Today we tackled ebay

We set out to auction a lamp shade on eBay.  We were given the shade but really could not get on with it. Our group members were enthusiastic to use eBay.
Lets see if anyone bites. 

How we did it

1. We logged in an existing eBay account (but discussed setting up a new one).
2. We took some pictures on a tablet
3. Using Google Photos we copied the picture across to a PC and cropped the image to make it nice and clear
4. We then prepared our eBay listing. and added a decent description and set up a 7 day auction
5. We discussed tips for using eBay

It was a lot of fun especially for a small group and our group was keen to see the outcome the following week.

eBay is great for buying and selling and millions of people agree, and the queues at our local post office confirm. However, many just give up when selling after an initial poor experience as they do not appreciate that they may be selling something at the wrong time. Take on the tips that eBay offer for successful buying and selling.

• Avoid reserve prices if possible
• Post lots of pictures of what you are selling and give a good description
• Make sure that you list with the right keywords and categories.
• Be prepared to offer free posting
• Be ready to respond to buyer questions promptly.
• Don't worry if you have to re-list your item.

Wonkey donkey offers office skills to anyone needing the basics and more

May the Ass be with you all but don't be one

I have a blog to support my office skills course. The course was designed to help people improve their office skills by illustrating what happens when Office skills are not utilised in a small business and things go bad. 

The Wonkey Donkey sanctuary is an fictitious organisation that we designed the elements around. The office manager has gone AWOL and left a pile of receipts and papers and through the course we work out basic accounting, record keeping, PR, Rotas and calendars, mail merging and damage control.






The course involves the use of
Microsoft Office

• Word
• Excel
• PowerPoint
• Publisher
• Cloud file management
• Blogging and websites

The course is a little different from most in that it concentrates on efficient ways of doing tasks to speed up learners with shortcut techniques and a focus on 'Get it done' rather than a complete guide to all the features of each application. Every session is based around a real life scenario that has actually happened in my consulting experience. In some of them, real-life people were failing but didn't have to with a little guidance.

Typically writing a letter we spend less time on setting up the document template and more time on typing. 

The get it done ethos

• Get typing and keep typing ignoring spelling mistakes
• Proof read and spell check
• Cut and paste paragraphs to improve readability or emphasis.
• Dolly up - Format text and add styles for headings etc.

This often is the opposite to the way that people in the workplace type

• Set up headings etc
• Type - correct-add formatting- type-correct-type- change formatting-move paragraphs.....
• Dolly up

In my experience the former method is much faster is more likely read over properly, has more focus and sometimes even makes more sense.


This course is available for group or individual tuition. 
Click here for a typical set of lesson plans
If you wish me to provide a course simply email me at teachitsussex@gmail.com

watch out Hailsham you scammers

I shall be in Hailsham on Tuesday next week for the second of three sessions on Scamming and how to avoid identity theft. It seems ludicrous that so many people are being conned but this is the fastest growing UK industry. I hope to see you there. Contact me for details.

challenge 10 resources improve

I am pleased with the challenge 10 blog as it is filling out as a resource. Still no feedback from my students but perhaps they are just a bit shy! I have included PDFsheets for Windows and Mac keyboard shortcuts. Also there is a short piece on Microsoft OneNote. I still am finding Google Keep a bit more flexible for my needs. However, as I get more stuff on either system the structured approach of OneNote may win out over the Google challenger. I find that I never use evernote anymore. Its probably because most of the time I am using my phone and tablets to capture my information on the fly.

Reading up on other blogging alternatives I am drawn to the various commentators that say that blogger is just too limiting. I must beg to differ since it is easy to set up, does not require special hosting and has most of the features that I didn't even know I needed. The templates may be limiting but of course you can always edit the HTML if you are so inclined. So for now goodbye wordpress and other hosted solutions.

Challenge 10 blog started

I started the challenge 10 blog so that you can follow along with my course challenge 10 and feedback how you are doing with it.

Please let me know how it is going. The blog and all its resources are found here at this link

CHALLENGE 10 BLOG