Week 4 Blog (OMG I'm a Caveman LOL)

The only time I've ever used Excel for a practical purpose was when I worked for a construction company and they asked me to make a list of material prices for a job we were bidding on, so I didn't need to delve into the application's more robust features. Last week's class was a real eye opener for me because I learned how to put two cool programs through their paces. I won't talk about it too much because this blog is supposed to be about Excel, but I am looking forward to fiddling with Word to lay out a cool newsletter. But with Excel I was mostly surprised by how easy it is to set up charts with all sorts of useful information. If I had to do those kinds of charts by hand or with a less robust program I'd be sitting there with a calculator and scratch paper writing down totals and averages. I think the most interesting thing is that using Excel illustrated very clearly to me how technology can facilitate teaching and make the teacher's job less cluttered with busy work, but these programs and resources can't make me a better teacher by themselves. Every week I realize more and more how far I am from putting together a real plan for teaching. There are too many things that I haven't thought about or haven't thought about enough.

This week's article gave me a wake up call in that sense, as well. I'm on the Internet a lot and I know how to use a search engine. I also know that far too many people, even at the university level, rely too heavily on questionable internet sources in their research. But even though I'm aware of that danger, and I have a pretty good idea of how to avoid it, I haven't thought clearly about how I would steer young students through that minefield. I remember that when I was in high school my teachers had access to the Princeton Review and other pay databases, so I can hold out some hope that when I get a teaching assignment, my district will provide access to those resources. But what if I work in a district with a smaller budget and they don't provide me with resources that I can pass on to my students? I didn't know about Argos, but as an aspiring History teacher I'll definitely keep that one in mind, and Northern Lights sounds like a good resource, as well. In general, though, I feel like there's nothing wrong with learning how to use library resources effectively, and every school and most neighborhoods have some kind of library, so if I can't make sure that my students have access to reliable internet sources, they'll have to crack open the books.