AR Spreadsheet

This assignment was a challenging one that made me realize that there is a lot more to Excel than what I had previously thought. It was a great way to learn some new things however it took me a lot longer than an Excel spreadsheet should take. I had to watch several you tube videos and read several explanations to try to figure things out but I still do not feel like I understand it the best. I think that spreadsheets like these would be great to use so that you can track you progress as a teacher by the progress that students making in the classroom. While I am not a firm believer in standardized testing and judging a student by their scores, I think that this can encourage a teacher to try harder or to develop new ways to teach based on the data that he/she receives. This could fall under the ISTE NETS for Engaging in Professional Growth and Leadership. According to the spreadsheet created through an action research process teaching can make a difference big or small it is still a difference!
One big problem I have with this assignment was the fact that Google Docs. is not completely compatible with Excel 2007. Functions that I used while creating my Excel file was the AVERAGEIF function. When I put the Excel file in Google Docs. it came up with errors in each of the cells that contained that function. I was highly disappointed and ended up going back into Excel and used the SUMIF and COUNTIF to complete my function. While these functions work just as well it took more time to do it this way. A second thing that I was disappointed about was that my graphs that I had previously done in Excel would not show up in Google Docs. so I would have to create them again in Docs. to shoe up in the document. Instead I decided to use JING to create two images of my charts (Chart A, Chart B). While looking at the data there were some things that it helped to have these charts and then sometimes it was easier to look at the facts within the numbers. While answering the three questions about the action research I did both. I feel that both are equally important in conveying certain aspects of the research and accomplishments.