Software Skills....

After creating the software project, I became very well acquainted with various programs to assist me in being an effective teacher. The first program I worked with was Microsoft Word, and I thought I knew all there was to know about the program, but I was drasticaly wrong. Microsoft Word has a number of tools available to enhance simple things like quizes or flyers. There are tons of boarders available, clip art, and organizational tips to use. Each of these small things I learned really changed my organizational skills for creating simple things for the classroom. Now that I have a world of knowledge for Microsoft Word, it is a program that I will use daily in the classroom when I am a teacher. I am very glad I had the chance to spend time discovering many new things in this program.
We also used Microsoft Publisher to create a Newsletter for this project. Newsletters in general are often used in schools around the country, whether they be weekly or monthly, for a specific classroom or the whole school community. There are various templates for newsletters that are easy to fill in, they are already layed out and organized for easy use. If I had to create a Newsletter from scratch on Microsoft Word it might be slightly organized, because of my skill. However, Microsoft Publisher saves time and frustration because of the easy access and variety of templates available. Microsoft Publisher also has invitation, greeting card, and business card templates. These can all be used by teachers daily, as well as students. Invitations for school events are great to have readily available. Students could create their own business cards if they were studying business or working on a project. I will definitely be using Microsoft Publisher in my classroom in the future for my own use and for the use of my students.
Inspiration is a program for diagrams and concept maps. I have used Inspiration before but I was completely blind to the wonderful aspects of this program. Creating concept maps is a wonderful tool for teaching as well as for students to create themselves. As I have learned, concept maps are great for organizing units and lesson plans. The visual layout of concept maps can point out things that you might not have seen in simple written form. Clip art and photos can be added to concept maps for more visual appeal when it is being used for students. Perhaps pictures can be provided and the text can be filled in by the students. I can't wait to use this program for my classroom, concept map posters, hand outs, quizes, and student work are all benefits of Inspiration and now I know how to use it to its full potential!
Overall, I am most excited to use Microsoft Publisher because of the templates that are available and easy to use. I think that, for teachers, this program can really be effective for the classroom and the school as a whole.