Lesson 2 - Using Databases and Spreadsheets

Who knew that so much could be accomplished in our classrooms by using Spreadsheets and/or Databases? Not me, that’s for sure! Over the past week I learned more about spreadsheets and databases then I did in my entire undergrad computer classes. As an undergrad student I never focused on how these programs could be used to help me as an educator so I never really made that connection, but my eyes have been open to a lot of things in the past week just from this lesson!

When I first became an educator I really only used programs like Excel to keep attendance or to maybe chart who was on task with a project or something like that. In the last year or so I have moved from basic Excel use to using the spreadsheets to communicate assessment results with my 5^th grade students. I have made spreadsheets that calculate overall scores on assessments such as my summative tests and common assessments given by the school district. This has been extremely valuable, because I have made it a friendly competition between all 5 of my classes to see who could get the top score. We always chart our overall scores.

I thought that I was using spreadsheets and databases to the fullest, but boy was I wrong. When searching online I found lots of uses of spreadsheets in the classroom. In fact this website: http://www.amphi.com/~psteffen/excel.html has many resources that make Excel fun and meaningful to use in the classroom. I have displayed a picture of how you can create flashcards for studying on excel at the top of the blog. I found that webpage by using another teacher’s website here: http://www.sbaran.net/excel/index.html it was Mr. Baran’s website that really got me excited in new ways to use Excel. Over the last 3 years of my teaching experience, I have made my students make timelines on several occasions. Not once did it ever cross my mind to have them make timelines with interactive pictures on Excel until I read about Mr. Baran’s ideas. On his page and others I found examples of how students were placed in groups and given certain key events in a certain thematic unit like the Revolutionary War for example. The students worked hard to make their contribution to the class timeline.  Mr. Baran has ideas such as graphing the president’s political background with Excel as well as much more!

Over the past week my thoughts about spreadsheets and databases have changed tremendously. I hate to admit it, but I used to be like the teacher from the article we were supposed to read who said that if she didn’t get how to use Excel how could her students? Now that I have read more about how to use the program I can honestly say that my feelings have changed! I look forward to utilizing these new ideas!