What a nice bunch of kids I got to end my 25-year teaching career with yesterday. I brought breakfast to them for their 8 a.m. exam period. Who ever would have thought that Computer Applications would be a class they would cut from the curriculum when budget cuts were made. I'm still in disbelief. The yearbook part of the job I am happy to pass on to another poor, unsuspecting teacher. But I do feel very bad that students will no longer be taught how to use Excel, Publisher, PPt and Word at Collegedale Academy because "they learn it on the elementary level" I was told.
I had my students write a letter to me after they finished their exam yesterday telling me what they learned in the class that will be helpful to them. I was pleased with their responses. You don't have to read any of them, but I want to preserve them here to affirm what I have enjoyed putting so much of my life into:
"I am very happy I learned Excel so I can use it for my budget to help my family stay organized." Sydney Raitz
"Since I have a job in the Business Office I use the Excel skills that you have taught us to my advantage. In years to come, I think that my newly improved Excel skills will continue to serve me well." - Claire Edens
"In Computer Apps I learned many helpful skills. Through the year we went through various programs including Word, Publisher, PowerPoint, and Excel. I believe that these could all be very useful in my life depending on what my profession will be. Even if my job will be something not requiring any of these skills, I will have them for managing my family life." - Candace Gettys
"I know I will use the useful features you taught in future Word projects such as inserting a screenshot or a hyperlink. I can create professional business cards and brochures, or friendly greeting cards in Publisher, and present an appealing PowerPoint presentation. Lastly, I have had an excellent introduction to the many wonders of Excel. Your thorough instruction and abundant patience was greatly appreciated." - Natalie Hamilton
"I have enjoyed this class and all the learning that it entailed, and I am so thankful to have learned what I did. The keyboard shortcuts were useful, but that's not what will be most useful to me. As you know, I love to write, and while I knew a lot about Word, I didn't know everything you taught me. All of those things will become very useful in days to come. This summer I hope I can use the skills you taught me about PowerPoint (I like to make them in my free time) to make beautiful displays of information. I've already used them once to help my sister on a project. The most useful thing, however, is what we learned in Excel. I was Excel stupid before this semester; I had no idea how to work it. So I must thank you for everything you taught me." Caitrin Henkel
"I think the many things we learned in Excel will be most useful to me in years to come. Formulas used to be a difficult task for me, and my dad would always help me with projects that involved them, but not I can do it all on my own. Thanks for being such a great teacher! I really enjoyed your class." - Isabella Stern
"I think that everything you taught us will benefit me greatly in my coming years of high school and college, but I think that what will help most of all is the knowledge of Word that you have instilled in us this semester. These skills will be put to the test every year from now until I graduate from college, and possibly after that. I will have to use Word to type research papers for classes, essays too. Then once I graduate it is very possible, no matter what I do, that I will need to know Word for the job, unless it is at McDonald's or somewhere like that." - Kurt Kuhlman
"I have learned many things from your class this past semester. Almost, if not all, of the new information you have taught will be very helpful in years to come. Learning how to properly type letters is probably the most useful thing I have learned from our section covering Word. . . I didn't know hardly anything about Excel, but now I can easily use it. You also taught us well in the ways of using Publisher." - Abby Hansen
"The most helpful skill I learned is how to use Excel. Surprisingly, I did not know much, and I greatly appreciate knowing the complexity of Excel. I never knew how much you could do with formats and formulas." - Yehjee Lee
"I learned that there are many different ways to format a document to make it look pretty and to attract the eye. I did not know how to do this before coming into this class this year. I also learned the different ways of writing a business letter and personal business letter such as this one." - Heidi Kalua
"Personally I think many of the techniques and shortcuts we learned in Excel will be very useful in various jobs. Many positions require you to know how to work with the programs we reviewed--programs like Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. So I'm very excited that I learned how to manage these programs so it can help later in the future for my career." - Diana Alvarez
"I think I learned the most in Excel, because I had never used Excel before now. I think that the shortcuts and different things you can do that I learned in Word will be the most useful to me, because I can imagine having to type essays and papers in the future in Word and with all the shortcuts I learned it will help me type those papers faster and easier." - Zach Hill
"I have learned many things about Word, Excel and PowerPoint. I learned things that vary between formulas to typing letters like this one. I have really enjoyed your worships. They were always very interesting and meaningful." - Elsa Moody
"When it comes to school I love finding the easiest way to do a problem, etc. Computer Apps has helped me find better and quicker ways to work a computer in Excel and Word. I feel like when I'm in my senior year and I have to do a project on a computer, I now know how to work the applications more efficiently." - Jay Owens
"When we first started Comp Apps I felt like I knew everything about Word, PowerPoint and Excel, but now I realize I didn't know anything. I felt like I already knew everything about PowerPoint, but yet again I knew nothing. I knew nothing about the shortcuts and tricks in PowerPoint. When we got to Word I had an open mind and I learned how to make things easier. Then came Excel; I had almost no idea how to work that application but I can see why it is so popular. These things I have learned will give me the skills I need in life to make documents, PowerPoints, spreadsheets, etc. I can now see why this is such an important class to take." - Garrett Howe
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