Access Databases...Creating my own data warehouse!

The two main software applications I use are Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.  I use these to communicate by writing memos, directions for the staff, notes to parents, keeping track of data and tracking trends in the data.  They are very important to my day to day tasks on the job.  I even use Word as my email editor to make sure I am not making any errors, as I want to communicate clearly to whoever my audience is.  As an administrator and school leader, this is very important and critical to me.  Although I use them frequently, I have not scratched the surface on what I can do and how I can apply it to my job.

I still want to learn more about Microsoft Access and create my own databases for the data I collect for various projects.  I know how to use the databases, but I want to have more knowledge in how to create them and create forms to increase parent communication.  My plan would be to take classes on using Access, practicing building databases and make practical use of the database.  This would make data collection more succinct and the process of communicating this to parents more streamlined.  We have an Adult Education Instructor in Access, so I would take his class and use him as a resource.  And of course, I would use good old fashioned trial and error.

There are many database programs out there you can buy, but with the current economic climate, you can save your school a ton of money by developing your own.  This is what I would like to set out to do, then I would have my own and a sense of accomplishment.  And the staff would have access to all of the data in one place, which would make them able to find it in one spot.  Creating this would make this portion of my job easier, once it was built.