Excel Reflections

As a mother of two children, I thought I was done with learning new ways to achieve results. Well over this past week, I realized I was completely wrong about learning new things. I was presented with an assignment that went way beyond my knowledge of understanding. I didn't know where to begin my new experience but I decided I was going to attack the new obstacle head on and accomplish the task.
In my ELED 3300 class I was assigned the task of creating two Excel spreadsheets. Up until this assignment, I had only made one functional spreadsheet. This spreadsheet used the basic Auto Sum feature to keep track of amounts. For this class, I had to create two spreadsheets, one that would be used as a grade book and another one that was a shopping list. When I opened up my assignment, my mind immediately went into overload. I had no idea how to do this type of spreadsheet. I watched the videos my teacher had put with the instructions but I was still confused on this assignment. Eventually, I talked to a friend who was knowledgeable with spreadsheets and she sat down to help me with creating them. She spent about three hours walking me through how to use a spreadsheet. I learned so much from my friend that after I was alone I create a spreadsheet, without any help, to use with my integrated lesson plan. Once I figured out how to create a spreadsheet it was easy. I believe I was over thinking the whole creation of a spreadsheet. But until I learned how to create it on my own, I was so thankful I had a good friend who could help me with understanding spreadsheets.
After learning how to create a spreadsheet, I realized how many different ways I could incorporate them into my daily life. I could create a household budget that would track our expenses and we could even use one to keep track of car maintenance. But the main way I could use spreadsheets would be inside a classroom. I could use a grade book that is a spreadsheet. By using a spreadsheet I would have easy access to all of my students grades when their parents stopped by my room to ask about their child's performance. It would allow me to find their child's grades easily and quickly. This could be a wonderful way to help with time management for teachers.
After I started thinking about spreadsheets, I started wondering if I could use them for my students and not just for me as the teacher. I decided there were a lot of different ways I could use spreadsheets as lessons in my classroom. One way I could use them is to teach a lesson about predictions. I could make a spreadsheet that would give the percentages of each color in a bag of M&M's. The students would use their mental math to predict which color was most common and then determine if they were correct or not. They could also use a spreadsheet to keep track of the AR points in reading. I decided, after thinking about spreadsheets, how they could be very useful inside a classroom for both the teacher and the students.
In the past week, I decided I am not too old to learn new things. After this past week I decided that old saying "you can't teach old dogs new tricks" is wrong. As long as you have a wonderful teacher, or friend, who will stay with you  until you know it, "old dogs" can learn anything!