November 2009

November

Catch-up month. I didn’t even want to think about the work I missed, but I have and it was scary. Get ready for the list.

This month we (in a lot of my free time):
-- Trips Shortlist: this
involved making a table in excel and writing information about the destinations
within it. I chose a cool colour scheme (black, purple and white) and then began
to write. I used multi-map to find how long it took to get there, and the
websites to find out how much group rates were etc. I thought some of the
websites could have been more user friendly, but no worries. There had to be at
least 6 destinations for each of the destination types -- heritage etc. I spent
loads of time out of class doing this as you had to describe each trip, then
choose three trips per type and explain why we did or didn’t choose them.
-- Spreadsheet skills: I didn’t do too much of this since I had work to
catch up on and it wasn’t part of the project, but what I did do helped me with
the next thing and what I didn’t I had to learn of my friends, which was
annoying. One of these functions was the IF function, for example.
--
Trips Spreadsheet: this was where the spreadsheet skills came in handy. We
were introduced to the section -- yep, new section! -- and then we got started.
Looked at examples, deciding which were the best layouts etc. And then we began
using one of those structures ourselves. I chose to do everything on separate
pages because I found it clearer. I used the new functions to work out costs and
things like that, and they saved my life. Once all the information was added, I
highlighted the rows with formulas in them so I could identify them quickly (or
the examiner could). Then we did the summary sheet, which involved adding costs
together to see which combinations of trips went over budget. None of mine did.

Just a few more things on the spreadsheet to do next month. Thanks to all the hard work outside of lessons, I’m finally back on track! Hallelujah!