Spreadsheets

To be totally honest, I would have to say that me and spreadsheets had quite the love-hate relationship. I never liked using spreadsheets and yet I always seemed to have to use them in one way or another. Well, now I realize that my loathing for spreadsheets was only because I didn't really know how to use them so to me they were confusing and frustrating. Now I proudly can say that I have been taught and converted to the world of spreadsheets. Spreadsheets are actually pretty fun and not that difficult to use. I can use them in several places in my own teaching. I most definitely can and will use them for grading and record keeping. Using the tables and graphs I can observe each child's progress and the progress of the whole class. I can used the information to possibly see the areas that the children are not understanding and improve myself as a teacher. Spreadsheets are good for collecting and analyzing data so not only can I use it for my own purposes, I can teach my students to use it as well. Like in class we did several experiments and recorded the data on a spreadsheet. We were able to see all of the data and use the information to make prediction and conjectures about the experiment. It was a great teaching tool and a way to give more responsibility back to the student. I can use this method in my own class particularly in the areas of math and science. If I can show my students how to use spreadsheets and how beneficial they really are then I can give them a better experience then I had.
Also we used Google Docs to give each other surveys. We had a lot of fun in class doing these and I could definitely use this in my classroom. The students could use this on different projects to survey other classmates and see the results. Also we could use this in math to work on percentages, graphing, and analyzing results. These two tools can be very helpful in the classroom and can help the children learn skills on the computer.