Josh's Blog

Teacher Pages I decided to search Raa Middle School, a school that I volunteered at a couple of semesters ago. Under the teacher's tab, I found that a few of the teachers had websites. I clicked on "Mrs. Weaver's website", which led me to the Middle School Dance webpage. The website is open to the public and you don't need a student or parent login to access information. On the home page, Mrs. Weaver has information about the summer camps and uniforms that students need to purchase. There are a few tabs about the different dance classes that are available to students, information that parents need, and a "Meet the Instructor" page. The website doesn't have the best design, but it has useful information for parents, students, and prospective students as well.  Link to website:  https://raadance.weebly.com/  Here's a screenshot of Mrs. Weaver's introduction: Using Technology In the future, I see myself using technology constantly t...

Diigo Experience Diigo is a very helpful tool to help educators and students easily mark up, highlight, and comment on PDFs electronically. At first glance, it is very simple to set up the Chrome browser extension, which is always a good first step. I also enjoyed how easy it was to click on the extension and upload a PDF for marking up. There are not too many options or commands to choose from, so it is very user-friendly when attempting to highlight or annotate the PDF. I did enjoy the fact that you could change the color of the highlights and I could have different meanings for each one. The overall experience with Diigo was positive, and I would love to incorporate it in my future endeavors as a possible educator.  Blogging Experience Before this class, I had never used Blogger, whether for educational or personal use. I enjoy blogging for the most part, though I do think it is not as user-friendly as Diigo. It was hard to navigate and try to change the layout to the...

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ELA Standards I decided to take a look at the ELA technology standards for grades 6-8. The standard that I am most familiar with and could easily teach without prior studying is: "Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation." Through this standard, they suggest to use Easybib, which is an online platform used for making and formatting citations, and I'm familiar with it. I have used it, as a student, for many years from middle school to college. I could show students exactly what information is needed to plug in to the program technology and to make sure they are using the correct format. In regards to the standard that would require more learning on my part, I chose: "Compare and contrast the information gained from experiments...