way of life. I'm a freshman in college in the year 2019 and almost every assignment I submit is done digitally. When I have my students, it will only grow, and I will need to be taught new things, just as I have had to assist my teachers with technology in the past. It will only grow, and it is our job to keep up with it.