You probably collect so much data in your classroom and you don't even realize it. It could simply be assignments grades or surveys that you have students fill out or something more complex. If you do any of this electronically you will most likely have an Excel spreadsheet or Google Sheet. When you have data in this file type there is so much you can do with it! I think that Excel is one of the least understood program out there and it can really do so much (I'm trying to convince my students of this now!).
One of the great things you can do with a spreadsheet is to use conditional formatting. This allows you to change the look (formatting) of a cell based on its content. One easy way to use this is to color code your gradebook. I set up conditional formatting in my gradebook so that all kids who were failing would show up in red, those one the boarder line (which I determined to be 65-75) show up in yellow and those doing fine (over 75) to show up in green. There are so many different ways to use conditional formatting. What's one way you think you can use it in your classroom?
If you want see more details on how to do this, check out this blog post by Alice Keeler.
