The Clarisworks Reference for Teachers

By Michelle Robinette

A "must-have" book that shows teachers how to integrate curriculum and technology in the classroom. "The ClarisWorks Reference For Teachers" takes users step-by-step through beginning layout and design principles in the ClarisWorks draw environment. It shows users how to create gradebooks, customized lesson plans, and more. It also includes a CD-ROM filled with helpful ClarisWorks templates.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0764501429
• ISBN13: 9780764501425
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: IDG
• Length: 374 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.5" x 1.3" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

An easy-to-use, fun, and very helpful reference.

Michelle Robinette, a former teacher, explains how to integrate ClarisWorks into the classroom in this easy-to-use reference book. She explains how to utilize each of ClarisWorsks six environments: word processor,database, drawing, painting, spreadsheets, and communication functions, with simple step-by-step instructions that will make your busy life as a teacher more simplified. A few of these instructions include the ability to print certificates, prepare slide shows, customize lesson plans, and create an automated gradebook. In chapter 20, Robinette shares some of her great ideas about how to put your students to work by utilizing ClarisWorks. Robinette recognizes this is a more challenging task when there is only one computer available for an entire classroom; however, she shares some of her suggestions for this all to common situation. A classroom journal, an ongoing story center, and a skill-and-drill review station are three ideas teachers working with a variety of subject areas, and grade levels can get their students to use ClarisWorks. If you are looking for a concise, fun-to-read ClarisWorks reference book, that includes wonderfully witty technology cartoons; this is the book!

I'm no "Dummy"

In her introduction, Michelle Robinette states that one of her goals is "to write books that serve as useful references - books that you find worthy of a spot on your desktop or beside your computer." Well. this one has a spot on a shelf near my computer, but I don't consider it a "reference". Like Ms. Robinette, I too am a teacher and something of a technology expert - at least among educators. I found the book far to elementary to be useful as a reference - but that doesn't mean that you will. What I'd like to do is pose a couple questions that might help you to decide whether this book is worth the investment, or whether a more advanced book (of the same cost) might be more appropriate. Are you a complete neophyte when it comes to computers? Or are you at least an experienced beginner? If you have only recently begun to use a computer and are still feeling your way around your Mac or PC, this is an excellent book. If you're already familiar with the basics of your Mac or PC operating system and a word processor, then you just might find Charles Rubin's =The Macintosh Bible Guide to ClarisWorks= a far better investment (even if you use a PC). Are you a Mac user or a PC user? I am in total agreement with Michelle Robinette that ClarisWorks is a simple, user-friendly, integrated suite that is exceptionally well suited to cross-platform (Mac-PC) environments. It's a perfect choice for schools which have traditionally been 'Mac shops', but are now making a sometimes painful transition to PCs. Unfortunately, the CD that comes bundled with Michelle Robinette's book is oriented mainly to Mac users. Be advised that if you are using a PC, the CD that comes with this book will be of very limited value. Are you an elementary school teacher or a secondary ed teacher? Michelle Robinette is a technology expert at an elementary school near Atlanta, and the her most useful software and lesson plan suggestions are oriented towards this population and its curriculum. Middle school teachers will still find many of her 'learning links' useful, and may be able to extrapolate appropriate lesson plans from her suggestions, but high school teachers (such as myself) will likely find them much less useful. Finally, I must take issue with one shortcut suggested in the book, namely, the suggestion to use specialized grading software. ClarisWorks offers teachers a means to master a simple, user-friendly, integrated suite that students will find very similar to the 'flagship office suites' commonly found in the workplace. Teachers should be strongly encouraged to use these applications for their own daily classroom management tasks - like attendance, grading, student and parent database, etc. I seriously doubt whether teachers who adopt Michelle Robinette's suggestion to use specialized grading software for these tasks will ever master ClarisWorks' spreadsheet and database applications and gain the necessary competence to integrate them into their curriculum. T