Excelling

For my master’s class, we had to use an Excel spreadsheet with fake students and grades. We were required to manipulate some of the columns and rows in an attempt to learn about a teacher productivity tool. In Orange County, we have a teacher productivity tool called Progress Book that we use to store all of our grades. I do not need to use Excel in my school because Progress Book will do practically anything. For example, I can print out a list of all my failing students or print out a list of all students that have been absent five or more times. Progress book will even transfer the grades to another teacher when the students are sequestered from a class. I learned two things while doing this exercise.

First, I learned that I am very tech savvy. I have not used Excel since my intro to technology class in community college. Once I opened Excel, I started to remember all the wonderful things Excel could do. Anything I did not remember how to do I was able to look up using the Microsoft help buttons or use Google to figure out how to accomplish a task in Excel. I was not able to understand how to do the extra credit part of the assignment. I would like to know how to complete the extra credit so I could use this in my class. I think it would be great to know if homework is helping out on tests or not.

            Second, I learned that I should be more open to using different forms of technology. When I first read that we were using Excel, I was upset that I was using a program that I learned about in my intro to technology class seven years ago. However, the assignment was enjoyable, and I learned something new that could benefit my students.

In conclusion, I learned that there is a lot of software that I could use to help my class. I hope to learn more about other programs in this class that will make me a better teacher and help my students become better learners.