5 excel functions every teacher needs to know

Whether you’re on the SLT or it’s your first year in the classroom, some of your time will be spent analysing pupil data. Taking a bit of time to learn the following excel functions will work wonders to speed up and enhance that analysis

Conditional formatting

Conditional formatting can give you an instant visual impression from your data. There are some basic built in options straight on your menu bar, but spending a few minutes here learning how to set up your own rules will turn a page of numbers into a useful informative document quickly. Take a 20 minute lesson on conditional formatting here to master the rules!

Examples:

1 - using basic data bars from the built-in conditional formatting toolbar

2 - colour coding pupil performance on individual questions

Pivot tables

How many pupils in that class are below target? How many in year 9 are working at level 6 or above? There’s no need to count or copy and paste columns if you know how to use a pivot table. Learn the basics here. 

Examples:

calculating level percentages

VLOOKUP

This command comes in very helpful for generating automatic comments from a numerical result. It can also save valuable time by looking at the level boundaries for you and selecting the correct level. Basics here. 30 minute lesson here.

Examples:

1 -  generating automatic comments from a numerical result.

2 - level boundaries used automatically

IF

This function is useful for identifying how many pupils are on target by quickly comparing two (or more) cells. Find out what the IF function is here. 20 minute lesson here

Example:

identify pupils who meet their target level

countif

Why count the number of pupils who meet a certain condition when excel can do the counting for you? Check out the COUNTIF function here.

Example:
 

count the number of pupils at different levels

This probably seems like the most complicated of the posts on this website, and that’s probably the thing that puts most people off learning excel functions. But please, trust me, a small investment of time to learn these functions will save hours in the long run. It’s worth it!

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top 5 teaching blogs

top 5 teaching blogs

http://teachertoolkit.me/

Ross McGill is the inventor of the 5 minute lesson plan and is active on his blog and twitter about anything and everything related to education, particularly for those in, or aspiring to senior leadership.

http://blogsync.edutronic.net/

A collection of teaching blogs on a different theme each month. It’s well worth a look through the archives.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/teacher-network/series/the-secret-teacher

An anonymous teacher engages the politics of the profession.

http://www.thenerdyteacher.com/

Some interesting ideas for using technology in the classroom.

http://frankchalk.blogspot.co.uk/

The (self-proclaimed) world’s most popular education blog.

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5 steps for efficient homework

5 steps for effective and efficient homework

Whether you are setting homework enthusiastically because you think it’s valuable or begrudgingly because it’s school policy, following a few simple checks will prevent it taking over your life, while remaining effective for pupils..

Consider question

Choose something that is going to be easy to mark. Use exam questions with a mark scheme rather than a free form activity where you’re going to have to sit and think about the marking for a while.

Consider format

Are you wasting time finding the homework in the pupil’s book before you mark? Does leafing through their book get you sucked into correcting other things? Instruct pupils to hand in their books open at the correct page or, even better, do the homework on an independant sheet of paper to make it quicker to mark

Consider schedule

It’s worth looking through your timetable and getting into a routine for when you expect homework in from each class. This avoids a situation where all 5 classes are handing it in on a Tuesday. If you go to Zumba every Thursday night, avoid assigning too much homework that is handed in that day.

Consider sanctions

Having a system for sanctions is helpful for all sorts of non-productivity reasons but consider the timing of your homework to make the sanctions as easy to operate as possible. If you’re going to be giving a lunchtime detention, you might as well have the class before lunch handing their homework in then, rather than the next afternoon.

Consider feedback

Your school is likely to require feedback on marking but that doesn’t mean you’ve got to spend ages writing similar comments over and over again. Set up this automatic system to save you time, while still getting the benefit of feedback to the pupils.

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Top 5 productivity blogs

There’s a whole world of productivity advice out there but, to stop you being unproductive by reading everything, here’s 5 of the best:

• time management ninja

Feel like you’re wasting time? “The mission of this site it to help individuals and companies reclaim their time”

• lifehacker  

Tips for every single area of your life. Productivity specific links here: productivity

• Michael Hyatt

A variety of leadership topics including some great stuff on productivity

• Productivity 501

You’ve had a taste and want to dive deeper into the world of productivity? This is the site for you

• Your life, Organized

As the title suggests, organize your life

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start here

How do I work smarter not harder?

Do you feel like the endless list of emails, spreadsheets, reports, marking and paperwork gets in the way of the job you actually wanted to do.... teach?!

Most of it is (hopefully) useful but it can be overwhelming. You think you need to work harder - get into work earlier, stay later, working every night and weekends. Don’t do that. Claim your life back. There will always be hard work to be done in teaching but a few simple strategies to effectively use your time will help you work smarter not harder. “Teacher workload” is a phrase you’re far more likely to hear than “teacher productivity”. Don’t increase your workload, increase your productivity.

This website is designed for exactly that. Simple strategies to increase your productivity and help you teach smarter, not harder.

First time here? Check out the basics below:

1. Email
2. Setting efficient homework
3. Marking and feedback
4. The science of productivity
5. Top 5 productivity blogs
6. Top 5 teaching blogs

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marking and feedback

Marking often feels like a waste of time. The school marking policy wants constructive feedback  but does all the time you spend writing comments actually have an effect on the pupils? Do you feel like you’re writing the same comment over and over again. You need a feedback strategy. This automated feedback system takes time to set up, but once it is up and running it will do the work for you, generating the feedback comments and prompts for action, saving your time.

choose the question

Choose questions that are straightforward to mark and will be easy to give a constructive comment on how to progress to the next level or grade. Choose something that you will be able to use again to avoid having to go through this process for every class every year.

set up spreadsheet

Add each question or section of marking criteria with the number of marks available into this spreadsheet or one like it.

comments

On the comments tab of the spreadsheet, type a comment for a pupil who achieves each possible mark. This part takes some time but will save you writing similar comments over and over again. Notice on the example that the same comment is used for more than one mark (eg same comment for 0-3 marks)

action

To increase the effect of your feedback (and to prove that to anyone looking at your books!), make sure the comment includes something for the pupil to do - find the correct answer, write down a definition, apply knowledge to a different situation etc. Then allow 10 minutes during the next lesson for the pupil to carry out those actions.

vlookup command

The example spreadsheet is set up for 4 questions of 10 marks each. If your questions or marking criteria are less than 10 marks, just leave the unnecessary parts of the comments section blank. If you need more than 4 questions or 10 marks, take a few minutes to learn how to use the VLOOKUP command in excel (tutorial). If you need to change the number of marks available for each question on the spreadsheet, you will need to adjust this formula.

feedback template

Set up your own version of this document. To merge the information from your own spreadsheet you will need to :

• select your list (spreadsheet)
• select your recipients
• add the fields from your spreadsheet into your document (question titles)

If you are new to mail merging - have a look at a more detailed guide here

This document gives feedback for each question and something for the pupil to act on, including a space for their response on the page. This is an easy way to flag up progression to anyone flicking through your books.

Setting this up the first time probably takes the same amount of time as it would to write individual comments, but when you arte using it for multiple classes or using it again for the second year you’ll really notice the time saved.

For other examples of the same idea see the two links below (TES account needed):

http://www.tes.co.uk/ResourceDetail.aspx?storyCode=6048463

http://www.tes.co.uk/ResourceDetail.aspx?storyCode=6044746

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manage email

Email is supposed to make communication quicker and easier, so why does it feel like it’s draining rather than saving your time? The inbox timewarp sucks away valuable time that you could have used for planning, or marking or even ... interacting with a real live pupil!

Make email work for you, not against you, with these simple tips:

check regularly

Letting email build up will increase the stress level when you finally open your inbox, and reduce your efficiency when reading and responding. Keeping on top of it regularly means that you’ll be spending minutes, not hours, dealing with your mail.

... but not constantly

Interrupting your current task to respond to an email instantly reduces your productivity for both. Turn off your notifications (especially if your email is forwarded to your phone). Decide on set times when you will check your email - morning, lunchtime and after school works for me (spending no more than 5-10mins each time)

delete  

You get a lot of emails that are not for you. Don’t waste time reading them. Scan the title (and if necessary the first few lines) and delete.

file or act immediately

If the email requires a response that’s going to take less than 2 minutes, do it straight away. If not, then file it straight away (this comes from the GTD productivity system). I use 3 folders:

• pastoral
• department
• whole school

Emails that are for information or reference go straight into the folders. Anything which requires a response - a reply, a document to read later, or a task to complete -  is flagged (including a due date). If you’re using outlook, this will then appear in your task list for later action

act

Have a time of day when  you go to the task list (or flagged emails) and act - read the document, reply to the email, update the class list etc. If it’s something with a future deadline (e.g. completing reports),  flag it for follow up with the appropriate date.

search

Using the search function to locate old information is much more efficient than scrolling through a list looking for that email from Mr Jones about AfL that you received a few weeks ago.

Using this method it’s easy to keep your inbox at zero which takes the stress out of email. Some people prefer to use their inbox as the equivalent of task list, not filing anything until they have acted. Whatever you do, make email work for you, don’t let it dictate your life!

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