Using Microsoft Word to Create Flyer and Newsletters

This week we used Microsoft Word to create Flyer and newsletter. Typically I use other software when creating these types of items.  I find publisher to more effective and easier to use.  However MS Office did have some redeeming qualities.  If you are doing something quick and easy like a flyer MS Word will work just fine.  It is easy to put in a texture background, some good colors and the text required.  I found adding shapes was fairly easy as well. The challenging part comes from trying to move things around once they have been place such as resizing pictures.  This seemed to shift the entire page and made things annoying.  While this problem seems minor if you have several items to resize the project to could way longer than necessary and there are easier tools, such as publisher, to get the job done.

As far as making flyers I liked what MS Word had to offer for tools.  I found it easy to design a flyer and add shapes and color.  Again the area that was most challenging came in the from of trying to resize or add text to the shapes.  In one area I used a wavy banner and tried to add text but I couldn't get a text box to fit the shape the way I wanted.  It took several tries and a compromise on the design to make it work.

I think MS office is useful for more than just word processing and I could see myself using it again to design simple flyers and newsletters.  I could also see teaching my students the basics of design on a toll such as this because it is easy to use.

 

MIcrosoft Word

In my classroom MS Word is something we use a lot. There are many features and plug ins that make word more effective especially if you are working with special ed students.  I use a program called word talk which is a text reader.  My students frequently need to receive information through various modalities and having a text reader is a huge help.  Text readers can read anything in word format and you can also pause the reading and use the dictionary/thesaurus feature to identify unknown words.  Also you can easily search for certain parts of text.  I frequently use this during literature because I can download the literature books easily.  I also use word for writing. There is a feature that is called track changes.  I usually edit a student's work so I can add comments and edits directly to the typed work. Then students can open the work and see the changes made.  I typically have students make changes to the already edited paper so I can see what they did. This helps enormously when trying to edit several papers and saves from having to flip through multiple edited pages. As part of the editing process I have students use wordtalk so they can hear their paper. Often times when editing hearing the paper helps pick up errors in grammar.

Now as for using spell check in the classroom.  This is tricky because the students I work with currently have serious difficultly and disabilities around language.  So for them it is tool to help teach them and about the work, answering comprehension questions, rather than worrying about spelling. Having said that I think it is important that students be taught spelling and editing especially in the lower grades.  The only issue I have with spell check is that if a sometimes when you spell a word wrong it is so wrong that you you get a word to replace it with or your spelling is too close to a different word and you replace it with the wrong word.  I am kind of split on the whole spell check thing. I think as long as spell check isn't used instead of teaching spelling and grammar than it is a useful tool.

Website Design

Website design is a very interesting topic.  It seems that everyone today can create a website and have whatever they want on the site.  I found that using google sites to design a website was different from other sites I have worked on. The site I work on uses phpbb boards with a wordpress blog so I did find it challenging to try something different.  Overall google sties was easy to use for designing a basic website.