Journal #2

     I have a ton of experience using Microsoft Word, in middle school each year I took a technology class. These classes were designed to give me mastery of Microsoft programs, and I passed each class with flying colors. I am certified in MS Word (although I'm not sure that certification would actually count for anything) and have used it for probably a decade by now. I prefer it over any other word processing software as it is very easy to use, and everything is placed in a place that makes the most sense to me. Now I do use google docs very often, mainly because in my opinion and experience the autosave feature for google docs is more reliable than MS Word. 

    The standard that is the most meaningful to me is "2.1 Learner," this is because I think that the most important thing a teacher can do is learn from their students. Whether it is learning how to respect other cultures, or learning how to work with technology, I think teachers will always have something they can learn from their students. I think many people that are not in the education field fail to realize this important concept of teaching. They likely assume that teachers teach and students learn, but if this is the case then, in my opinion, that teacher and their students are not reaching their full potential.

    I agree with the term "digital native" for today's youth, to me, this means to be born into a technologically advanced society, and that is the case for today's youth. I have personal experience being a "digital native" helping "digital immigrants," I have been in classes where the teacher is given some new technology and doesn't fully understand how to use it. This led to me and my classmates helping them, and they eventually became masters at using said technology, I think this had a positive impact on my learning because the teacher showed us that they trust us. If the teacher had not trusted us to help them then the class would have been a lot more difficult with them trying to figure out how to use the technological device on their own. This ties into my previous paragraph emphasizing the importance of teachers being learners themselves.

    I think for my newsletter design I am going to make the subject psychology, and the grade level be a high school class. I plan to use the content about coping with different mental illnesses a student may be going through, and helping the student take care of themselves. I've never made a newsletter before so I am a little nervous, I have designed a few things for classes before so I think those experiences will come in handy for this. I think the tip I would give is to be careful with the color scheme, it is very easy to use colors that strain someone's eyes, and sometimes it's better to be a little bit more basic with colors.