So, this is my graphic annual report for Dan's contest.
I'm not completely happy with it. But i've looked at it for a couple of days now, and it's also not getting any better, so I think that means that it's at least half assed. I think the attempt at early 1980's color schemes might be part of what's getting to me. I also think that Mr. Tufte would be horrified at some of the visual cruft i've added. Oh well.
Here goes:
One of the biggest changes this year has been the change in time i have available for elective pursuits. I no longer commute across all of Los Angeles, and that's bought me about two hours a day.
I've used some of that time to start exercising. In particular, I've started swimming. My first day in the pool, during the summer, i struggled to complete 400 meters, which included using breast stroke and idling along with a kickboard. My current workout takes about 30 minutes, and covers 3/4 of a mile. The key to this graph is noting that minor changes in distance and time (and therefore speed) can result in large changes in energy expenditure.
Along with the new commute came a new school. There are a lot of changes, and I'm having to do some adapting to the new environment, but (and I tried to use USA Today style graphics to represent this) I think that the changes all effectively amount to noise, and the actual difference in teaching is pretty minor.
Finally, the one thing that hasn't changed, that is still a huge part of my every day, is my marriage. I wouldn't be half the teacher or person that I am today without the ongoing support of my wife. After 5 years of relationship, I still look forward to seeing her at the end of every day, and spending the weekend with her at the end of every week.
[on edit: here is a more post 9-11 color scheme for the same graphics (clickable)]
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I like the time visual (although the 80s colors create frightening flashbacks). I'm most impressed by how well you and Dan kept track of things. I'm totally erratic so that was the worst part for me. I am attempting to do better.
> impressed by how well you and Dan kept track of things
heh.
I didn't really. Some of the data was estimated (the time expenditures). Other data was sporadic (for example, I'd post my workout stats every couple weeks or so to a bbs I frequent - the graphs there are very interpolated).
It did make me realize though, that the data i really wanted - how my kids do on the battery of tests they're presented with - is always presented to me in hardcopy form. Usually it's several pages worth of stuff for each assessment. I never, however, get it in soft format. I can't compile it together with previous data, I can't compare it to their previous performances, I can't put it all into a big pile and throw various graphic representations at it until something shows itself. I can't collect it and analyze my combined history. All I ever get is 15 sheets of paper stapled together, presenting the data in a format that someone else thought I might be able to do something with, and no way to connect it to the last bundle of paper that i got, or to the bundles of paper that those student's teachers got last year.
I need more raw in my life.
I was fighting that battle up until the day I left public school for my new job. We'd get a lot of data as either paper or pdfs (copy protected pdfs!). It was a hassle to break the protection, strip out the data and then try to attach some sort of schema to the xml to make it into something I could use in a spreadsheet. They promised to fix that- in a year or two.
I did have some luck getting the data in Excel through the state DOE. Might work for you. I'm in VA so I've got no idea what LA might/might not do but someone's got to have that raw data right?
Although it's not a great solution, scanning with OCR and importing into a spreadsheet would at least make the data available electronically. It'd probably be a 30-60 minute process for each set of reports, but it's better than trying to retype them. Or expecting the district to embrace technology in a way that's useful to you.
And I do have a lot of experience with trying to get paper-based data into databases, if you need assistance.
Hey, I used AVOCADO green man. That is so 1970s!
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