Blog Journal 4

     In the lecture this week we discussed ELA Standards and Common Core State Standards. ELA Standards and standards in general are what provide schools a roadmap to guide teaching and skills needed to set students up for success. The full list of standards can be extensive and overwhelming to read. This is why the Florida Department of Education created matrices to help teachers bind this bridge. For this assignment, we were asked to pick a grade level and subject matter interesting to us and to read about and select one of the standards found on ELA's website. As a current public health major I decided the best subject for me to teach would be "health education" and the grade level I chose was Kindergarten! My standard was titled "HE.K.CEH.1.2.", it encompassed being able to teach kindergarteners ways to prevent communicable diseases. While I feel I am definitely able to teach this topic, I don't know if I agree that it is teachable to kindergarteners or if that age group would fully understand what I am teaching. 

    Similar to the ELA Standards website, we then explored the resources and tools on the CPALMS Educator Toolkit website! For my standard and grade level in this assignment, I decided to continue with Health Education, 3rd grade. There were only two resources/lesson plans listed under health education, and the one I felt was the best was titled "My Strengths"; teachers will have their students create a poster or drawing of themselves, and identify their strengths! Students and the teacher will then discuss and list different strengths, and students will see a self-portrait of themselves, and can even add a sentence or writing attempt. I found this a great lesson plan idea because children especially in kindergarten are beginning to figure out what they do and don't like, and what they are good at maybe, and it is very important for them to know what the word "strengths" means, and to positively look at what they are great at! 

    Lastly, we ended the week by learning and utilizing many internet searching skills and tools! For me, my favorite new skill I learned, or one I think I will use most often in the future was Google Image. I am always trying to find pictures and images to use whether that be for a PowerPoint or a project, or maybe in the future as a teacher, and this was a great skill to learn and to be able to use the "tool" button within Google Image and find one that for example is under Creative Commons License or is the color I want. Not only Google Image skills, but all of the ones we discussed this week can be very useful for any person, but extremely important for teachers! As teachers, you will have to guide students on how to find information, images, how to find reliable resources, etc., and so being highly skilled in advanced internet skills and technology is crucial in your role as a teacher.