and the service continues on!

The students have put a lot of extra work into this project for me and I appreciate it so so much! We worked on a web resource page on friday. We decided to make it a collaborative one that they could all edit and add the websites they used to get information for their spreadsheets. They finished it so I am posting it on my blog so that it only has to be posted once and not by each team. They have learned so much since I started working with them. Its cool to see the progress they've made in such a short period of time. They really took the lead on learning all the new programs I showed them. I told them that was the best way to learn how to use all the tools on for example google docs, on their own time signed into mine and just tested out the tools. Now they can make their own spreadsheets! Im so proud of them and all the work they have done for me. The project is almost complete, the only thing left I believe is for the teams to post their own spreadsheet on the class blog. Here is the link to see their first web resource page!

service project update!

Hey, so I am working with the teams right now. They are showing me all the information they got from the  coaches about what to buy in the uniforms. They searched the internet to find prices and different styles they wanted. Im going to show them how to make a work cited page for all the different sites they visited. Right now we are working on their spreadsheets. I showed them a example one I did for a baseball teams uniforms so they can see what its supposed to look like. I am going to get them to post their work cited pages on the blog today and hopefully have to spread sheets posted by tomorrow or Friday. So far the project is going really well and the students are working well together. They are learning a lot about Google Docs and how to search the internet!

Spread Sheets!

I have always been familiar with excel but always hated using it because I thought it was really complicated. I learned how to use spread sheets to calculate money or numbers this week and I must say it makes using excel much more convenient to use for certain things like budgets. I did a practice one to test my knowledge by completing this wedding budget spread sheet. It made it so simple to add all the individual amounts up into a grand total and I even found the difference between two numbers! I think this would be a great tool to teach students in the class room so that they can easily figure out the total cost, amount or number of what ever they are doing to spread sheet over. Its a organized way to sort things into columns, rows and present numerical information. It can give you the percentages and organize your information into graphs. I did a spread sheet over what my wedding would cost with a budget of 40,000.

SERVICE PROJECT INTRO:

I am creating a project for students high school level to complete about budgeting. I've met with the students a couple times before to prepare then with the information they will need to complete the project. We've gone over simple budgets techniques and tips to help save and manage your money so your able to buy the things you need. The first time we met I helped them create a K-W-L chart that maps out what they wish to get out of this project and the directions of the project for the students. I will have six students from a life skills class, they are separated into 3 teams of 2. They are assigned one of the school's sports teams. They must gather information from their teams about how many people are on the team, what their team uniforms consist of,  and what their previous budget was for new uniforms. Once they have gotten all this information form the coach, their job is to find a uniform for the team, calculate the cost for everything they need and present it to the coach. In case their total comes out to be more expensive then the previous years budget for uniforms they will also have to come up with a fundraiser to get the money. I created this project to be fun and a learning experience, the students seem to be excited to get started. I also set up a class blog for the groups to post updates and communicate, it'll be a learning experience since non of them have ever blogged before.