Google doc spreadsheets

In my past life, before starting this education program, I have had some experience working in excel spreadsheets for my accounting courses for my business minor, and in various jobs in the past. This is the first time I have actually used the google spreadsheet, and liked the similarities between the two programs. It has been some time since I've worked with data sets like this, so it did take me a bit getting into the groove finding the averages, and standard deviations especially.



as you can see with the scores, overall the test scores are steadily getting better from the first to the last test. There is some slight variation with individual scores, but on the whole, progress is made throughout the testing process.



the above chart is one that I made out of the data that was collected on the spreadsheet. I liked how easy it was to make a chart from the data.

This project was a little challenging for me, I'm still getting used to working with a laptop, so sometimes I had some issues with the formatting that was difficult to change without the use of a mouse. I found Barry's video on tips for the spreadsheets invaluable and watched quite a few times and it really helped me out in the long run and saved me from impending frustrations I would surely of encountered had the video not been made.

I already have a feeling that I will use this tool countless times throughout my teaching career in many ways. I can foresee myself tracking students progress to show parents, and like in the process of doing this exercise, I can also see myself using the spreadsheets to track progress in the testing realm to see if any changes need to be made with lesson plans.

Although I'll admit that I found this to be a little frustrating at times, it was really good to practice in the spreadsheets and I know that the more I use this program, the more proficient I will become. It was also good practice for me to learn how to imbed the data and charts onto this blog, which wasn't as easy as I had originally thought!

Here is a link to the entire sheet with the data and chart if you would like to see the sheet in its entirety.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AlenwErZiIWkdGpuanMtdndoMEswX3NLVGdyakg3X0E&hl=en