Educational Application of Microsoft Office
Sonja Brooks
CEP 810 - Summer 2010
Educational Application of Microsoft Word
For this project, I took the assignment log that I send home weekly with the students and turned it into more of a newsletter to address lack of parent involvement and knowledge of what is happening day to day in the classroom. This will give me the opportunity to share events that are happening at school as well as going over units of study with parents so they are more aware of what is going on in the classroom. The newsletter is interactive for families as there is a place to view and check off daily assignments, a signature line for parents, and a place for the students to write their spelling words. The newsletter will replace the assignment log that I send home on Mondays. The students will check off their homework as it is completed nightly and return it signed in their folders as they previously did with the log. This will help to ensure parents are seeing the updates I am sending home as a home/school connection. It will also hold students accountable for daily correspondence. The document I created will be the first newsletter I send home upon my return to school in June.
| educational_application_of_word.doc |
Educational Application of PowerPoint
For this project I created a PowerPoint Slide Show to be displayed as the student's are arriving to school in the morning. One problem we have is that the students are so excited to see their teacher and friends in the morning that forget to complete the tasks expected of them. This slideshow will be a reminder of the tasks at hand. It will also save me from answering the same question multiple times and allow me to spend more time helping the students on their morning work and getting my clerical tasks completed.
| educational_application_of_powerpoint.ppt |
Educational Application of Microsoft Excel
The problem of practice that this Excel this document is addressing is tracking reading (DRA II) scores in a first grade classroom. With a classroom full of 29 first grade students, I need a simple way to quickly look at scores. This document has been created from an existing Excel Document I was using to track scores. I have taken the student's names off the document and replaced them with a letter for the purpose of this assignment and their privacy. I have also changed some of the scores to maintain confidentiality of my students. I have made many upgrades to the document that will be useful in tracking scores as described below.
This document will make a difference because it is easy to use and offers a great visual aid. Just by glancing at the graphs you can see how far a student has come in score or how far they have yet to go to reach the end of year (EOY) expectation of an independent level 16. Each of the graphs are based on 16 being the goal to reach or exceed. I have also counted the axis by 2 as DRA II scores are counted mostly in that manner. I have used color in the form of red cells to identify students who would be on the needs list to get extra reading assistance through our title 1 program. I have also identified students by a blue cell as they reach or exceed the EOY grade level expectation of a 16+.
I utilized the filter to create additional sheets in the file. These sheets show students that are only on the needs list according to their DRA II Reading Score by time of year. I also created a filter to show students as they achieve the EOY expectation.
Under each column I have averaged the class DRA II scores to see where the class as a whole stands and how the class is progressing.
The strategy for using this document is to continually update the information throughout the year to use for assessment and grouping purposes. From this document I can not only graph the whole class, but I can also easily graph an individual student's progress. This would be useful to present as a visual aid at a parent teacher conference or a school team meeting when discussing individual children. I have shown a sample of this in one of the worksheets. I would include an explanation with the student's graph.
This document will make a difference because it is easy to use and offers a great visual aid. Just by glancing at the graphs you can see how far a student has come in score or how far they have yet to go to reach the end of year (EOY) expectation of an independent level 16. Each of the graphs are based on 16 being the goal to reach or exceed. I have also counted the axis by 2 as DRA II scores are counted mostly in that manner. I have used color in the form of red cells to identify students who would be on the needs list to get extra reading assistance through our title 1 program. I have also identified students by a blue cell as they reach or exceed the EOY grade level expectation of a 16+.
I utilized the filter to create additional sheets in the file. These sheets show students that are only on the needs list according to their DRA II Reading Score by time of year. I also created a filter to show students as they achieve the EOY expectation.
Under each column I have averaged the class DRA II scores to see where the class as a whole stands and how the class is progressing.
The strategy for using this document is to continually update the information throughout the year to use for assessment and grouping purposes. From this document I can not only graph the whole class, but I can also easily graph an individual student's progress. This would be useful to present as a visual aid at a parent teacher conference or a school team meeting when discussing individual children. I have shown a sample of this in one of the worksheets. I would include an explanation with the student's graph.
