Business and Academic Reports

Well we have begun our 2nd 9 weeks in BTA and it seems like time is just flying by! Right now we are learning about formatting Academic and Business Reports and it takes much longer to produce those documents so we will be spending more time on this unit. We have been working on how to properly cite sources, insert page numbers and page breaks in a report. The most interesting thing we learned this week was how to use the reveal formatting command. Ask your student to show you how to do this!We will  be learning to insert endnotes and footnotes next week. Last week we took a little break from formatting documents and spent a couple of days learning about Computer Hardware, Software and the Information processing cycle. That is always one of my favorite units because the students are so involved with technology that it is very interesting to them. I hope everyone had a good week and enjoy the cooler weather along with some SEC football this weekend!

Business Letters

Well we have wrapped up another great week in BTA! We have been learning about Business Letters this week. We talked about letterhead and how to properly format a business letter. I asked the students to go home and check with parents to see if they received any business letters in the mail they could look at. I think it is important for them to see that businesses really produce business letters! It is shocking to me how many of them think I am just making up the rules for formatting in my classroom. We talked about MLA ( Modern Language Association) and how they come up with the standards for formatting documents. When I asked who they thought set the formatting standards the most common answer was Bill Gates! We also learned about setting margins, line spacing, spell check, cut and paste and several other editing and formatting features in Word. Looking forward to next week!

We're Really Jumping In!

This was our second full week of Microsoft Word and it was really great! We learned how to format a Memo at the beginning of the week. The trickiest part of that was trying to explain what a carbon copy was! My students were not at all familiar with the old fashioned carbon paper I used to carefully place between my sheets of typing paper to make copies. Imagine that! Next year I will make sure to buy some to have on hand so they can see it, if you can still buy it. We also learned about Tab stops, Borders, Margins and setting hanging indents. Ask your student to show you how to do some of these things, it might be fun! 

Microsoft Word

This was our first week learning about Microsoft Word! We learned the proper names for all of the parts of the screen in Word as well as learning how to create and save documents in the correct place. We ended the week with a quiz covering what we had learned and most everyone did really well! Next week we will learn about some of the more specific commands that are commonly used in formatting documents. Also we will have our first FBLA meeting this Friday morning at 7:15 in the AV Room. Make sure your students are there if they are interested!

Labor Day is Almost Here!

We are continuing to memorize our key reaches in Keyboarding and we are nearing the end! We will have completed all of the letter keys by next Friday and will be moving on. Each student will be taking a 1 minute timed writing next Friday and this will count as a test grade. Their grade will be based on how many words they can type per minute less any errors they make. Most of the students are doing a great job with this! I hope everyone has a enjoyable holiday on Monday!

Keyboarding

Currently in BTA we are learning some Keyboarding skills. This will be very important as we head into creating documents in the Microsoft Office Suite. We are also working on proper technique while working at the computer. Students will be graded weekly on their technique, which includes: Feet flat on the floor, Sitting up straight, Eyes not looking at the keyboard, Straight wrists and using correct finger for each key. Students will also be receiving grades for completion of practice exercises while learning new keys. I hope to be finished with the Keyboarding unit the Friday after Labor Day. I hope to see all of you at the PTA Open House this Thursday night!

First Week of School

We have had a great first week of school and I am so excited about this year! Thank you so much for subscribing to my blog, I think this will be helpful with communication.

 If any of your students would like to join FBLA they can still join. Just send a check made out to HMS/FBLA for $10 and I will get them signed up. I think we are going to have a fun first year for our club.

This week we covered Safety in the Workplace and we discussed why safety was important even in an office setting. Each student took a Career Interest Inventory and were given three Career Clusters they might consider in the future. Today we spent the period discussing Computer Ethics and we had some really great discussions.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to teach your child!

First Semester 2011

Welcome to all parents and students for the 2011-2012 school year! I am looking forward to communicating with you about the Business Technology Applications class this year via this blog. I think this will be an efficient way of communicating what we are doing in the classroom this year. I plan to post entries on a weekly basis and I hope that all of you will join by subscribing to this blog. If the students have not told you already they will receive extra credit if you sign up using your e-mail address in the box at the top of the page. Please leave a comment, stating the name of your student, to assure they receive credit. I know we will have a great school year and I look forward to getting to know all of you!