Blog Post 10: Surveys, Classmates, and Continuing in Tech

 After learning all of the vast types of data one can gather as a teacher to improve the classroom, I would definitely make surveys to gather it if I was a teacher. Analyzing data is important for teachers to do regardless of grade-level, but I would want to in a high school environment, so the type of data gathered might be a little bit different than lower-grade levels. For one, students generally have more autonomy, so most of the datum would be about the students’ preferences and performance instead of parents. If I was a high school math teacher, I would create a survey to find out how students feel about the format of exams and quizzes. I would probably use Google Forms to create a survey to make students take during class with school computers. I’d put some multiple-choice questions about different parts of the assessment so that students can rate them on a scale of 1-5. The answers to these questions can be gathered automatically by the software, so they’ll make it easier to have a general idea of how students feel. Lastly, I’ll also include a few open-ended questions I would read through personally, in order to get more detailed opinions and feedback about students’ experiences. 

Upon reading some of my classmates’ blogs I saw a lot of interesting points. I think reading about their school experiences, especially with distance learning, was incredibly interesting because I was able to resonate a lot or see things differently. For instance, I saw that Grace Shriver pointed out how distance learning allows the opportunity for creativity. I had never considered this, but upon reading her post, I totally agree. Everyone came up with super cool ways to interact, even though we were not able to see each other. Our class is an example of that, especially with the cool online tools we use, like Miro. Honestly, with Miro, I share more in class than I do in-person, so it was an effective and creative way to bring us all together.

One thing I want to learn more about is how to use Excel. I know we are going to discuss this in class next week, but I want to gain a real in-depth understanding of it. This is because, in the 9th grade, my biology class came to class really excited one day because she took an advanced Excel course and had found out how to do things that she never thought possible. I’m not sure if I just wanna reach that level of excitement, but the program seems really useful too. Like my teacher, I would probably take a course and go to a workshop over the weekend or a school break. I would also consult my colleagues to see what they know and how they use the program to gather and organize classroom data so that I can learn through them.