After extreme stress, I was finally able to figure this whole Excel thing out. Having used Excel in the past, I thought this assignment was going to be easy. It really was up until the dynamically part. After much exhausting research and going through all the resources I could find, it was thanks to one of my EME5050 friends that helped me find the way. No, they didn't give me the answer, but they did give me a link (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/create-a-link-to-another-cell-workbook-or-program-HP005199514.aspx) that helped me solve this thing! In the past I have used Excel for simple graphs and tables to use with a first grade science class, but never anything like this. As I was going through and completeing this I couldn't help but mumble under my breath numerous times, "Why am I doing this?" "I don't even use Excel as for my gradebook, so what's the point?" I found that it went beyond that and I really did learn a lot about different formulas and how to change, edit, and average. I didn't find any tutorial to be helpful when it came to question #8. I had to dig a lot to find anything. I was about to just say forget and then I became determined to solve this.
So, I do have a question that I was wondering if a few people could answer: Do any schools actually use Excel for their grading systems? I ask this because after reading a lot of your comments, many of you talked about other programs that are out there. My school uses IGPro or Integrated Pro for grading. It does have similarities to Excel because it is set-up in the same spreadsheet form. I think the great thing about these school based programs is that they are much more user-friendly then Excel. While doing this assignment I sort of felt like I was learning Russian. I also referenced a book from the Shelly Cashman Series on Excel. It did have a section about spreadsheets, but it never really told you how to do it.
School districts across the country are now implementing a new way to track and refer struggling students. Some, but not all, have heard of this process known as RTI or Response to Intervention. If you're an educator and are unaware of this process I'm sure it will be coming for you. Learning as much as you can about the process is so helpful with the implementation. I bring up this process because many of the sotware programs, particularly Excel, is one program that you have to have some knowledge about. When viewing and reviewing data about your students, everything must come from a graph or spreadsheet that is created from Excel. The graphs are used for comparisons and the spreadsheets contain assessment data from your students.So understanding how to navigate through this process will take some action on our parts to make sure we have accurate and reliable data on hand at our RTI meetings.
To answer your question, "Do schools actually use Excel as a grade book.... Yes, Southern Technical College uses it. That is where I first learned to use Excel. They did have the grade book already established. It was relative easy to use as long as you did not try to manipulate the formulas. At times the grade book did not work for me when the semesters changed and the percentages changed according to the syllabus. I would have to go to the person who designed the formula and ask them to fix it for my particular class I was using.
ReplyDeleteI am glad to see that I was not the only one who was having a difficult time with Excel. I find it extremely difficult when it comes to Excel. I don’t have the slightest idea on how to use this software. So instead of getting upset and having a meltdown, I decided to consult a friend who was able to guide me through the basic steps of Excel. At first I was getting upset and I didn’t want to complete this assignment. I had the same opinion as you. I thought wants the point of this assignment> I use IGPRO at my school and I didn’t need to learn anything about Excel. Well after careful instructions I was able to complete the sample grade book. I realized that I need to learn a lot more about Excel, so I decided to either buy a book or take a class on Excel. I realized that since my master degree is Instructional Technology, I might as well familiarize myself in all aspects of technology. It is my job as a teacher to be up to date with all technology so I can instruct my students.
ReplyDeleteI don’t use Excel either and had similar feelings about “forgetting it.” In fact, it is even difficult to comment on the posts. I don’t use spreadsheets, or work with numbers. Last semester I ran basic statistics on my five speech classes. I don’t even remember how I calculated them. I wanted to show students how many people actually completed homework, showed up for class, etc.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Excel takes knowledge and is not very user friendly. I use the systems set up in course management systems, such as Blackboard and Sakai for my grades. However, I do like the idea that I’ve been exposed to the program. In some ways, it confirms my desire to stay away from math. On the other hand, I’m glad to know enough to send my students in the right direction for help.