I love Microsoft Word, perhaps it is because this is the software I grew up with, or perhaps it is because Word is just a really user-friendly product with a plethora of features. Either way, Word and I are great friends when it comes to completing projects for school or home. If you check out the other blog on my website I did a post this week also about Microsoft Word and Mail Merge. The post has a great video tutorial on how to use Mail Merge with Microsoft Word 2011, which you may find interesting and helpful as many of you start off your school year. Mail Merge is a wonderful tool that helps you to create a standard form for a letter and using a few simple steps, allows for instant personalization of letters to include different student names, addresses, or any other message you could think of!
While I am familiar with most of the Microsoft Word features, this does not mean that I am an expert. I realized while reading the Word tutorials one feature that I rarely if ever use, the watermark feature, could in fact be extremely useful in the creation of posters, handouts, and other learning materials in my classroom. I think it would be a great way to have a really nice image related to the topic with text on top and could be helpful, especially to my visual learners.
My favorite thing to use Microsoft Word for in the classroom setting is to create engaging handouts for my students. I love that Word has become more like PowerPoint with the ability to add layers to your document, edit images, and insert a variety of different types of text, shapes, tables, and colors. While I often will use PowerPoint to create image heavy projects with minimal text, Word is excellent at creating projects that relies more on text, but with the accompaniment of images. I love creating worksheets that don’t just tell my students what they should learn, but also shows about a topic, tapping into the Multiple Intelligences of my students. My only complaint about Word is that because it is text based some of the image editing tools are not as strong as PowerPoint, and the layout is easiest to edit in the vertical position which at times hinders my creativity when I want to create something horizontal.
I am interested to hear what your favorite things to do with Microsoft Word are, and how you integrate it into your classroom? Also have you, or will you be using Mail Merge this year?
While I am familiar with most of the Microsoft Word features, this does not mean that I am an expert. I realized while reading the Word tutorials one feature that I rarely if ever use, the watermark feature, could in fact be extremely useful in the creation of posters, handouts, and other learning materials in my classroom. I think it would be a great way to have a really nice image related to the topic with text on top and could be helpful, especially to my visual learners.
My favorite thing to use Microsoft Word for in the classroom setting is to create engaging handouts for my students. I love that Word has become more like PowerPoint with the ability to add layers to your document, edit images, and insert a variety of different types of text, shapes, tables, and colors. While I often will use PowerPoint to create image heavy projects with minimal text, Word is excellent at creating projects that relies more on text, but with the accompaniment of images. I love creating worksheets that don’t just tell my students what they should learn, but also shows about a topic, tapping into the Multiple Intelligences of my students. My only complaint about Word is that because it is text based some of the image editing tools are not as strong as PowerPoint, and the layout is easiest to edit in the vertical position which at times hinders my creativity when I want to create something horizontal.
I am interested to hear what your favorite things to do with Microsoft Word are, and how you integrate it into your classroom? Also have you, or will you be using Mail Merge this year?