Tried it, Loved it!

     I'd like to dedicate my first ever post to those who have have come before me and inspired me to simplify and organize.  
 
Today, as teachers, we are spoiled with visuals and ideas.  But these ideas come at us a million miles per hour, and we can't try them all at once.
Sometimes I see ideas and I think, "[snicker] Yeah, I tried that.  Hope you can make it work.  Didn't for me."
Other times I think, "BRILLIANT!  Why didn't I think of that?!"
And still other times, "Awesome, been doin' that one forever."

Here is a brief round up of some excellent organizational ideas for my digital life that I've tried and loved.  Links are provided (if they are from another source) in case you'd like to read from the original post.

Organize your Desktop

My desktop version

I saw this idea about using boxes on my desktop and a warm glow came over me.  I simplified it, to have fewer rectangles, but the idea came from Teaching in Wonderland.  The process is simple,
--> Open PowerPoint
--> Insert background (choose whatever you want for the background- I chose a digital paper I had downloaded)
--> Insert shape {rectangle}- play around with the sizes and locations and shadows and colors
--> Insert text on top of your rectangles to name them and change the font
--> I added clip art too.
DONE?  The important part is to save as a JPEG. (Now it's a picture.)I save stuff on my desktop first, then move or trash them when I'm done.  When you right click on the picture file, you'll see Set as desktop background.  Then, move your files into your rectangles, or into your documents folder.  After my first year of doing this, I started getting fancy and made holiday colored backgrounds.

Organize Your Digital Life

   I've always had a pretty good handle on my emails, but I must admit, the inbox got a little out of hand.  Every time I had more than 1 email about a topic, I created a folder for it.  If you're looking for ideas for folder topics, feel free to adopt, adapt, and improve.  Other than 45 email kind of days, it's been working well.

   Google products were pretty much new to me a year ago, and yet I was expected to use Google Classroom and Google Forms like a pro.  My Google Drive was a mess.  Every time I tried to create a folder it said that I might be taking away someone else's access to it.  I was scared to touch it.  I got few pointers from my teaching partners and found this tutorial on Lady Bug's Teacher Files. (Love her!)  Poof!  No more mess on my Google Drive. 

Hope you're enjoying your summer and rejuvenating for the year ahead.

🌟

If you've tried any of these or have had success with organizing your digital life, let me know in the comments below.  I'd love to hear from you.✍