Microsoft Word 2003 in the Classroom - Pass Christian University

Microsoft Word 2003 in the Classroom Mastering Microsoft Word can make you a more productive and creative teacher. Throughout this course, you’ll learn to create, open, edit, and save documents, as well as create tabs and margins, set left, center, right, and justified spacing, add clip art and tables, and complete a host of other exciting tasks. As you get more familiar with this program, you'll find that it enhances your teaching in ways you didn't think possible.

As we walk through our virtual tour of Microsoft Word, you'll encounter a lot of program features you may not have known about—features that enable you to control document presentation, stay organized, and keep your students inspired and excited.

This course is vital for today's teachers who have to produce and achieve so much in so little time. Join us and find out how to turn this dynamic program into a launching pad for creative lesson plans and engaging classroom activities.

Recommended Courses:

Students who enrolled in Microsoft Word 2003 in the Classroom were also interested in the following courses:

Integrating Technology in the Classroom

Microsoft Word 2007 in the Classroom

The Classroom Computer

Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 in the Classroom

Using the Internet in the Classroom

Syllabus:

All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when the lesson is released, but you must complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

A new section of each course starts on the second or third Wednesday of each month. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

Week One

Wednesday - Lesson 01

If you've been waiting for the right time to learn more about word processing, that time is here! In our first lesson, we'll take a look at the basic navigation principles and menus within Microsoft Word 2003. You'll learn how to use the menus, navigation panes, and basic editing features so that you can dive into more complex word processing feats.

Friday - Lesson 02

You can safely give away your typewriter now! Today, we'll take a look at formatting a basic letter in Word and using keyboard navigation for document shortcuts. You'll make your writing life a whole lot easier by putting this lesson to use right away.

Week Two

Wednesday - Lesson 03

Get ready to take your first steps toward becoming an organized Word user! In this lesson, you'll find out how to save, resave, and relocate documents to different drives on your computer. We'll go through the process of saving files so that you, in turn, can teach your students how to do it correctly.

Friday - Lesson 04

How many times have you wished you'd caught a spelling error that slipped by? Well, with Word's spell check, you'll never have that problem again. Today, we'll look at some more productivity tools, like spell and grammar check, cut and paste, and file deletions. Then, you can use these time-saving tools to make working with Microsoft Word—and writing in general—very easy.

Week Three

Wednesday - Lesson 05

Fonts, alignments, formatting, and WordArt, oh my! Today, you'll start spicing up your work with these fun Word tools that let you put your unique stamp on classroom and personal documents.

Friday - Lesson 06

Surprisingly, you have a lot of options when it comes to document printing and adding clip art. In this lesson, we'll take a look at smart ways to navigate through these choices. Word lets you preview everything you print, which is really helpful for catching any errors before it's too late. And clip art will open up a whole new world to you—enabling you to make your documents more visually friendly to young learners.

Week Four

Wednesday - Lesson 07

Today, you're going to master setting margins, headers, and footers. You'll learn about adding page numbers, changing your margins to fit different document needs, and adding borders to dress documents up with a little flair.

Friday - Lesson 08

In this lesson, we'll talk more about the look of your document, from the way you format paragraphs down to making lists with bullets and numbers. We'll also take a quick tour of indents, which will help you accomplish tricky spacing easily.

Week Five

Wednesday - Lesson 09

Let Word's drawing features dazzle you as you find out all the neat things you can do with AutoShapes—like filling them with colors and pictures to help you illustrate your document creatively. With all the shapes available in Word, you'll have no shortage of creative inspiration after this lesson.

Friday - Lesson 10

Creating tables in Word lets you do all kinds of useful things such as present charts, math problems, and all kinds of other information in creative and visually appealing ways. Word offers a lot of flexibility in table design, including cell height and width, color formatting, and sorting functions that will make your table pop out at readers! You'll see how it all works today.

Week Six

Wednesday - Lesson 11

In this lesson, you'll learn all about Word templates. A template is a pre-formatted document that you create to use over and over again for specific purposes—things like lesson plans, quizzes, grades, posters, and more. As a teacher, you'll find that templates can save you a great deal of time. Get ready to meet your new best friend!

Friday - Lesson 12

We'll finish up this course with a final look at finding and organizing files. After today, you'll never misplace a word processing document again! You'll find out how to organize folders and search for files so that saving and retrieving what you need in Word becomes a breeze.

This course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your questions. The instructor for this course will be Robin Sellers.

Robin Sellers holds a current teaching license. She has a Master of Arts degree in English with a concentration in technical and professional communication and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English with a certification in secondary education. Since 1995, she has taught at the secondary and post-secondary level. She encourages creativity in her classroom, teaches traditional curriculum classes in a computer lab, and incorporates technology including the Internet in her lessons. She also develops and teaches online curriculum courses. In 2003, she began teaching continuing education courses for teachers.

Requirements:

Microsoft Word 2003, Internet access, e-mail, the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins (two free and simple downloads you obtain at http://www.adobe.com/downloads by clicking Get Adobe Flash Player and Get Adobe Reader). Note: please be sure to install the required software on your computer before the course begins. This course is not suitable for Macintosh users, nor for users of any of the 2007 versions of Microsoft Word.

Student Reviews:

"I have really learned a lot in this course! I knew there was a lot that could be done in Word that I didn't know how to do, and now I know a lot more than I did. Thanks so much."

"I liked the course and will look forward to taking more online courses. The way that Robin replied to the comments and concerns were very comforting."

"I really enjoyed taking this class and look forward to moving forward with my own skills and challenges. I liked the course because it was online and available when I could sit and focus on the class."

"I really enjoyed this course. The writing style and the questions were great. Even greater were the practical assignments."

"I want to thank you for your clear instructions and great lessons! I am taking what I learn into the computer lab and sharing a lot of the new skills with my third graders. Your lessons are and will be a great resource for me as I learn more how to use Word. I'm becoming a computer literate resource at work, which is pretty amazing!!! Thanks again for your excellent instruction!!"

"Loved the course and instructor. Being away from the classroom for 10 years made me feel uncomfortable with computers. The instructor made it easy for me to feel successful by being detailed and organized with her lessons. I would look at taking more computer subject classes with her. She made it a wonderful class that I looked forward to taking each week."

"Ms. Robin Sellers is an excellent instructor who keeps her course moving at a lively, interesting pace. She is well-informed, prompt, and helpful in the discussions and fun in her lessons! The course itself was cutting edge information and has already begun helping me in the classroom as well with my middle school drama club when I work on scripts, notes, and newsletters. I have highly recommended Ms. Sellers's course to colleagues."

"Robin is an excellent instructor. The material was presented clearly. She went out of her way to answer questions not directly covered in the class. I would recommend this class to anyone."

"Thanks for teaching a great course! Robin is a very encouraging instructor and I find the practical applications of the lessons very useful in the classroom. I expect to use much from this class in the future."

"Thank you for a solid learning class on Word 2003. Very helpful!"

"Thank you for a wonderful course. I printed each lesson and will use the information for further practice and as a valuable resource. I enjoyed your teaching style, and I really appreciate the generous amount of information and ideas for using and applying Word in the classroom. Again, thank you for providing a great learning experience."

"Thank you, Robin, for a great course--I took much valuable information away from it! Thank you for your light-hearted and thorough writing style. Your students are fortunate to have you."

"This course certainly expanded my world. I've been using Word for years and never had a clue about all the really interesting things Word could do. Thanks, Robin."

"This course has been excellent. I presented how to sign up in a technology workshop and three other teachers are now taking your course. I couldn't believe that you responded so quickly to our assignments. The material was excellent and so understandable. It has been a pleasure taking this course."

"This course was perfect for the new teacher or returning teacher. I am hopeful that I will use all the lessons as a reference when I return to the classroom. The instructor was very easy to learn from and I would recommend her for any class."

"This was an excellent course. You could learn as much as you wanted. There were resources and supplementary material to help you if you wanted more in-depth information. I really enjoyed this course and it has helped me understand a lot of things I didn't know about and helped me learn new things about Word."

"This was a very helpful course. I learned so many things that I can put into use right away. I have already created new folders to help organize my files!"

"What a wonderful class and instructor! The information will be incredibly valuable! I created my own "textbook" complete with index for future reference. There is nothing I would change about the way the instructor conveyed the information! What a great resource and service! Thanks! You'll be "seeing" me again and again!"

"I enjoyed this class not only because of the knowledge I gained, but because of the writing style. I felt as if Robin were speaking directly to us."

"I really enjoyed Robin. She was very helpful and positive. I would take another course with her."

"I really enjoyed this course and know that I will definitely use the content that was covered. I liked the flexibility in the program and being able to work at my own pace. The materials were well written and easy to follow."