Productivity!
Aah, productivity... that dirty little buzz word that somehow always makes me feel inadequate. If only I were more efficient, if I just had a better color coding system, if I could just... find. that. darned. paper! (I KNOW I put it RIGHT HERE!!!)
I am not, by nature, the world's most organized or neatest person. My house is always a little out of control (especially with a toddler, an infant, and a puppy running about!) there are always piles of mail on most horizontal surfaces in my kitchen. I'm a bit of a messy-nessy and unfortunately, my husband isn't much better... so no one would confuse our house for Martha Stewart's.
Martha is not impressed |
Not surprisingly, my desk at work is similarly in a bit of a shamble. In April when I found out on the day my Long Term Sub was supposed to start to shadow me for 2 weeks before April break that I would instead be having my son 3 weeks early (my poor sub didn't even get to shadow me for a day... we had a snow day that day!) my biggest concern was what an utter disaster my desk was! I had planned on cleaning it on the Friday before, but I rushed out for an emergency doctor's appointment and didn't get a chance. I never went back... oops! I always wish that my classroom, especially my desk, could be pinterest worthy... and someday maybe I'll get there. That day is not today.
Distinctly not pinterest worthy |
The one thing that I am pretty successful at is using technology to help my digital life stay organized. I stopped taking notes at conference with paper and pencil a few years ago after switching to an iPad and Penultimate. I love that I can take snapshots of aspects of a presentation and write comments on/around it... I love the zoomed writing screen so I can fit more than 6 words on a page... I love the autoscroll so that I can just write in one place and have the ipad automatically move the writing window. I really love that I can easily send copies of my notes to colleagues!
Another organizational win is through Google. While I'm an Apple girl through and through, I absolutely adore the Google suite of productivity tools. I wouldn't call myself a power user yet, but the level of organization capable through Google tools is astounding. My district just became a Google Classroom district and I look forward to digging into that software when I return from Maternity leave. Previously, I've used Google forms for students to submit concert reflections (no more struggling to read terrible handwriting, or having to lug a giant stack of papers home to grade!) and even set up a google form for my Drama Club parents to arrange carpools for pickups after rehearsal - just put in sections for names and contact information, schedule needs, and what section of town they lived in, then I gave the parents access to the resulting spreadsheet so they could coordinate their own ride sharing. I didn't have to deal with angry parents who felt they didn't have any way to get their kids home without the bus and parents were happy to be able to work together and help each other out.
I still need to unpack it all! |
You can even make quizzes through Google that grade themselves. (Wish I had that when I was still giving quizzes! ) As much as I love Google Apps, I've only just scratched the surface of what they're capable of.
With so many options for amazing technology productivity tools it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the possibilities, but if you try a few things and keep what works for you you might just be able to find a way to clear the clutter from your digital desk too!
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