Tech Task #1

Curation (the forgotten ‘C’)

Organization is probably one of the most prized talents you can see in all of your teacher friends but yourself. No? well, this is the case for me. I am one of those people who want and wish and strive to be organized, but can’t seem to keep it up. I sort of go through these organizing phases… this more or less looks like a messy desktop littered with screen shots, photos, files named organize me, organize me1, organize me2, need to sort... you get the point? Then one day I get the urge to put them in folders and apply appropriate file names and hope that the organizing stays organized… of course, always leaving one folder for the undecided files like the overflowing junk drawer you all know we have.

I do believe that it is so important to keep organized and there are so many options out there to help keep us that way, there really is no excuse. When I do finally get around to it I always feel a stress lifted and immediately think, why didn’t I do this sooner? 

Here are some apps and tools that I use:

> My Calendar that is right in my phone to remind me of important dates and times I need to tend to. 

> I create Pinterest boards to help me sort the ideas I have found and want to take a closer look at such as lesson plans, food recipes, or vacation planning. 

> I also like to use Google docs to keep my files in one place and where I can access them anywhere that has internet. 

> I have found that in the recent use of feedly, I do enjoy using this as a way to curate my fellow classmate’s blogs. I have found that there are several different folders that I can create to organize my interests. For example, I could have a folder for food and add all of my favourite websites I like to browse recipes on. 

> Lastly, I just use the good old bookmarks tab to keep the most used and most important websites just a click away. This really isn’t a great or long term way to keep websites as it can overflow pretty quickly, but it’s what I do anyway!

> Wait, I’ve thought of one more, Gmail. I used to have a really dodgy computer that would shut down at random times so I would email myself my papers, resumes, things that take a really long time to make and didn’t want to risk losing.  

As we are aware, our digital world is expanding faster than we can keep track of and the amount of resources we have at our finger tips is always increasing. Our students are going to need our help to stay organized in any way they can. So, in one of my placements I used Epic (a website for reading books) for my students. This allowed them to create sections of books they were reading depending on how they wanted to organize it such as genre. I was also able to organize my account by the unit I was teaching such as magnets. To teach early years students at a young age that organization is important to keep track of important files and to reduce stress is super important! I want to be a better role model for them and keep my desktop looking sharp.