Week 3 Blog - Spreadsheets in the Classroom

https://k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com/tlb/using-spreadsheets-in-the-classroom/

When I think of using spreadsheets, I typically think of making a budget. I have never thought of using it creatively in a classroom. This website gives an example of a creative way that a high school teacher used spreadsheets to help teach a lesson on the book "The Catcher in the Rye". The teacher had students track signs of depression in the main character (i.e., substance abuse and crying), and then took the symptoms they had found and how many times they had found each of those symptoms and created a spreadsheet. Students were then able to look directly at this list and have a discussion based on hard numbers versus what they vaguely remembered reading. I really like this idea, especially for visual learners or those who tend to see the big picture and forget some of the smaller details. There are so many ways in which this concept could be used in classrooms of all levels, and not just in math/accounting classes.

I have very little personal experience with spreadsheets. I have only used Excel personally to create budgets and professionally to track my children's ministry volunteers at church (I am the children's ministry director). I did take a class on spreadsheets so I know how to set one up and use one, but it was very practical and not so creative.