Blog Journal #4

Standards and Technology Matrices for ELA

One of the standards for grades 6 through 8 is Hardware and Software understanding that requires full comprehension of the many components of a computer. Students should be able  to distinguish between computer parts (identifying their characteristics), explain the function of each component, and evaluate issues to implement software and hardware fixes through step-by-step processes. Based on my current skill set, I think that I would need some additional education to be able to teach this standard accurately and with learning retention by the student body. I have some knowledge of the components of a computer and how they work, but this is mainly in the realm of software not hardware, and in order to keep up with innovation and this generation's learning techniques, I will need some additional training in this area. These standards are very necessary for future computer understanding and continued education for after grades 6-8, so to be able to teach this information with great success, additional learning would benefit me personally.

CPALMS Education Kit

The Resources and Tools in the toolkit are very useful in teaching to the standards in Grade 7 Social Studies. Standard 2, which I chose to focus on, is to Analyze events that involved or affected Africans from the founding of the nation through reconstruction. The Standard has a few different sections to focus on in order to achieve the standard like congressional acts regarding slavery, abolitionist movements, the affects of the cotton gin on the industry, duties and trades of slaves, political figures of the time, the Underground Railroad and escaped slaves' status, and key contributions of individuals on reconstruction and free blacks. The resources provided allow for teaching to these sections and standard through a multitude of teaching styles and learning styles for students. They also help in providing additional information to give context and further understanding of the material.

Internet Searching

It's incredibly important to understand how to search the internet and utilize search engines in order to be efficient in locating information and resources, and also to be effective as a teacher to progress with future generations. The skills I will most likely use moving forward would be the use of google advanced search and possibly chat gpt as they both provide either a stepping off point for more research (like wikipedia is) or is useful in finding information quickly. though I'll honestly probably use google primarily for any inquiries or searches first, before using google advanced search, though I'd use quotations and keywords to speed up the process. I was aware of the existence of chat gpt but I've never used it before, nor have I used google advanced search before, only utilizing things such as Boolean searches and google (normally) up until this point. I do use things like boolean searches and wikipedia for searching for resources and information, but only use wikipedia for their citations list as a jumping off point or to find some preliminary information to look into further.