Posted in relaxed homeschooling
When is it good to be Teacher's Pet? When you are a nifty little add on to Microsoft Word! Yesterday a friend asked me if I had heard of this free program that allows you to basically input text information and then turns it into one of many types of worksheets for your child. I haven't got to play around with it too much yet, but so far it seems really cool and not too hard to use. I am definitely adding this site to the next update for my book, Using the Internet In Your Homeschool. I know my readers will love it!Teacher's Pet was written by a teacher from the UK and utilizes "macros", which are a built in part of Word. Apparently macros allow you to "record" a series of steps when creating a form or document. The recorded process then can be repeated anytime you want, even with different content. I don't even pretend to understand it all - but I'm thankful that someone else took the time to develop this useful tool
Here are just a few of the worksheets you can make using text content:
- Multiple choice
- Remove a word
- Remove punctuation
- Unsort selected paragraphs
- bingo card maker
- match two parts of a sentence
- crossword maker
- verb form
- flashcards
- AND MORE!
The "remove punctuation" option really apppeals to me - imagine being able to input (type or simply copy/paste) any block of text. The program removes punctuation, you give the worksheet to your child and they need to find/replace what's missing. You could use Bible passages, interesting articles, material related to history or science studies. Cool, huh?!?!
In the beginning of this entry I mentioned my book - I just realized yesterday that we now have over 3000 families using it. I am humbled and amazed! One of the things people like is the fact that, after registering their copy, they receive updates a couple times a year via email. Basically, I let them know what sites have changed, disappeared or are now charging a fee (all of the sites in the book are free). I then add a bunch of new sites which they can print and insert into their book. Teachers-Pet.org is definitely going to be a hit in the next update I'm working on for release next week!All this talk about Teacher's Pet, makes me want to go play to see everything it can do! If you decide to try it out, let me know what you think :-)Blessings,
Cindy
