The viewing of the TEDx video by David Allen couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time. While working on current projects and blogposts, future assignments and deadlines are being announced and explained. While I have had exposure to situations where the overlapping of projects is occurring, four weeks of continual overlapping is quite different. Organization is needed. The take away I gathered from Allen was how helpful it is to create lists of items that need to get done- in 1 central location. I make lists. However my lists are scattered on several post-it notes, both physical and virtual, in notebooks, grocery store receipts, on my classroom white board, in the notes app on my phone, and of course in my mind. Allen would probably cringe at my current technique, and I imagine he would encourage me to centralize these lists. So that is what I have experimented with in this lab.
I recently created an Evernote account, but never really used it. Upon returning to the homepage, Evernote clearly states: “Remember everything.” Good deal. Within the program I worked on creating a “notebook”, where I now have new pages of “notes” to document my learnings from MAET this summer. I also created a separate notebook for assignments and important dates. I like the idea of this software, because Evernote is also an app, so I can easily access it from my mobile devices. I’m still exploring the different affordances of the program- yet thus far I am enjoying how I can sync lists, photographs, links, and ideas to a central location.
During the school year, I am a huge advocate for Google Calendar. ASFM is a “Google School,” and every teacher and student has access to each other’s calendar. This has proved extremely helpful when trying to coordinate team meetings, observations, and the availability of resources and learning spaces in the school. I have saved so much time by simply viewing a colleague’s calendar, rather than calling, visiting a classroom, or waiting for email responses. If you and your staff have not been introduced to Google Calendar, I highly recommend it.
Get things done. Get organized. Be centralized.
Douglas Frankish 