Google Spreadsheets: Using COUNTA and COUNTIF

There are many times that I need to create a spreadsheet that houses the organisation of school wide events like Fiafia or even a camp. One of these sheets that I create often is a payment sheet to track who has paid, who has handed in their permission/ medical forms and if I have emergency contact details for any child.

What I hate with these types of sheets is not being able to know at a glance - especially when they get large like our year 5&6 camp (around 150 kids) you can't tell easily how many kids you need to follow up. So I use the two formulas to do this for me: COUNTA and COUNTIF.

Check out this screen recording to learn how to do it.

Google Drawings: Creating Info-Graphics

I love Google Draw! I think it is one of the most underused google apps in the Google Apps for Education suite.

In the below screencast I will show you how you can use Google draw to create fast and easy to create info-graphics that could be used as a teacher tool or even a follow up task for the children in your class. Check it out and let me know how you use this cool technique in the classroom!

Google Spreadsheets: Data Analysis Using VLOOKUP

I thought it would be worthwhile reposting this as it relates to what I'm working on this year.
A few years ago as part of my inquiry into teaching I had been looking into ways I could better use assessment to inform my next teaching steps, especially to jump on opportunities sooner. However, when ever I got anywhere near formative data it was spread out across a range of different places -
e-asTTle, NZCER, etc. I needed an easy way to collect this data. Aha! Use a spreadsheet someone told me. However this meant doing hours of copy and paste from other spreadsheets to then have it collated in mine!

This lead me to look at using some of the features of spreadsheets. By using a simple VLOOKUP formula I have been able to set up each sheet to go looking for data for me. There is no more need to copy and paste a whole lot of information anymore!

Check out the below screencast of me explaining the setup of a spreadsheet and how this has streamlined my data gathering and analysis.

Google Apps for Education - Tips for Efficiency

In light of what I'm trying to achieve with my blog this year I thought that I would repost a presentation that I created with Dave Winter. This presentation to help make your use of the Google Suite more efficient.
Tips include:

• Shortcuts for making a copy of a google doc
• Using quick view instead of opening a doc
• Shift Z... it is your friend
• Create a shortcut to search drive
• Create table of contents....then a document outline
• Many others!

My Inquiry for 2019 - Digital Literacy

How to use digital affordances to stream line my work flow as a teacher.

Here at Pt England School we talk a lot about making use of the affordances that the technology that we have at our fingertips provides us to better enhance the learning for our kids. Our challenge always is to make sure we are designing learning in such a way that would be impossible when only using pencil and paper. In other words how far can we push out the waka?

I think we do a good job of this. Our teachers work hard on this and are always developing new and improved ways to deliver and teach content to their children in exciting ways that is taking full advantage of the technology at their disposal. However, I wonder if in their own work that they are missing out on some key advantages that come with being digital.

Are teachers fully making use of the affordances that technology offers in their day to day work? This could include data gathering and analysis, planning, organising of their calendars, use of Google apps, etc.

This year I want to inquire into 'How to use digital affordances to stream line my work flow as a teacher'. I would love for my blog to be a place where I can share ideas for stream lining a teacher's work flow by introducing and teaching new or improved ways of doing things - digitally.

Google Suite - Tips for Efficiency

Dave Winter and I have put together this presentation to help make your use of the Google Suite more efficient. This includes tips like: shortcuts for making a copy of a google doc, Using quick view instead of opening a doc, Shift Z... it is your friend and many others!