Microsoft Word

The only time I ever used Microsoft Word in my own classroom experience, both high school and college, was to type essays... talk about boring! I never thought of Word as anything other than simply a writing tool, with the occasional graphic to spice up an article. When I began my student teaching last year in the Rochester City School District, I learned some pretty cool features of Word that can easily be incorporated into any classroom.

If you are lucky enough to have a SmartBoard in your classroom, then you can have extra fun with Word! My second graders LOVED learning and practicing their math skills through this technology. If you have a SmartBoard, you can make Microsoft Word interactive with you students. One of their favorite activities involved counting money. First, before the students arrived for school, I would open some clip art pictures of money into a word document - pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. I would make sure that there was a numerous amount of each coin available for the students. Next, I would make four jean pockets from clip art, one for each type of coin. When the students would arrive, they would have a morning routine that we would complete every morning on the classroom carpet. Money and counting skills was part of this routine. I would give them various amounts of money and ask them to put coins into the coinciding pockets to make that amount. To do this, all they had to do was go up to the board and physically drag the coin into its pocket with their finger. For instance, if I asked them to make $0.75, they could put 3 quarters in the quarters pocket, 10 dimes and 1 nickel into their respective pockets, 2 quarters, 2 dimes, and 1 nickel into the pockets, and so on. The students loved this interactive activity of physically dragging the money into the pockets, and it dramatically improved their money counting skills!

This was just one fun way of using Microsoft Word in the classroom. I think it is really important to offer a variety of ways for your students to use Word, not just when they have to write an essay. Students could also explore Word on their own and see what interesting features they can find!