Learning to Love Excel

Hey! My name is Autumn Garza. I am a sophomore at Boise State University and am in my 4th semester. I plan to teach 1st grade but have back up plans if, for some reason, there are no teaching jobs available.When I began this class and had to get on excel I got really frustrated and worried I wasn't going to be able to do it. I can do anything on Word or the internet but excel is a program I used to stay away from. I was amazed, this far, at how much we are able to do with excel! I never knew! I want to continue making assignments and notes with excel for my students. You have a lot more creativity available to you with excel, and you can make the assignments a lot more fun when it comes to looks and colors & other things that 1st graders will actually enjoy doing or looking at. :)I love the idea of using excel to do assignments that students can do online, like in the library where I am there for help.

ESL Students and Blogs

Here is an awesome video about how blogs are helping ESL (English as a Second Language) students integrate into an English-speaking society.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cncW5tzMvP0

Technology in the Classroom

Hello there.

My name is Shane Corbell. I'm an English Education major at Boise State, and I'm looking forward to teaching English Literature and Creative Writing in the near future. Technology is an invaluable tool for teachers, with English instructors being no exception. Word processing applications are vital for effective writing. They allow authors to proofread and edit their work much more freely and easily than they would using the old-fashioned pen and paper method. In addition, English teachers are able to utilize technology to bring new writing techniques into the classroom, check for plagiarism, and gain access hundreds of millions of written works with the click of a mouse.

Microsoft Excel is a tool that I have learned to use with much more flexibility than I did in the past. I always thought of Excel as a number crunching tool, but through the Educational Technology class at BSU I have come to realize how invaluable the application is. Even for an English teacher, Excel is vital for keeping an accurate gradebook. I encourage all Education students to independently research Excel to learn about the many ways it can be helpful to their future careers.

This blog "thing" is very new to me; I have never blogged as a blogger in the blogosphere before. I will say one thing: blogs sure have created a fun situation for Linguistics professors. Even after a short glance, I can readily see how blogs can be utilized in the classroom. They allow each member to post their thoughts and comments on the contents of the blog, post relevant media to the blog's subject, and basically get everyone involved in the discussion.

Feedback on Technology in the Classroom

This video is really interesting. I really appreciated being able to hear the feedback from students about the use of technology in their classrooms which, in this case, is a blog.

Whole Brain Teaching: 4th Grade Critical Thinking

Granted not every technique works for every teacher or every class! What I like about blogs is the ability to share what does work and to see it in action. Like everyone else in education I am always reviewing classroom management approaches and techniques. Using the blog environment as a impromptue webinar provides me the opportunity to slip in new information in small time slots. During prep periods, while dinner is cooking, as I am grading papers, all those tiny chunks of time offer me places where I can touch base with other educators. As I said at the beginning of my post, not every thing works for everyone, but this works for me and I am excited to see this resource grow and bloom.

Now since I have edited this comment, the video clip has vanished. So, I will repost the video clip with comments. Sorry about the double posting under the same title folks. If anyone know why this happens I'd love to hear about it.

The Good and Evil

We have to also be careful about what technology we are bringing into the classroom. Things can be easily abused such as cellphones and computers. We need to also know the signs of people using things for what they are supposed to or if they are abusing the system.

Excel in the Classroom

Something that I have become reacquainted with this semester is Excel. Excel is one of those things that learn how to use, and then you forget about it till you need it again. At that point you have forgotten everything you used to know!! It has been nice getting back to Excel again and using it with some practical education might actually make it stick this time. I think that for anyone who is using Excel for the first time or getting back into it, I would have to stress to use it for the simple things in life; make lists, organize and plan your days or just play around with it. Just try to maintain the skill!!