Spreadsheets

I have used Microsoft Excel in the past, but it has been a while since I used it. I had never done any work with Google Spreadsheets until this assignment. From what I did with Google Spreadsheets, I thought that it was very similar to Excel. Both programs are great and I like the formula functions, but both take some work getting used to. I think since I had already worked with Excel it was easier for me to get used to Spreadsheets, but I think I still have a lot to learn in both. I think I would need to work with both quite a bit more in order to get the hang of things. Excel seems to have the formulas on the toolbar at the top of the page, while I did not find that feature in Spreadsheets. However, the formulas in Excel are still kind of confusing because there are so many. Of course the nice thing about working with Google is that the spreadsheets are online, so they are easily transferred from different devices, while that is not an option with Microsoft Excel.

I attempted to make a grade book using Google Spreadsheets. I did not think it was too hard to figure out how edit text or cells on Spreadsheets, whether that be changing color or merging cells. It did take time to get everything organized and enter in the formulas. I looked at a couple templates of grade books to see what types of layouts and formulas were used. I used two sheets in my grade book and tried to insert totals from one sheet to another. I believe there is a way to do this, but I am still not sure how to do it. I tried using a formula I found, but it didn't working. I don't know if it had something to do with me renaming the spreadsheets or if I was not entering the formula correctly.

The Common Core State Standards require students to work with different types of data. Certain standards require students to gather data. That data could then be organized into a Google Spreadsheet. Once the data is organized, students can then put the data into a graph. They could use Google Drawings to make that graph or they could use Spreadsheets to create bar graphs, which will be linked to their data. The graphs will change when the data changes. This would be one of the functions that I do not know how to use and would take some practice for me to get used to. The Common Core Standards also require students to represent and interpret data, and Spreadsheets is a great place for them to do either one of those. Teachers can also easily share documents with students. Other standards require students to understand data to help them answer statistical questions, and by working with Spreadsheets they should be able to understand that through practice.