Making Data Talk

Welp. All I see is a list of numbers...Data is the most powerful when we can see the whole picture. A list of numbers is meaningless without appropriate context! How can we make our data talk to us? Are they ways to make important information pop?!

Google Sheets has been a powerhouse of me in my role! It has pushed me to learn new skills and critically think about how to make situations more automatic.

Examples:

• Creating individual campus reports after a district wide survey
• Running online PD and keeping track of submissions
• Sending certificates after an online PD is completed
• Tracking our teams campus visits and generating graphical representation

Auto-magic is just a few tricks away in Google Sheets! Below are my top 4 tips I feel everyone should know!

TRICK #1: Conditional Formatting

The ability to color code information quickly is a life-saver! Does a kid need tutoring? How can I find scores below a certain number? Can I highlight a cell based on if a student used a particular word or number? Did a student complete a task?

Conditional Formatting allows you to highlight cells based on a rule. You can always add multiple rules per cell - EVEN BETTER! Rules can be applied to numbers or text in a cell. If you want to get even fancier, you can use formulas in your conditional formatting.

TRICK #2: Inserting Checkboxes

This trick is one of the fastest ones! Perfect for tasks, to-do lists, and project monitoring for students. Simply choose [Insert] from the top menu, and choose [Checkboxes]. It's that easy!

Add rules to checkboxes so that they turn green when selected! Formulas can keep a running count if you want!

Want to get fancy? Use the formula =COUNTIF to keep track of the total checkmarks in a column. 

TRICK #3: Autocrat Mail Merge

Mail merging will take all the data in your spreadsheet and create individual documents/slides with their information. Bonus feature: it can automatically send emails with their information and attach their doc/slides. WHAT?!

What can you do:

• Automatically send certificates with student information if they complete a quiz
• Perfect for digital badging! Automatically send badges
• Create campus, teacher, or student reports
• Send parents who attending open house an email with your information and a confirmation of the information they shared with you.

How it works: TUTORIAL GUIDE HERE!

1. Create a template with placeholders that will be filled in from the sheet.
2. Open your spreadsheet, and install the Autocrat Add-On.
3. Map each placeholder to a column so it knows what information to fill in.
4. Run the job!

TRICK #4: Explore It!

This is the shortest trick! Want to quickly gather insight from responses on a sheet? Click on a column to select all the data, then choose [Explore] in the bottom right corner. Google Sheets will predict charts/graphs based on the data that you just highlighted. You can also alternate colors of rows to help you look across rows quickly.