Challenge: Google Sheets

I love podcasts. I really do. I spend a lot of time driving and crafting, so something that doesn't require visual input but that engages my brain is great. One of my favorite podcasts is Stuff You Should Know, which has been around since 2008. They cover all sorts of different topics from the relevant to the bizarre, with many topics tying into content areas. They have a fun way of approaching the information, giving multiple viewpoints, and don't make judgement (at least most of the time). They also are hilarious. Which is where my product for this activity comes in. I created a spreadsheet that I would have everyone work on collaboratively after listening to a podcast episode. My thought was to create groups, task them with different approaches to assessing that they listened and got something out of it, and have a reference sheet that everyone can access. I also played around with a few of the add ons to see what I like.

Overall, I really enjoyed this interaction with Sheets. Looking over the material, it looks like I was using the new version, which works very well. I like that the wrap text option is easily accessible. The protect feature is great so that I don't have students changing the groups I assigned. I also like that there is a range of options when it comes to protecting portions of the document.

I used the add on "rostersync - Teacher edition" which pulled data from my Google Classroom, so I didn't have to type out everyone's names. I would have liked it to put both first and last names in one cell, just because that is easier to manage for information's sake, but at the same time, it still was able to do what I needed it to do.

I did have a bit of a problem trying to find where the Freeze control was, because rostersync froze my top row when I imported my roster. But I am glad I found it and it has the options that it does, so that I can adjust what is locked for students. I actually like the interface with this function within Sheets better than with Excel, just saying.

So here is my sheet. It is pretty generic, so that I can reuse it for multiple assignments.