I am excited to have learned something new this week! I have never used a database software before. I have seen the programs on the computer, opened them, and gave up after a few seconds of not having a clue of where to start or what it was. In elementary school, I think that the uses of a database are more limited in terms of student use. It would have to be very simple, because entering all of the data is labor intensive, even for some of the older students. I think as a teacher, I could use it more for lesson planning, picture book titles that I use for lessons, or storing other information. The biggest example we read about was personal records, and since our office has all of that, I just want to know how I might be able to import it without redoing the whole thing! I hate re-inventing the wheel :)
I use Excel a lot, but not for a grade book. I don't grade with percentages and weights in 3rd grade, so I feel like it would not be necessary to keep my grades in a spreadsheet. I use Excel to make organized lists and tables, because I love the sorting feature that I can't use on Word (at least I don't think there is a sorting feature on Word!) I would love to be more comfortable in the equations and calculations that Excel can do, because when I try it for my personal use, it is hard to get it to work. I have my own business, so I attempt to do my bookkeeping on Excel.
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2 comments:
I think you are right that databases seem labor intensive for students, but like you said, we could use them for information that is shared between teachers, or personal stuff. Anything to make our lives easier.
The sorting option is the best! If word can do, I don't know about it either. You can insert Excel into word...
Kim,
You may want to set up a database for the comments you probably use instead of grades -- if there are common comments like "Works well with others", "Needs Improvement", etc you can set them up in a db then just pull those for each individual student.
As for setting up a table and sorting it in Word -- very do-able.
If you have your data in a table then highlight it --> go under Table and choose sort, a window will pop up giving you column or order options for sorting the table (very similiar to the other office products).
Good luck
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