Saxon Phonics and Technology

Being an intermediate teacher moving to a primary grade was challenging for many reasons.
One of the key challenges was getting used to the Phonics program the county uses.
Phonics is not a big part of the third and fourth grades. Therefore I never became
very proficient with it.  
Second grade was therefore a baptism of fire.
I began initially reading the text of the program word for word.
No disrespect to anyone, but the children were unbelievebly bored.
Mr. Cole was a bit bored himself. 
Then I began using theatrics and different characters to try to jazz up the text.
It sort of worked, but I was exhausted!
As the year progressed, I began doing three things that seemed to help.
First, I didn't follow the text as closely. I aimed at key objectives in each lesson.
Second, I used both parents and IAs as a resource to work with small groups in reinforcing skills.
Thirdly,  (and this is where technology comes in), I began teaching the kids how to do Word Art in
Microsoft Word and then how to use various tools to code those words.
That's when Saxon began clicking for many of us. 
The chlldren can now go into a word document and create Word Art that
is totally coded in a Saxon manner.  
Not every kid gets the Saxon way of doing things.
But the percentage is much higher than earlier in the year.
Once again, technology has helped bridge a gap between concept and ownership of that concept.