Mrs. Slaviero's Blog

The best laid plans... Data entry is going to take much longer than I first thought, and that's okay--it's part of the process of implementing a project for the first time. The students need to create a simple formula for all of the subtotaled categories I've created or their budgets won't calculate properly and the expenditures budget has a lot of subtotaled sections. Students also had to think about why one of the expenditure categories (Public Safety) has a negative balance.  (That was intentional--students may have to lay off some Public Safety employees or make cuts in other parts of their budget to keep their citizens safe). Students were once again helping me teach other classmates today when questions arose.  I enjoy watching these "computer experts" feel confident in their skills and assist their peers. Monday we will continue data entry and I will patiently wait for groups to be ready to analyze their budgets.

We started entering our Revenue and Expenditures data today (we'll finish tomorrow) and the students are becoming more comfortable and proficient with Numbers.  Saving documents to Numbers is something the students were unfamiliar with so we are learning how to do it together.  Another issue today dealt with widening cells.  One of my fourth hour students figured it out and taught the class.  I enjoy having the students show their classmates what they know--it makes the "teacher" feel good and their peers appreciate it, as well. Tomorrow is the beginning of what I've been waiting for: discussions and debates about the budget.