Education and the law at its finest
Blog post #3
ELA? FSA? What's with all the acronyms?
For those who don't know, ELA stands for "English Language Arts Standards" and the idea behind it is to prepare students for life outside the classroom? Is it effective? Well, that depends on who you ask. There are standards in place for grades K-12, which each grade having its own set. They gradually become more complex, the older the student gets. There's more required of them. Taking a glance at the kindergarten standards (who doesn't love those kiddos?) we can see that they're expected to "explore a variety of digital tools," which is probably referring to something that's easier for their little curious minds to comprehend. They're expected to know how to paint on the paint app found on most computers, if not all of them. If I were a kindergarten teacher, would I be able to show students how to use these tools? I mean, I understand how to use the paint app. It isn't hard to figure out. My dilemma would be figuring out how I can get a bunch of 5-year-olds to stay still and want to learn how to use it. When I was in kindergarten, I remember creating art in class with actual paint. Although it got messy at times, I had a blast doing it.
CPALMS and applying it to the classroom
Music in a kindergarten classroom. What comes to mind when you think of that? Kids singing out of tune? Banging pots and pans, dreaming that they're drums? Well, not exactly. There are lesson plans that provide some sort of order when it comes to teaching music in a classroom. According to the template on the CPALMS website, it reads, "students will explore and perform soft and loud voices through a children's story and a simple song." There are a plethora of lesson plans on the same website, which could be used as a tool and guide teachers in the right direction. If we're talking about music here, it's important to start at an early age. And isn't it beneficial for babies in the womb to be stimulated by such sounds? Music can be beneficial for everyone. If I were a teacher, I'd be inspired by the templates on CPALMS to give me some sort of direction for my lesson plan. Kindergartners, in theory, can be all over the place. Some of them are hyper and energetic while others are more calm and relaxed. Using this tool can efficiently get me through the music lesson from start to finish.
Wow! What a journey it was to search in the depths of my mind to find creativity and pour it into this assignment. I learned several things while working on this: 1) my ability to completely restart after everything got accidentally erased. I somehow managed to keep my cool while sitting at the Dirac library surrounded by other students who are trying to concentrate on their studies. 2) I learned how to complete a task when it felt like it was a race against time. As for what skills I learned in Microsoft word, I'd say this: 3) not using a template and making everything from scratch. 4) changing the color of the background, 5) placing pictures behind word texts, and editing the transparency for a cleaner look, 6) creating columns by inserting a table and removing the borders (I don't know how to do it any other way), and 7) making this assignment enjoyable and fun to create. How could I improve? Not to boast, but there isn't much I would change about the final product. Maybe changing the header to a different wordart font, or completing it in a timely manner. I spent a couple hours in front of that computer screen, endlessly typing away and moving the mouse. My hands hurt by the end of it, but in my mind, I was satisfied. My skills would benefit my future career because I'm really good at making things appealing to the eye. I didn't dump a bunch of words onto the page. I made my newsletter look out of this world!!!
About that newsletter assignment...
Wow! What a journey it was to search in the depths of my mind to find creativity and pour it into this assignment. I learned several things while working on this: 1) my ability to completely restart after everything got accidentally erased. I somehow managed to keep my cool while sitting at the Dirac library surrounded by other students who are trying to concentrate on their studies. 2) I learned how to complete a task when it felt like it was a race against time. As for what skills I learned in Microsoft word, I'd say this: 3) not using a template and making everything from scratch. 4) changing the color of the background, 5) placing pictures behind word texts, and editing the transparency for a cleaner look, 6) creating columns by inserting a table and removing the borders (I don't know how to do it any other way), and 7) making this assignment enjoyable and fun to create. How could I improve? Not to boast, but there isn't much I would change about the final product. Maybe changing the header to a different wordart font, or completing it in a timely manner. I spent a couple hours in front of that computer screen, endlessly typing away and moving the mouse. My hands hurt by the end of it, but in my mind, I was satisfied. My skills would benefit my future career because I'm really good at making things appealing to the eye. I didn't dump a bunch of words onto the page. I made my newsletter look out of this world!!!
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