Teaching Tip #10: Use Apps to Become a Together Teacher
In my quest for organization in both my career and personal life this year, I have continued to use tips from the book, THE TOGETHER TEACHER, by Maia Heyck-Merlin. It is definitely better to try to organize my life during the summer because it can be somewhat time-consuming and it takes some trial and error. First of all, I visited her website and her Facebook page. On her website, there are many free resources that she talks about in her book. YAY. However, I still recommend buying the book because you can edit the resources that she has listed.
Since her book lists techniques for both the paper person and/or the electronically-driven person, I had to decide...which one am I? My students would laugh at this, but I really am a techno-geek. I have an iTouch where I get ready in the morning, an iPhone to use all day, an iPad to take to meetings, and a MacBook laptop that my school provided. The great part about this is that all of the apps that are going to help me will sync on each machine. The geek in me is extremely pleased!
My first order of organization was to find the perfect "to do" list. (I tend to forget what I walked into a room for because I am distracted by the pretty view.) I first tried out "Reminders" that came on my iPhone. It was okay, but not exactly what I was looking for. Then I downloaded the app "ToDo Pro." I really like this set-up and it was free to download. The catch? They will start charging you after the trial period. YIKES! It also wasn't synced with my Mac. I wanted to find something that had my calendar and "to do" list all in one place. You can imagine my joy when I found the "Go Tasks" app by Google. Now, I can see my "to do" list on the right side of my calendar and it appears on my daily calendar on the date it is due; it also syncs with every device. The yellow box in the top right is what is due today. It even provides a check-off box, and for "lists people," checking things off is the best part. (I love how empty my calendar looks in the summer!)
The next app that I learned about this week (thank you H.V) was "Genius Scan." Since I want to become more paperless (meaning spending less time organizing paperwork), I can now use this app to scan any document and save it to my google drive. You can also save it to other places that you may already use. YAY, I just saved some trees. In fact, then I downloaded the app, "Google Drive." Now I can see all of the documents in my drive on any of my devices.
The last app that I downloaded was the Kaiser Permanente app. I was able to see all of my test results, order my prescriptions in two steps to be mailed to me, and I can send messages to my doctor. I ordered the prescriptions while standing in line at the store today.
The last part of my organization this week was to get my iPadfolio. I chose one by Samsonite because it zipped closed, it had a pad of paper to write on, a place for a pen, and pockets for any papers that are handed out at meetings. Hopefully, I can then go back to my classroom, scan the documents, and throw them away. Shhhh!
Phew! Organization can become exhausting! However, with all of my extra free time now, I am about to go work out!