The Benefits of Excel

Microsoft Excel is a great instructional tool for teachers and students to use in the classroom. It enables us to organize and manage numerical data in an efficient and productive way. Teachers can use Excel to keep budgets and grade books, create schedules, and make attendance lists, which helps them save time when making calculations or storing data. It also encourages them to organize displays of information in effective ways. In addition, Excel could be helpful in teaching mathematical topics and could increase students' motivation to work with math concepts. Since Excel is so hands-on, students get to organize their data or create graphs in a fun, stimulating, and engaging way. Other subjects could be incorporated using Excel as well, which makes this tool have such a great impact in the classroom.

Here are two examples of projects I did in my graduate course using Excel:

The possibilities on Excel are endless! There are so many charts and graph options you can explore. There are also various ways you can organize or store different kinds of information. I made charts and graphs on the percentage of colors in skittle bags and Santa's elf shopping list. These are just some of my examples, but you can effectively integrate this tool into the classroom using core curriculum ideas. Excel is such a beneficial tool and I believe teachers should learn how to use it and incorporate it into lessons in their classrooms! 

Beginnings of School: Use Kidspiration!

Kispiration is a visual organizing tool that helps students explore and understand words, numbers, and concepts. I was introduced to this great software in my graduate course and on our first day, we made a visual called "All About Me." It consisted of three pictures: the side-view of a face, a heart, and a house. Each picture was labeled as: Why I'm Special, Things I Like, and My Family. We were asked to go through the pictures offered on this Kidspiration program and answer these questions using various pictures and words. It was a fun project that enabled us to learn one of the ways we could use Kidspiration in our classroom. Here is my "All About Me" project:

I think this project is a great way to have students introduce themselves to establish relationships within the classroom. Every teacher has an activity or icebreaker to use in the beginning of school, but I'm sure most of these activities don't involve using technology. I think this is an engaging activity that requires students to use pictures and words to describe why they are special, things they like, and all about their family. These are topics that students usually talk about when getting to know each other in the beginning of school so getting to use the computer is an added bonus. I would definitely think about using Kidspiration for this purpose because after they make their "All About Me" project they would get to share it with one another as a way to establish positive relationships. It would also add color and creativity to our classroom and I would therefore choose to hang up their projects after they are done sharing. Not only do they get to open up and learn about each other, but they are gaining an academic benefit out of using Kidspiration. They are using visual learning to explore words and concepts that help describe them. I think this activity is an engaging way to integrate technology into the beginnings of school and everyone should explore all the amazing uses of Kidspiration!

Welcome to my blog

Hi everyone! This is my first blog experience and I found it pretty easy to create. The blogspot tutorial was helpful and guided me through the steps in making this blog. The hardest part was trying to choose a creative name for the title and link to the blog. I'm not the most creative person, but I decided to make my title about the best of technology in the classroom, since I will be posting all about educational technology. I've never shared any of my ideas through a blog before. I've only read friends blogs who post about fashion, sports, or the media. I hope you find interest in the topic of educational technology and that you like what you read here on my blog.

My graduate course EECE 750: Modern Learning Technologies will teach me a lot about educational technology and integration in the classroom. I will share with you the valuable information I have learned about in class and in the various reading materials I will encounter throughout my semester. I plan to upload the projects I create, which should give you a better idea of ways to engage students with the use of technology in school. I am excited to share my knowledge and ideas with you all.