Cedo 515 - Week 3

This week we are talking about spreadsheets, Nettrekker, and evaluating software. Spreadsheets are something that I am not afraid of, that I use occasionally, but that I don't understand completely as far as inserting functions and things like that. I know enough that I was able to put one together for my wedding so that every time I added or subtracted a guest it automatically added or subtracted to the total. I was also able to create a honeymoon budget spreadsheet that had the amount that I wanted, the amount that I had, then I just put in how much more I added to it each month and it would tell me how much more I needed. That was very helpful and even though I don't claim to be a wizard with spreadsheets, I believe that I still know more about how to use them than most people. I would like to bring spreadsheets into my classroom more, especially after looking at some of the examples. I like to have the students look at all kinds of graphs, charts, and information, but the spreadsheet would allow students to make their own. There is no better way to get students to understand how to read graphs and charts than to put one together by themselves.

We did a magic square spreadsheet. I was not looking forward to this because I hate sudoku and anything like it. I started out by guessing quickly, then realized that this was getting me nowhere, so I decided to use logic. It started with realizing that 7,8, and 9 would never be in the same line, and everything fell into place from there.

We also explored Nettrekker. My district subscribes to this and I have a link to it on my Moodle site for my students. I often direct them there so that they can find good reliable information without having to wade through all of Google's garbage.

We read Chapters 5 and 6 in the book about Creativity and Problem Based Learning. I worked both of these concepts into my classroom last semester. I encouraged both in one project. I organized the students into groups, then they had to answer the question, "How could the Civil War have been prevented?" The groups then had to come up with an invention or idea that could have solved or prevented many of the different causes that led to the American Civil War. I realized that I and the teachers that I created this with actually went through and did many of the steps listed in Chapters 5 and 6, but it is really nice to have them all listed right here.

Something interesting that I've found both in my short experience and from talking to others in my group is that very few people, even qualified people, are able to evaluate and choose the software that they use for their district/job. This is generally because there are other people that are hired to do just that. Many of us have to simply use what is given to us through all of the bureaucracy. This is bad because we are unable to choose what we think might be best for ourselves and our co-workers. It is also good because we have other people to go through all of the different options that are out there, there is somebody that is seemingly more experienced that is being paid to do it.