Skills Update E - FINAL

Well, my blog for this class ends tonight.  I finished my last project showing some new skills I acquired in Adobe Photoshop for Graphic Skills.  I have enjoyed working and learning new things and hope to continue with things like this in the future.   For my graphic skills, I decided to make a poster for my family's music business that they could use for advertising.

Poster

Skills Update E - Graphic Skills

I have some beginning experience with graphic skills as I have learned a little about Photoshop and InDesign in my previous job.  I am not proficient however and can always improve my skills in this area.  Today, I have spent the afternoon working on a poster advertisement for a family owned business in VA.  I thought I would create something they could use to advertise their music classes.  I made the background to look like their puppet stage and then added little icons of their puppets.  I learned how to group and ungroup layers and made the name and puppet as one layer so that when I move it, they move together.  I like that feature and did not know about that before!  Also, today I learned how to wrap the text around the picture which I did with the names, "Gigi" and "Wolfgang".  I also added the shapes with text inside, and then placed the logo and name together.  Overall, I'm pleased with how this project turned out and hope they can use it in their program, and I touched on the few skills I needed to learn in my boot camp assignment.

I'll attach my final poster once I get it finished up - need to add a few details.

Skills Update D - Database Skills

Okay, I have never used Microsoft Access before today.  I watched a tutorial on how to use some of the basics and just got started.  I decided to create a different database then what I put in my boot camp paper at the beginning of the course.  I wanted to do something that would tie into an elementary classroom rather than just something to merge with my newsletter.  After doing some researching and learning more about what databases could do, I decided to make a database about the 50 states and have each field be a different feature of the states - capitals, area, population, date entered the union.  I thought it would be fun for a class to sort the states so that you could see how the states rank in different fields.

50 States Database in Word

50 States Ranked by Population

Skills Update C - Completed

Today I completed my PowerPoint presentation for a third grade unit on Australia.  I worked on changing the backgrounds, colors and adding bullets.  Bullets were the same as in word processing so that was not difficult.  It had been a long time since I had worked with PowerPoint but it was pretty easy to get the hang of it once getting into it again. 

I really enjoyed completing this practice.  I think students would enjoy using this tool as well.  They would especially enjoy the transitions, animation and colors.  The project I completed would be an example project that I used when completing a unit on Australia.  I used to have the students create a book in which each page of the book discussed something about Australia that we had learned - geography, holidays, food, home life, language and sports.  In the end, they had a nice book about Australia.  I like the update to using technology for a similar project!

I am still working on how to post my PowerPoint here.  I will do that when I figure it out!!

Update:  Here is my PowerPoint now on GoogleDocs presentation.  In importing this, it lost some of the animation and transitions.  I put them back on using the ones available but the choices were limited.

Also, here is my updated Skills Checklist as well.

Skills Update C

I have started to work on my Power Point skills for this module.  I have to admit that once I opened Power Point it quickly began to come back to me.  I have worked tonight to create a slideshow on Australia - one of the social studies units I taught as a third grade teacher and a place I would love to visit one day.  I worked tonight on creating new slides, using transitions, adding images, changing colors, and animation.  Tomorrow I will finish up this presentation and look at bullets and changing background colors.

Skills Update B

Okay this module I'm working on word processing skills.  I truly feel like I know quite a bit about Microsoft Word but was surprised with the checklist about the number of skills that I do not know how to do.  I have spent this module looking at tabs, margins, columns, indent markers, spacing and alignment (which I did know more than I realized), and column/section/page breaks.  I spent time reading and learning about mail merger but I feel like it is one of those things that I will forget if I do not use it more regularly.  I would love to know examples of how that can be utilized more effectively!  Overall, I feel very good about my final product.  I included my newly acquired skills on columns, setting margins, using column and section breaks, insert pictures and use text wrap, and header/footer for the date.

Final Product for Word Processing Skills

Skills Updated Checklist

Skills Update B

Okay, for Skills Update B I will be looking at Word Processing Skills through the use of Microsoft Word.  One thing on my list to refresh my memory and learn more about is headers and footers.  I have already done quite a bit with this through my paper submissions for this class and one other so I feel that this skill is mastered at this point.

My Example Spreadsheet

I noticed in others' posts that you are able to upload your finished product for others to see.  So, after researching this a bit, since I don't see an attachment in Blogger, I have found a way to attach a copy of my finished product for Spreadsheets.

Skills A - Spreadsheet

Let's see if it works! 

Skills Update A - My Plan

 Skills Update A – Spreadsheet Skills

I have altered my final project for the spreadsheet skills.  My original boot camp technology paper suggests that I will create a spreadsheet using parents’ names and address of a class.  Upon doing some research to get started in Excel skills, I found a list for uses of spreadsheets in the elementary classroom.  I decided that creating spreadsheets with both charts and graphs could really benefit them in the area of word problems.  So, I decided to practice my skills by creating 2 examples of data in both chart and graph form to use in a classroom.  I would even take this a step further as the year progressed and let the students learn more about spreadsheets by creating a word problem set of their own for students to use.

How it would work:

I would display the information in both chart and graph form for the class to see – maybe on a SMARTboard.  Then, there would be a question for them to answer each morning of the week.  I would have them write and explain their answers in a math journal.  I would even have a small copy of the data displayed for them to cut and paste into their math journals.  Then, each week the display would change.  This constant exposure to charts and graphs would be a wonderful tool for them to master.  

Skills:

I feel pretty successful that I have read, watched and learned about relative and absolute references, formulas and functions, fill down, fill series, create charts, edit charts and insert into Word document.  I found that some of these operations I did know how to do, I just didn't realize what they were called until I was studying this.

Skills Update A

Well, today I'm working to get my skills started for Skill Update A.  I had decided to work on the spreadsheet info first and then do the word processing in the next update.  I realized today that my paper had that fixed in one spot but not another.

Also, I've been doing some research today on ways to maybe use the spreadsheet as a classroom tool.  I hope it is okay if I change my final product.  Instead of parent addresses and phone numbers (which I still might use it for down the road), I would like to also use it for classroom activities that could turn into graphs and charts.  What a great tool for math word problems and things like that! 

My First Blog!

Well, this class has been a very humbling experience.  After completing the skills checklist, I realize that there are so many technology skills that I do not have experience with and do not know.  I have a husband who knows just about everything there is to know about technology, and I have always gladly gone to him and said, "help" when I need technology help.  But with this course, I want to do it on my own!  And boy, does it take extra time when you are learning new things alone! Today I have spent a good portion of time just setting up this blog.  I have never created a blog before and it took some effort but I am proud to say that I figured this whole thing out!  For today, I am happy and feeling proud!  I will begin to work on my skills work tomorrow.  I'm super excited to have my own blog.  Wow, I can't believe the things I've already learned and figured out on here - all by myself!  Just taking this one step at a time . . .