Using Excel in the Classroom

Wow, Excel is so powerful, it's hard to know where to start! The obvious use for a spreadsheet would be to keep track of grades, test scores, and absences. However, Excel can be used for so much more!

When I took my Special Needs class over the summer, I kept thinking how great Excel would be to keep track of student behavioral incidents. As a teacher, I could record the student's name, time and date of occurance, and the behavior or infraction. When the time came to talk with the parents, I would be able to pull all of the information together quite easily!

As an extension, Excel could also be used to track the dates and times that parents were contacted. Details could include the student's name, time and date of contact, type of contact (email, phone call, letter, conference), notes about the contact (was is good or bad), and any follow-up plans.

One way that I already use Excel is to create mailing labels in Word. I currently use this function as a quick way to edit and print my Chirstmas card envelopes. This will become a handy feature in the classroom when student lists or labels need to be created quickly. Nametags for field trips could be printed in less than 5 minutes - with fun graphics included!

A list of classroom emails could also be kept on Excel, making it very easy to print out and share with anyone interested. The same use could apply to a list of books, magazine, blogs, or news sites which students might find interesting.

Excel could be used to keep track of classroom inventory (papers, tests, pencils, tape, etc.) as well as lab inventory (chemistry chemicals, balances, glassware, etc.). Alerts could be set up to have low inventory objects turn red, which would help me, as a teacher, quickly find things that need to be ordered.

Students in my classes could also benefit from Excel. It is a powerful data collection tool which becomes very useful when analyzing lab results. If students input all of their data into one Excel spreadsheet, the data can be sorted, graphed, and anaylzed quickly. Lab reports using statistics become much easier for students to complete!

Excel would also be an excellent way for students to keep track of simple formulas. After "designing" a formula for the dilution of acid or bases, students could easily plug in a dilution (Molarity) and final volume, and the formula could tell them how much of each chemical (and/or water) to add.

The possibilities are endless for this extremely useful program!