Blog #6

Using Excel to create spreadsheets is an extremely valuable tool for teachers. There are so many things that teachers are responsible for these days that they don’t have time to track grades manually. Furthermore, using a computer program, with its automatic formulas, makes it so that there is less of a chance of error. I like the fact that you can create one type of spreadsheet and then reuse it year after year. It is also very useful that you can isolate certain data to make into graphs. I had to learn a little about Excel to pass the CCR exam but I have to admit that I was still very uneducated about how and for what to use Excel. I liked that, as a class, we went through Excel and practiced using it right then and there. I feel that I have a much better grasp of Excel and all of its features and tools. I took the Excel quiz and got one hundred percent (9/9), a good sign.

I found the article, “Teaching Students to use the Internet as a Research Tool”, very informative. I will use the information found in the article, not only for educating my future students, but also for my current status as a student. I have always used the Internet as a research tool but have also always had trouble isolating what information is appropriate and what web sites might prove less reliable. I wasn’t aware that different search engines will produce different results, so in the future I will be sure to use more than one search engine and/or to use the search engines suggested in the article. Also, I didn’t know that each search engine page has a “how to” feature that will describe the best way to get the best results for a search. It is interesting to learn that there are search engines just for kids, knowing about those search engines will prove useful in my future classroom. The web sites for teachers section will be very practical for my career as a teacher. Being that the Internet is used more and more for research, it is important for teachers to know, and for students to be taught, the most effective ways to search for, validate, and cite Internet information.