Organizing - reflecting- paperwork: the technology solution (part 1 of 2)

Last year, I decided to put a bunch of time into what I called The Great Organizational Project. My idea was that I needed a systematic way to organize and store my files (well, duh) that was going to help me prep and plan faster.  Since I decided to commit to a specific TPRS curriculum and since I teach it sequentially (that is, I teach it across four different classes, just at a different pace for each), it made sense to archive it in a very thoughtful and useful way.

First: by "unit" I am referring to "target structures and cultural connection pieces."  Don't be misled by the legacy title- I am not talking about the "food unit" or the "travel by airplane unit".

I had to figure out how to store the units not in use and also how to keep track of four separate courses' worth of paperwork. (Made tinier by my habit of copying everything half size on recycled paper, then cutting it down to the precisely best size to fall out of a file folder.)  More on that in another post.

Plus, I realized that I had no good way of capturing all my notes, realizations, reflections, ideas, and extra resources, and that was going to be valuable as I wanted to teach at the same school/same level for more than a year or two.

This last bit was really important because nowhere could I find discussion about how to organize all the stuff that is important for reflection- and for me, that includes all the notes, extra resources, youtube videos, edpuzzles, etc.  Also, as we are told, reflective teachers make better teachers.  And I did *SO MUCH* self reflection in grad school (and found it to be really helpful) that the habit is pretty ingrained in me.

The short version: 

Evernote and Dropbox. (Scroll down for how I actually use them)

The long version, with details: (what I tried, why it failed, how I figured out what does work) 

Organizing resources and reflections:
Here are some of the systems that I have tried (unsuccessfully) to capture all that stuff:

• post-it notes - tried and true, always available, but horrible for capturing URLs or anything more than a few words.
• Adding thoughts to the PDF file on my computer that contains the lesson plans- it worked, sort of.  Except that you have to a have a good pdf player that is easy to annotate.  Which I didn't.
• A lined paper expressly for jotting notes in the front of the paper file.  - actually, if I didn't need to copy resources on the interwebs, this probably would have worked ok for me, but since I do, it did not.
• A word document in the master file in Dropbox (more on that below) that I can update- great for urls, typing quickly on the go, and being in the right place.  But not searchable.
• A document on my iPad in my favorite handwriting/notetaking program that I use all the time-this seemed ideal as I usually have my iPad, use it for planning and notetaking already...  - it turns out that a handwriting program, while ideal for all the ways that I use it (to capture meeting notes and handouts, to capture training ideas, notes, and handouts) is not ideal for managing all the errata that I found myself trying to organize- notes to self, pinterest boards, blog posts, pdfs, videos from youtube, conversations from a listserv or el Face (what it is called in Guatemala, my nemesis and favorite PLN), and more.
• Evernote 

Evernote: Why I love it and how I use it

Finally,  I committed to Evernote for this part.  I love Evernote because...

• Manage is the best verb to describe it.  I use Evernote to manage information, which means I have less to do.
• The search function means that if I use the tag function well (part of the management system), I can call up what I want in a short amount of time, i.e. in front of the class, if I suddenly need to fill an extra few minutes or a tangent leads us to this great video that I saved to do a short Movietalk.  
• Adding content from my iPad or computer, if I find something interesting or have a great idea, is easy.  If I really wanted, I could even use my phone.  Heck, I can import a pdf from my lesson planning app of my daily lesson plans for a selected time period so the next time I teach it, I have a rough pacing guide.
• I can capture everything from the interwebs, easily.  I can also include word docs, pdfs, and photos of the sticky notes I wrote to myself (as long as I remembered to take a picture of them, which is surprisingly easy to remember once you get in the habit of throwing all the stickies away at the end of the day, GTD style) 
• When I sit down to plan a new unit (Unit=Target structures that I focus on + cultural or other connection), I almost never look at the paper copies of the plans- I don't even take them out of Great Organizational Binder until it is time to make the copies.  So having all that stuff on the computer helps.  

How I use Evernote

• I created notebooks in Evernote for each unit that I teach. 
• I made sure to tag each note with the unit name.
• I made a tag for all notes that included reflections on what to do next time or how it actually went. Then I actually used it to tag those notes.  Then I remembered to search for that tag every time I went back to a unit.  (REAMDE is the tag, thank you Neal Stephenson)

DROPBOX

Organizing files (docs and pdfs)
Dropbox continues to be my go-to (go to the bank and throw money at them, but still go-to) system for storing most things on the computer.
If you don't know about it, explore it.  The advantage of it for me is that I can use Dropbox to save every single important document, while using the interface of my beloved MacbookPro, complete with the fantastic tag and organizational layout that is part of the apple UI.  And if something catastrophic happened to my computer (say, while riding to and from school with it on my bike) I would have a timely backup that I could access instantly and teach from immediately.
I decided to make every dropbox master file look the same so that it would be as easy to find stuff digitally as it is to find stuff in my binders.  For me, it looks like folders in each master folder called: Activities, assessments, to project, stories.  Again, for me, making electronic files easy to find is a huge priority.  Searching through word documents by vague title (Spanish, say, or reading activities) is a real drag and never results in finding what you are looking for.

Youtube, google drive, and other outliers
It turns out that if I had started using Evernote when I first started teaching, organizing youtube and google drive would be no biggie.  And as I write this, I realize that I could use Evernote to organize these two very important technology resources, just the same way I use it to organize edpuzzles (cool but labor intensive), kahoots (same), old-school jeopardy-on-the-internet games (extra cool), pinterest pages, vimeo links, soundcloud links, etc.  I will probably see if just copying the relevant google or youtube url into evernote and tagging it well will save time.  Because, you see, that although I have playlists by unit in youtube, they do not alphabetize and that drives me up the wall, and my googledrive is something of a disorganized mess, because really, who has the time to organize that too?

On labeling and titles
As silly as it seems, deciding on titles and investing in good paper labels (for actual print things) really makes a difference in organizing.  The same way that I use consistent tags in Evernote, being consistent about what you call something makes it easier find.  For instance, in quizlet (a somewhat crummy platform, in my opinion, as far as organization but a useful tool to keep parents happy and make kids feel like they are doing something familiar, which can be good for families new to TPRS who want vocabulary instruction [note: my Quizlets are resources for the students, and only once ever in three years have they been used to teach vocabulary, said the TPRS teacher defensively]) having all the unit names be familiar makes it slightly easier to organize resources.  For curriculum collaboration in google drive across states, possibly countries, and certainly grades, it is imperative to use the same names. (And since I do participate in this kind of collaboration, I really value it.)

So, that is how I organize digital resources.

Good note keeping and notebook reflections

Keeping track of what we put in the interactive notebooks is tricky, as is tracking what goes on what page. I take the time at the beginning of every unit to plan it out, and I put the information on a re-usable notebook tracker (page protector + wet-erase marker). I found that having a visual for me to see the lay-out of the activities is very important. More important, however, is being able to tell the students what page to glue something on. But note: the visual aid is re-usable, so as we move through units I erase and re-use. So when a student misses a class and has to make it up, I need to know what goes on which page. For four classes. It's a lot to keep track of!

My first solution was to keep a notebook for each class. That seems reasonable, right? It turns out that it's not. I had to make extra copies of everything (wasting paper) and then take the time to a)write the class and page number on each piece of paper, and b) glue it in sometime when I had a chance (seriously poor use of time). Having my faster processing students do it for me didn't seem to help much. I still ended up with a bunch of papers and a stack of notebooks that weren't helping me or anyone else, and no time.
My solution this year is much more simple. And technological. I already use a notebook/ handwriting app all time and it's very easy to use. I simply set up an electronic notebook for each class. Now, while they are gluing in whatever it is, I take a photo of it from the app, or if it's easier, I just write/type what the activity is. So simple and since I have my iPad all the time during class, it's easy. Let's face it: I am much more likely to keep track of my device than I am of a half-sheet of paper.
Tracking notebook assignments has really helped me when it came to assessing them as well, because I could note things like "check 22 for accuracy" and "did not finish 32 don't dock points!" Maybe if I started this year being able to write myself sticky notes, this wouldn't be such a big deal, but not being able to write (or pass out papers, or carry things) has impacted so much of my teaching practice.

What isn't working as well
In our school, it's an expectation that assessments get sent home to be signed by parents and it's much easier for the kids if those are glued in as well. And it's very easy for me to see if parents actually did sign when I grade the notebooks. That is working out fine.
What isn't working out as well is when a student re-takes a test, and misses the gluing-it-in instructions (usually the day I hand it back in class), possibly because it's in my to-be-graded file. Is it their fault then that it isn't glued in? Can they reasonably be expected to remember to glue it in once I have graded it? How can I help them remember better?
My solution for this this trimester is to place it on their shoulders, but in keeping with my "almost anything can be made up if you do it in my time frame" policy, they have the opportunity to be reminded about what they missed via the notebook rubric and turn it in again to be re-graded with no penalty. The downside is that I have to take the time to re-grade, but I also truly believe that they need the opportunity to fail and try again. They are only 12. Interestingly (at least to me), my students that I taught last year generally have no problem keeping their notebooks organized and complete.
For next trimester, I am going to try to be more systematic about telling them what and when to glue assessments, perhaps have them write it in their index, and maybe making the electronic notebook visible.
One more thing that made life easier: I graded my 8th grade notebooks last week and my 7th grade this week, giving both grades enough time to do "work improvement" if need be before grades are due. Splitting it up did make it easier on me and I am still able to give them work time to improve their work.

Tools

NPR has been airing a special about specialists' tools, and it got me thinking about the tools that I use to do my job. Having only one hand has led me to value some tools over others. So, here's my list:

Tools for Organizing
iDoceo - iDoceo is an iPad app for teachers. I tried a couple of organizational teacher apps when I first started using my iPad and this one is by far the best. It has many features that I don't use because my school requires that I use their (horrific and unwieldy) grading system and software, but having used the gradebook functions to track classes, I can vouch for its well thought out design.

The features that I do use are the calendar (integrated with my iCal), the gradebook for tracking anecdotal notes and data that isn't worth putting in the computer grade book, and the lesson planning interface.

 I really love the lesson planner. It's just a simple layout (day, week, month) that I use the same way other teachers use their plan book, but fancier. I can take a picture of the white board and attach it to that day's plans. I can use the "bump" feature to move a day's lessons to the next period for that class, or indeed back in time if need be. I can save resources or not, take a picture of that day's seating plan, etc. Each class has a separate plan view, gradebook, notes section, seating chart, and more. Also, all your data backs up easily to most of the major platforms, although it is not an automatic sync.

My only complaint is that the initial set up of the calendar is clunky and not very intuitive. I also haven't found an easy way to input my weekly duties so they show up on the "day" view of the planner, but that seems pretty minor. I can't imagine planning on paper any more.

Dropbox- how did I ever live without Dropbox? Everything goes in my Dropbox these days, and I love that I can have my most used folders on my desktop at my fingertips.

Evernote- I am using Evernote more and more, for organizing web resources, lesson ideas, reflections, to do lists (since writing is still so hard), and just about everything else. For my personal life, I still prefer the interface of AwesomeNote, but being able to go from platform to platform with Evernote is incredibly important for me at school.

Symbaloo- while th iPad app is terrible, the web version of the bookmark organizer is pretty great. It's easy to use, easy to save, and the visual lay out makes it easy to navigate. It's where I save all those great ideas that I want to come back to but aren't necessarily applicable to my lessons. I also like being able to share my "mixes" easily.

Tools for teaching
Every day, there are three things (other than my lesson plan on my iPad) that I need to have within easy reach:

NO LIDS!  (Perfect for the one-handed trying to write with the non-dominant hand)

Retractable white board markers- they come in three colors (blue, black, and red), they don't have caps to manipulate with one hand or put back on the wrong colored marker, and they last for ever. Seriously, for writing in two colors on the board TPRS-style, they help me so much. Best impulse purchase of last year.

Laser pointer- Many TPRS teachers believe that a physical pointer help you clarify and slow down. I don't disagree. But I am short and many of my posters are way beyond my reach. And I try my best to point slooowly.

Remote for the smartboard- I learned that I actually can not teach my class without this silly little device. (Someone borrowed mine...it was a rough morning until they 'fessed up.) It allows me to "freeze" the image I project on the smartboard while I take roll on my computer, find something else to project, or even check my email without displaying it in front of the class.

For the Class
Smartboard + appleTV + speakers - the smartboard is basically a really nice projector. The software is a pain and I can do twice as much with my iPad AND with the appleTV, I am not chained to a certain spot in the room. My iPad can double as a document camera (with some fussing, I admit), and I can run a slideshow while sitting on the floor with the kids. Again, having only one hand to work with, these things become increasingly important.

Whiteboards, inexpensive dry-erase markers, and pieces of old t-shirts-student whiteboards are like instant engagement tools, and I can think of a million ways to use them.

Scrap Paper Bins- I hate using paper.  I hate how much paper we use so I decided to use as much recycled paper as possible.  Our daily starters (para empezar) are almost always done on quarter-sheets of scrap paper I take from the staff copy room.  Since I rarely collect the work, they just go right back into the recycle bin...but now having been used at least twice.

The "Multi-shot" function on the copier + recycled paper- Another way I save paper is by reducing everything that I hand out to half size (if it makes sense) and then printing it on recycled paper.  Most fancy copiers do this very easily, and since almost everything gets glued in our notebooks anyway, it works out fine to have the aper copied on both sides.

So... there are my Most Important Tools, excluding my coffee mug and bicycle, which are so important I didn't even think of them because, well, I'm never without them.  (My wrist injury is the exception to this rule...3 months off the bike and counting.)