Microsoft Word and technology

Today Denise showed me how you can make headings in a Microsoft document and that will allow you to skip to the part you want from the table of contents. I have never seen this before (even though Denise has know about this for about 15 years!) I am very surprised that I have never been showed how to use this, but in high school and in college we typically turn in a hard copy of papers.

But even though it isn't exactly something we NEED to know how to do I still think it would be good for students to know how to do this. This made me think a lot about the 21st century skills and how valuable being able to do these things I have learned in Excel and Word are.

When I took a Microsoft Word class in high school (freshman  year, just 9 years ago) we practiced typing, learned a few shortcuts (such as ctrl + c for copy), how to format a business letter, and how to make labels. I remember this class being super easy for me and being very bored during it. Reflecting upon this it helps me realize that I really do need to give "quick learners" in my classroom more difficult tasks. Just like my keyboarding teacher didn't teach me everything about word I am not teaching my students everything they could ever possibly know about geometry, or calculus. Most of the class is not ready for more, but some are ready for more.

I think it's great that Iowa is getting teachers involved in work places because if I hadn't had this externship I wouldn't have learned about these things with excel and word. Also, I think it's good that I now know that word, excel, and powerpoint are used a LOT in the work world.

When most people think of math they just think of solving a problem. Through my Externship, I have learned that you need to be able to display your work to other people which is where knowing your way around microsoft word is very helpful.