Word Processing

Word processing plays a big role in my daily life as a teacher. Not only does it save me time creating documents for students and pulling up previously developed documents, but it also improves the appearance of my documents. I use word processing to communicate with parents, create classroom schedules, develop assessments, organize student information, and share ideas with other teachers. Being able to edit text so easily and return to stored documents greatly helps me. I also use the thesaurus all the time when writing since I have a tendency to repeat words over and over again.

Not only do I enjoy the benefits of word processing, but my students do as well. When teaching language arts, my students must type their stories before they publish, share, and file them in their porfolios. They love being able to go back to their writing to make changes without having to write the whole story again by hand. In the past, I have encountered students who used computers daily as an accomodation. One student struggled so much with dysgraphia, that his handwriting was illegible. While his parents and I worked on accountability and responsibility with this student who often neglected to turn in class assignments, using the word processor hugely impacted the ease with which he could participate in assignments.

A product of keyboarding classes, I do believe this is a valuable skill for students to develop. As I watch my first graders slowly plug away at their keyboards, it seems so much easier for my older students who know how to type. While both sets of students greatly enjoy using the computers, I believe it is important for students to develop an efficient way to use word processing. My father still types with his two index fingers and dictates anything he needs typed to avoid the grueling process of typing. This is not productive. Even though keyboarding classes tend to be slow and tedious, I still strongly believe in developing this skill.

In my previous school, the computer teachers aided students in developing their basic knowledge of various programs. They helped me create projects for my students, and then provided the students with extra time to work on projects during their classes so they may give more specific help to students who needed it. At least in my previous school, I believe classroom teachers do not use the computer teachers as a resource often enough. While this school had limited access to computers for the younger students, it is still necessary to help these students build their knowledge base about word processing as an aid to their learning.