The Standards and Resources for Teachers

     Hello everyone! Today's blog will go over three broad topics: ELA technology standards, CPALMS educator kits, and the benefits of proficient google searching for teachers. These are all very interesting and important concepts educators and future educators should consider and grow in understanding of. We can get right into it now, hope you all enjoy!
    This blog will be looking at the ELA technology standards for first grade specifically. While there are three main standards, the one I find the most interesting will be the one discussed here. This standard is one where the students should know how and where to find information in the text using various features. These features the students should know how to interpret is tables of contents, glossaries, headings, etc. This one is a vital skill that first graders need to have a good foundation in, that way they can use their skills to find information and knowledge independently. I feel somewhat prepared to teach students to meet this standard. I think that as I gain more experience with teaching a classroom, I will grow and better meet the needed standards. I feel confident that I will get the hang of it relatively quickly due to the many technological resources. Examples the standard gives is scavenger hunts for the different features to help kids know where to locate them and how to use them, kid-friendly websites that helps identify these features, and grade-level online textbooks that'll give them experience and practice using these skills they've learned. By implementing these resources into the classroom, along with similar resources, I feel that I can help my students meet this standard. 

    The educator kit I am going to discuss is one for first graders and in the subject area of social studies. This kit uses MEL (model eliciting activity), which encourages open communication and observation of student thought process and problem solving. Using this method teacher's primary role is a facilitator that'll help guide students in their own thinking. This kit is a lesson plan focused on geography and map skills. The task is to read and/or listen to the Clifford Takes a Trip story, and after discussing the story, the students will plan a trip for Clifford to take in Florida (or where ever the students want to). This can be done as a class or in groups. This can be a great way to teach students multiple skills .One, they can learn the locations of different places in Florida and gain better knowledge of the geography. Secondly, they can learn how to read a map. This plays into the ELA standard as well, where the students learn how to read and use the features accessible to them to understand and interpret information. I generally find geography an important skill to learn, and this is a fun and engaging way of doing that. This will also help grow collaboration skills and story writing skills. 

    Efficient google searching can be a very important tool for teachers. While, without advanced tips or skills teachers can eventually get their work done, knowing how to do google searches efficiently is very handy for saving time. By using google advanced search or google image search, the desired result can be found more quickly and follow more closely to what you are looking for. Otherwise, it would take much longer and waste time, or potentially not receive the result you are looking for at all. Google image search in particular in useful to me, due to the vast use of images in teaching. This also allows you to narrow down the search by color, type, and usage types. That way if you're looking for a green clip art that is free use, it can be found very easily and accurately. 

    Overall, there are a lot of tools and resources available to both teachers and students that can help us meet our goals, standards, and desired results. To take advantage of these resources is very important for teachers to do in order to both improve the teaching experience as well as the learning experience of students. Let me know what you think and I hope you've enjoyed this blog post!