Microsoft Word & PowerPoint Honors
Spring 2015 | Mr. McGeorge
At Heritage High School, a variety of Career-Technical Education courses that are designed to prepare students with the necessary skills to succeed in future careers. Microsoft is an application used in almost any career. By becoming familiar with it in this class, I have been able to use it in my other classes, on resumes, on brochures, and much more. In addition, this course offered a free Microsoft Certification Exam, and thus I was able to earn my own Microsoft Office Specialist Certification. The course offered an Honors adjustment if one opted to do so. I chose the Honors adjustment, which included two separate projects: a mail merge using Microsoft Word, and a Stop Motion Animation using Microsoft PowerPoint. The expertise I gained from performing these additional assignments has allowed me to enhance skills that are useful in both college and in industry. I enjoyed this class because it was up to me on how to spend my class time; each day we were given an assignment. As long as that assignment was completed, I was allowed to work on anything else for the time that remained in the class period. I spent my free time working on my Biology class essays, or any other homework. All in all, this class equipped me with future career knowledge and ability, while also giving me the opportunity to work at my own pace.
Below are some assignments that I completed in Microsoft Word & PowerPoint Honors.
Honors Project: Microsoft Mail Merge Project Invention Letter
For the first quarter of the semester, we focused on using only Microsoft Word. The second quarter was spent working on forging new skills in Microsoft PowerPoint. At the end of each quarter, the Honors students were assigned an Honors Project that aligned with the quarter's lessons. The Mail Merge Project Invention Letter assignment was given to us after having completed our first quarter of training in Microsoft Word. It required that I research an invention by Thomas Edison, write a business letter requesting a loan, use the Mail Merge feature in Microsoft Word to send the letter to three banks, and then create a cover page. The premise of the letter was that I had to imagine that I was Thomas Edison. I needed to borrow money for a new invention. I needed to use the Mail Merge wizard to create three merged letters to each bank. Additionally, when I turned this assignment in, I needed to include the letter before the merge with the placeholders displayed. This project showed me a relevant life skill for the workplace, while also challenging me to incorporate research into it. The instructions included a sample business letter that explained the proper formatting and what to include in each paragraph of business letters. If I could complete this project again, I do not think I would change anything; I followed the step-by-step instructions precisely as they were given to me.
Commercial Assignment
This assignment required students to choose something that they wished to advertise, and to then make a professional PowerPoint Presentation in the style of a commercial. At the time that this project was assigned, I had begun playing for the Heritage Women's Varsity Soccer team. So, I decided that I wanted to advertise our team and encourage more fans to support us at our games. I enjoyed this assignment, because it allowed me to incorporate my pride and love for my team in an academic project. If I could complete this project again, I would incorporate more photos of our team; I didn't have access to recent photos of my team. Besides this, I was pleased with the "commercial" that came to surface.
Husky Soccer Commercial Presentation
Honors Project: Stop-Motion Movie PowerPoint
The second half of the Honors project included a Stop Motion Animation Project. In it, Honors students were expected to use PowerPoint software to create a stop motion animation presentation while also using imagination to create an original work of art. I decided to make my animation about a bird who cannot fly yet find a creative solution to return to his nest safely. This project was actually very amusing to make, and though it took a lot of time to create, I was very pleased with my final animation. I enjoyed combining creativity with learning, and quite honestly I thought my animation was adorable. I struggled the most with my honors projects only because my teacher did not give us any instructions or help in person. We were expected to create these projects on our own time, so the only directions we received were from a printed paper he received from the honors curriculum. So these projects required a lot of individual responsibility for each of the Honors students.
Free-fallin' Stop Motion Presentation