# MathsClass

A blog about teaching and learning in a maths classroom.

## Organising Lessons

Thursday, 24 January 2013 | 2 Comments

Back in 2011 I wrote:

Some things I do… Keep a list of my lessons in Excel. Each lesson has a Topic, Title and Description – and I get Excel to make a “code” to identify that lesson.
To a new teacher…

Here is how I get Excel to create a lesson code.

The table below is an excerpt of my lesson plan spreadsheet.

A B C D E F G H I
219_5.2_fractions_01_review-of-fractionsY9Fractions15.2Review of fractionsDefine. Identify parts of a   fraction. Classify   fractions. Fraction conversions.
329_5.2_fractions_02_fraction-conversionsY9Fractions25.2Fraction conversionsMixed numerals to improper fractions and vice versa.  Simplifying.  Determine reciprocals (extension of conversion).
439_5.2_fractions_03_equivalence-and-simplifyingY9Fractions35.2Equivalence and simplifyingEquivalent fractions, simplifying fractions.

Column B, the “Ref” column is generated automatically combining the year, stage, topic, topic no. and title of the lesson. Here is the Excel formula B2:

=D2&IF(G2<>"","_"&G2,"")&"_"&LOWER(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(E2,"","-"),"'",""),",",""))&"_"&TEXT(F2,"00")&"_"&LOWER(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(H2,"'","")," ","-"),",",""),"/",""))

This creates a nice reference code (seen in B2 above) that can be used as a filename for a lesson plan and a folder name to store relevant resources.
(NB, after creating a lesson record, I could save the value of the generate code, rather than the formula.)

Here is an example file that will be easier than copying the formula.

Posted in • AdminSoftwareExcel | Short URL: http://mths.co/2895

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matt James on  25 January 13  at  05:10 AM #
why not just use the concatenate function? I.e. =concatenate(d2,"_",g2,"_",e2,"_",f2,"_",h3)

author

Simon Job on  25 January 13  at  05:20 AM #
Well "&" is concatenating. Also, For the Topic and Title, I am making the text lowercase and replacing/removing spaces, apostrophes and commas. For the TopicNo I am re-writing it with double digits so that folders/files sort correctly.

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Simon Job — eleventh year of teaching maths in a public high school in Western Sydney, Australia.
MathsClass is about teaching and learning in a maths classroom. more→

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