Flat Stanley Crossword Assignment

As future educators, we all know that the lowest level of retention in Bloom's Taxonomy is knowledge while the highest level of retention is evaluation. In learning the Excel program, retention at the knowledge level consists of arranging, defining, duplicating, recognizing, relating, and recalling the basic tools used in Excel - a form of teaching that can be easily found in any computer class. Yet, when Excel is taught in the context of teaching subject areas, teachers will choose and compare different tools, select the tools that they want to use, and plan the lessons based on predictios of the results of the lesson being taught. In another words, by implying Excel skills with the context of teaching subject areas, teachers will acquire the knowledge of Excel at the highest retention level, evaluation.

It is very important to keep parents well-informed with the latest updates of what is going on in the classroom because the parents should be as involved in classroom activities, environment, and student progression as much as their children are. Not only that, but sending weekly newsletters will allow the parents to be heads up on upcoming events and give them the adequate amount of time to plan with their children for these events. It's yet another usage would be in promoting good parent-teacher communication routes, allowing the parents to stay connected and in touch with the teacher on a regular basis without having to go visit them every week.

On the basis that students will be only required to fill out the crossword puzzle instead of creating one on Excel, I'm sure the students will be able to accomplish mastering the use of basic tools and commands on Excel, such as copy/pasting and typing in the type bar on top of the page. On vocabulary learning, the Flat Stanley project was a very weak source in providing challenging vocabulary words to the students, but if more challenging words is used in creating another puzzle, the Excel crossword puzzle will be an excellent source in assisting students learn their vocabulary words.

As I've said earlier, I would use harder, more relavant vocabulary words taken from the class history or science texts, and also connect the activity with a brief lesson on Excel and/or other activities dealing with the vocabulary.

Engrade / EditGrid

First of all, Engrade was definitely not a user-friendly program.
Not only did it not allow for me to sign up, but they were not responsive to the questions I've inquired about the problems I had in signing up. Although as a student, I found Engrade to be extremely useful in providing grades for the class. As for Edit Grid, it was very easy for me to use this Web 2.0 program as it is exactly like Microsoft Excel.

I think it will be great if Engrade was more efficient in providing the help and support their users might have, responding to feedbacks of its users.

When it does work, Engrade will be a very useful way for teachers to keep an accurate track of their students' grades, also an easy way for students to find out grades on a daily basis. Edit Grid is a convenient tool for teachers that may need a program like Excel that they can access anywhere, anytime.

If Engrade does not improve the efficiency of the user sign up process, there won't be much teacher/student users of the program left. On the other hand, Edit Grid is extremely easy to use as it is similar to Microsoft Excel, with easy accessibility from anywhere with Internet access.