This is a really great presentation and video that finally got me to understand the ways in which you would create and use pivot tables. Thanks, Alice Keeler.
How to Create a Pivot Table to Summarize Student Information | Teacher Tech
Pivot tables are an incredibly powerful tool for summarizing information. When looking at data oftentimes there are repeats in the information. Multiple times a students name is listed. Multiple times an assignment title is listed. Multiple times a disciplinary action was taken. To make sense of a spreadsheet with many rows of information a pivot table can make sense of the chaos.