Out and About English website

Click on the first link below to go to activities on the website associated with the book we use in class (Out and About). Click on the second link below to buy an older edition of the book online.

LINK: Out and About English website   UPDATE 3/13/2020: This website is no longer open.

LINK: Click here to purchase an older edition of the book at Amazon.com

Practice Filling Out an Online Job Application

When filling out a job application online, have all your information ready: your address and other contact information, your employment history (including names and addresses of former workplaces), your education history, special awards or achievements, and references (names and contact information for people who can recommend you as a good employee).

My suggestion: Click the link below to practice filling out a job application online (this is not a real job application, only for practice):

LINK: Practice Job Application at ExperienceWorks.org

Online Excel Tutorials at gcflearnfree.org

We had a brief lesson on Microsoft Excel in class today (Tuesday, May 30, 2017). If you want to know more about using Excel---

My suggestion: Click the link below to go to free lessons at gcflearnfree.org. This website also has lessons available on Microsoft Word and other software.

LINK: Free Excel Lessons at gcflearnfree.org

Work on Your Typing Speed with the Meteor Game!

If you have completed at least Lesson 1 and 2 at typing.com, with 80% or more accuracy, try this typing lesson and game at a different website. It's also a great way to work on improving your speed!

My suggestion: Click on the link below, which takes you to Typing Tutorial Lessons at sense-lang.org.

LINK: Typing Lessons and Meteor Game (or other games)

Click on Lesson 2, which covers the letters j, f, k, and d. You can
watch a video if you wish, then try the lesson. After the lesson, click on the Meteor Game. You have to wait for a video ad to play, but when the game loads, click on level of difficulty Easy, then click Start. You must place your fingers on the home row so that the correct finger types each letter (right index for j, left index for f, right middle for k, left middle for d). Meteors with the letters j, f, k, and d on them will fly at you. When you type the correct letter (the letter on the meteor), a laser shoots and explodes the meteor. It sounds easy, but the letters start flying at you faster and faster, and your fingers really have to remember what they're doing.

Each lesson adds more letters to the meteor game, so it gets more challenging. Also, you can select a higher level of difficulty. If you select "all letters" for a game, punctuation and numbers are included, and it's a real challenge for even a good typist!

Read About and Practice Word Processing Skills

Jan's Computer Basics is a website with a lot of good lessons on computers and applications (programs).

My suggestion: Click on this link--

LINK: Jan's Computer Basics--Read About and Practice Word Processing Skills

Read the sections entitled Word Processing and Create, which are about steps to producing a document and the different skills used in word processing (move the cursor, scroll, enter text, select, copy, paste, delete, etc.). Then scroll about halfway down the page to a yellow window that looks like the picture below and practice skills in the small white text box. After that, you can keep reading the sections called Format and Print.

When you go to the website and scroll down to this yellow window, you can click in the smaller white window on its right side and follow the Directions in the white window at the left (which has its own scroll bar). You can practice the skills you have just read about on the webpage!

Performing Basic Tasks in Microsoft Word

"If you're new to Microsoft Word, you'll need to learn the basics of working with text so you can type, reorganize, and edit text. Basic tasks include the ability to add, delete, and move text, as well as the ability to find and replace specific words or phrases."

The above quotation is from the website gcflearnfree.org. It introduces a video and instructions for performing these basic tasks in MSWord. You can download a practice document if you like.

My suggestion: Click on the link below to read about how to select, copy, paste, delete, insert, find, and replace text in a document. Then watch the video on the upper right of the page to see a demonstration (the video's text is not provided, so you get to practice your listening skills while you watch the demonstration).

LINK: Text Basics in Microsoft Word--Instructions and Video

Names for Common Internet Symbols

The above chart is from theenglishstudent.com

Parts of a Computer Keyboard

Here is a picture of a standard computer keyboard. The parts of the keyboard are labeled, and so are the keys that are not letters and numbers.

The keyboard picture is from a website called DigitalUnite, The DigitalUnite website has some useful basic lessons, including a lesson on how to use a keyboard. Some of the other lessons may confuse you, because the instructions were written for the Windows 7 operating system, and the computers we use in class have Windows 8 or Windows 10. If you don't know what various keys on the keyboard do, study this lesson by clicking on the link below.

My suggestion: Click on the link below to study DigitalUnite's lesson on using a computer keyboard.

How to Use a Computer Keyboard


NOTE: If you want to open WordPad to try creating a document, click on the How to open WordPad link in the lesson. The instructions refer to the Windows 7 version of the Microsoft Windows operating system. This happens to be the version on the computers in room 402, our summer classroom.

However, these instructions are not helpful when you use the computers in room 405, which have Windows 10. You can open and use Microsoft Word instead, but WordPad is a simpler word processing program that is good for learners. Follow the instructions below to open WordPad on a Windows 8 or 10 computer:

1. Find the File Manager icon (symbol) on your desktop screen. It should be located on the task bar at the bottom of your screen (it looks like the picture at the right). Click on it to open it.
2. In the column on the left side on the File Manager page, scroll down and find Windows (C:) in the list. Click on it to open it.
3. In the list of files that appears, double click on the Windows folder to open it.
4. Scroll down the list of files, all the way to the bottom. Double-click on the very last file, which is labeled write, to open WordPad.

What is Word Processing and Can I Do It?

When people produced letters or memos on old-fashioned typewriters, the metal letter and number keys struck first an ink ribbon, then the paper, and produced a "hard" physical copy. It was difficult to correct any mistakes, because they were already printed on the sheet of paper (luckily there was something called Liquid Paper).

When typing on a computer keyboard, no hard copy is produced until you decide to print what you have typed on paper. You use a keyboard to type words that appear on a monitor screen. You can then correct misspelled words and insert (put in) or delete (take out) whole words or paragraphs. You can change the way the letters look (their style or font) and change their size and spacing. That's why typing on a computer is often called word processing--you can keep changing the words as long as you want to. Nothing is final until you decide to print the document. Just be sure to save your changes often so you don't lose them!

The computer must be loaded with word processing software (software is also called an application or program). Think of software as instructions that tell the computer what to do in response to what the user types on the keyboard. The most popular word processing program is Microsoft Word (MSWord).

My Suggestion: To read more about word processing, learn word processing vocabulary, and practice basic word processing skills, click on the link below.

Learn word processing terms and practice basic skills at Jan's Computer Basics

1. Read about the five steps to producing a document. Do you think the order of the steps should be changed? (Hint: Notice where "Save" appears in the order of steps)
2. Scroll down to the Create section. How many of the vocabulary words under the Features/Terms heading do you already know?
3. Scroll down to the section that says Do it! Simple Text. Follow the directions to play with basic word processing skills.