Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets can be fun (as long as the formulas are feeling kindly and you don't breathe so hard that they begin to hold a grudge)! I think I will be able to use them a lot in my classroom, even though I hope to teach really young children. I can easily see using surveys and pie charts to help children understand how fractions and graphs work. Information is completely useless unless you have a way to interpret what it really means to you. I think that in using the pie charts and graphs, that children will have more interest in what we're talking about. Colors and the thought of pie can get almost any child to pay attention, even if it's just for a couple more seconds than usual. In second grade kids are supposed to learn how to interpret graphs, and using a spreadsheet will make it so the information can connect to them in a real life ways. Connecting children to a real life scenario makes learning much more effective and interesting. Spreadsheets are a great way to get them interested in the core curriculum.