As a student, I don’t know what I would do without Microsoft Word. Every single course I’ve ever taken has been completed using this program numerous times. Word is my go-to for any writing I need to do. I’ve written essays, notes, study guides, research papers, etc. It’s easy to use and because everyone else uses it too, it’s always compatible on other computers and with other student’s work. I’ve seen teachers use Word for notes, writing, charts, graphs, graphics, etc. There are many different ways to use this program. Chapter 9 taught me about using tools such as charts and tables to keep my information simple and organized. This would be really helpful as a teacher because my younger students and their busy parents need to be able to pull the important information from my document and a chart allows them to see what is important in an organized fashion.
I have had a mixed experience with copyright and fair use in my educational environment. On one hand, I learned this week that all of the materials I’ve used in presentations in the past such as graphics audio, etc. have all been used illegally, but on the other hand, I was aware that teachers and universities commonly copyright their lecture notes and powerpoints. As a teacher this is very important to know because we could spend hours on a detailed lesson plan just to have another teacher copy it and claim it as their own. As a teacher I will teach my students the proper way to source someone else’s work so that they receive the proper credit. My goal is to teach them to appreciate and respect other’s works and realize how much time and effort is put into them.
I personally thought that the Skills Check assignment was difficult. I didn’t think the directions were clear enough and I wasn’t prepared to complete the assignment in 20 minutes. The Word and Graphics newsletter assignment was explained better and I thought I was able to create a nice one. After seeing some of the others, I regret not making mine a little bit more fun, but my goal was to create a newsletter for parents and not one really for the students. I gave it a more professional look so that it would appeal to parents. I think I could organize my thoughts better next time, but my overall approach was good. This assignment showed me a glimpse of something that we most likely will be doing every month. In our practice its extremely important to develop newsletters and other forms of communication to facilitate the learning experience with parents and students.
My comments:
https://klh13e.wordpress.com/2015/01/26/module-2-blog/comment-page-1/#comment-4
se11b 
I really like the approach you took to your newsletter as it is a more professional looking document. I personally did a more “fun” one, however it took more time and it took more thought, and as a teacher I would assume that it would be read by the students more than the parents, despite it having information the parents need. I also agree with you about the skill check, however I felt prepared, but by the time my computer downloaded the instructions and I started to see what it was that I had to do it was already almost 5mins in. With the remaining 15 mins I was just stressed about whether it needed to be the exact picture or the exact type of word art as different versions of word give you different options as defaults. Hopefully in the future there is either more time or more instruction ahead of time to make sure that we succeed.
LikeLike
I really liked how you said that the use of charts lets parents easily pull the most important information out of a newsletter. That gives me a great way to think about organizing my newsletters in the future.
LikeLike
I completely agree with you on the skill check. I thought it was difficult and unclear, granted I could have prepared a bit more, but I do hope the rest are not as hard. I actually like your approach to a more professional newsletter, in reality kids always just bring home papers from school and hand them to their parents barley paying any mind to them. Appealing to parents was a smart approach!
LikeLike
I also found out that I have been using materials illegally in my presentations. unknowingly of course. Teachers really should be more clear on these things, especially if they will hold the student accountable for it.
LikeLike