Week 7 Microsoft Office is King in schools!!!

The main piece of software used by students would definitely have to be Microsoft Office due to the main three programs that are used, PowerPoint, Excel, and Word. In my field of social studies, Microsoft word is the main software that is used. With the need for typing papers that review and reveal points of comprehension in an Arts subject, it is perfect for achieving the purpose of providing text.

                The other main piece of software that is used is Microsoft PowerPoint. PowerPoint gives a teacher the opportunity to bring life to a lesson that could be very boring to a student who has to look at a page that is white with black ink and a few pictures. Although I am not a teacher right now, I save all the PowerPoint that are related to my content area knowing that they will provide me with some form of a resource no matter how big or small.

I did a presentation on the Bill of Rights. My certification is in grades 5-9 (Middle School Social Studies) and Civics is the class that I aspire to teach. I enjoy teaching the law and how it was formed and still used today. Many citizens that are in the United States today are not aware of their rights and many citizens have no idea just how important their role in our government is.  PowerPoint allows me to bring the lesson from white pages and black ink to a colorful presentation that also may include pictures and other additional resources.

Another reason these two pieces of software are helpful is due to the fact that I have horrible handwriting.  PowerPoint and Word give me the luxury as a teacher to be able to hand out legible information. Also at this age, Study guides and notes can be a helpful resource also as long as they are legible. Word is a program that makes everything legible and also provides both the student and the teacher an opportunity to review things such as grammar. When both the teacher and student can provide work/information that is clear.   

I can never use excel for an activity for a student. Excel is great for managing and organizing and also great for organizing columns and mathematical formulas.  That is an excellent tool. In fact, a similar program is on Infinite Campus, a software that is used for keeping track of students grades, attendence, etc, etc, and also is available for parents to see. It is a real simple program and very similar to excel. You type in the value, hit the command, and you have a grade. It is the same principle as excel. But to be used by students for means of social studies, I could never use it.