Spreadsheets!

I use spreadsheets a lot.  Probably too much.  I record daily behavioral data on my students, pre- and post-test scores for every unit, MAP and WKCE scores, and have even tried keeping data on how they do on daily warm-ups to identify areas that need extra review.  I find it extremely useful, as the numbers often show trends or issues that I wouldn't have seen on my own.  This allows me to make simple adjustments to solve these problems.

I used spreadsheets on a senior graduation project when I taught high school.  Students had to simulate their first year out of high school and set a budget.  Excel was handy for this, since it was easy to add another line on the budget and have everything automatically adjust.  Since I moved to teaching middle school, I haven't used spreadsheets directly with the students.  I could imagine some ways to incorporate it into my classroom.  Currently we do a project where students create an ad campaign for an imaginary country.  They could be given an advertising budget, then choose ad methods based on cost and how many each method would reach.  Also, we have a fantasy league for Tom Sawyer.  Students "draft" characters at the beginning of the book, then get points based on certain actions (5 points for hiding, 4 points for cleverly getting out of trouble, etc.).  I use a spreadsheet to keep track of their points, but this is something that I could hand off to them in the future.

As we move forward with RtI, and efficient data collection and analysis becomes a larger part of a teacher's job, knowing how to use a spreadsheet will be more and more important.  It's been interesting as I talk to teachers in other districts that some pay quite a bit for a program to analyze data (SWIS), while other districts are doing it for free with Excel.

Online Word Processing and a Mini-Rant

I just posted my observations about Zoho Writer in the discussion board, so my apologies if this is a bit redundant, but I was really impressed.  A lot of the tools I've seen on the web that try to replace Office programs either completely fall short, or fill some weird little niche.  But Zoho Writer seems like something I could give to students, and they would probably be able to use it without any problems after about 10 minutes of playing around.  Because of that shallow learning curve, it's something I feel I could apply in my classroom very easily.

Using programs like Zoho Writer or Google Docs take care of some common classroom problems.  First of all, there are no compatibility issues.  So students can't (legitimately or "accidentally") save a file at home in a format that won't open at school.  Also, sharing between group members is easy.  They can collaborate on a project in real time, even if they aren't in the same room.  And if they are working on it at different times, it is easy to leave comment boxes in work someone else has done if it is something the group needs to discuss.

I mentioned in my post that my school is planning a project where groups are comprised of members from different classrooms.  To avoid redundancy I won't go into it again, but that seems like the most likely way I would have students collaborate.  I would like to have students working online together outside of school, but I always run into the problem of the 10% or so that don't have internet access.  Our principal has been very clear in her stance- "Go for it.  Why deprive 90% of the students because it won't work for 10%?"  But the realities of the situation are what get in the way for me.  Generally, those 10% that are without the home internet access are the 10% that I often worry about.  The 10% that probably don't need to be separated from the rest of the class and given an alternate assignment.  The 10% that really need technology instruction at school, because they don't get to wander the web and find tools like these at home.  And I realize that public libraries offer free internet access, but there are some kids for whom that just isn't going to happen, and it isn't their fault.  If technology becomes another thing that separates them from their peers, and reminds them how bad they've got it, when they could see technology as a way to reach out to the world, then we lose.

515 Week 1

It felt good to get back into the swing of classes this week, and I was glad to see that some of the ideas brought up in the text related directly to conversations we've been having at school.  I was particularly intrigued by the idea of Technological Literacy, as this is something we've been talking about a lot this year (though not by that name).  I had read a while ago that the most important thing to get through to students is not how to use individual programs, because they will likely be obsolete by the time our students are using them in their careers. Instead, we need to teach why we use them.  What aspects of this program make it a good fit?  What would make it better?

I've seen this plenty of times with my own students.  Over half of them are probably better at Power Point than I am, but look like a deer in the headlights when asked to use Google Docs.  They know their one program, but that knowledge isn't seen as something that would translate.  Last fall, I tried to take them out of their comfort zone on a presentation.  They had to research a country, then act as its tourism bureau to attract visitors.  They could make a flier in Publisher (though most were discouraged from it), a promotional video in Animoto, or a commercial in Kerpoof.  To my surprise, they really took to the project.  Most of the Publisher users actually abandoned their flier and switched to something more interesting.  And once they were engaged in a project they found fun, getting them to research was a snap- they needed information to fill that commercial.

In a few weeks, I'm doing a similar project with an advanced class.  They will be creating advertisements to some event that is taking place this summer.  The main requirement is that they have to use an online presentation program that they have never used before.  While some might be drawn to a program like 280 slides for its similarity to their familiar Power Point, I really think more will jump on to creative programs like GoAnimate.  I feel this is a great example of how technology can be used as a tool.  Since each program is suited for a slightly different purpose, this will lead to discussions of different forms of writing and a review of all the different styles and purposes we discussed all year.  Much more entertaining than the "Name That Style" game I had planned to fill three days.